Revolutionary ideas are often perfected through collaboration. In the case of COfLOW and its concept for constructing apartment buildings more efficiently and sustainably, the company looked to Aiforsite for digital technologies that would help COfLOW improve on its performance from a previous project. That project already won industry recognition for its achievements in sustainability, which only fueled COfLOW’s desire to push its concept even further.
COfLOW is a company established in 2020 that focuses on constructing apartment buildings in the Finnish capital region in and around Helsinki. The company has developed an innovative building concept to enhance productivity and minimize the environmental impact of apartment building construction projects. The concept is based on a high level of prefabricated elements that remain consistent between projects, thus speeding up the design and construction, while the visual appearance of each project is still individualized around the specific location. It has already proved itself in practice, with COfLOW earning recent industry acclaim for the sustainability of its Myllytie 14 project in Järvenpää, Finland. The construction was also very efficient, as COfLOW’s methods resulted in a 30% decrease in the total lead time.
According to COfLOW Co-founder Jan Lund, the company aims to continue shaking up the industry by expediting the throughput and decreasing the carbon footprint of its projects even further. The current project is Iso-Seppälä 10 in Klaukkala, Finland, where COfLOW is replacing two apartment buildings with two new ones. The old buildings are currently being demolished, and construction of the new buildings will begin in April 2024. COfLOW’s sights are now set on shaving another 10% off the usual lead time for a 60% total decrease in the lead time for Iso-Seppälä 10. In the future, it is aimed to achieve a 50% decrease in lead time.
A mutually beneficial partnership
To meet the ambitious goal of halving the lead time in the current project, it was important to know whom to work with. COfLOW needed to identify the gaps in its expertise and determine who could best fill those gaps. To that end, they chose to partner with technology company Aiforsite, who have helped COfLOW optimize its concept with various digital services. As another forward-looking innovator in its own right, Aiforsite is a great fit for the cooperation. Both companies are committed to boosting productivity on the job site via improving the workflow and increasing the flow of information.
Speaking for Aiforsite, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Pyry Virrantaus says they want to be the best partner for developing and improving productivity in the construction industry.
– In this collaboration, Aiforsite is seeking ways to improve the productivity of work and halve the lead time. We believe this partnership will allow us to achieve that.
Three-pronged approach
COfLOW is using three services by Aiforsite. There’s Aiforsite Positioning, a real-time location system for monitoring performance at the site and solving problems in productivity. Then there’s 360 Reality Capture, a system combining a 360-degree camera with mobile and web-based applications for visually documenting the site, quickly identifying any issues impeding progress, and continuously improving the workflow based on visual information. Finally, COfLOW makes use of Wendy AI. Wendy is an artificial intelligence environment for automating various tasks, such as analyzing data and compiling reports, so that the people can focus on managing the work on the site.
Lund summarizes the role of Aiforsite’s digital solutions in the Iso-Seppälä 10 project.
– Our main objective is to maintain our flow on the job site. Aiforsite’s technology helps us ensure a continuous workflow, and these brilliant technologies help us analyze data and make it accessible for site managers.
With Aiforsite’s chief executive officer Kari Hirvijärvi demoing Wendy AI in action, he prompts the AI to complete two tasks: providing the latest photo of the job site and to generate a continuous task that checks the site’s temperature daily and sends an email alert if it goes below +5 Celsius. Following a brief pause after each request, Wendy’s reassuring voice goes over the tasks and confirms that they were completed.
Hirvijärvi minds his manners when concluding the interaction.
– Thank you, Wendy.
