Arcadis executive: construction needs realism alongside optimism

Edel Christie, global president, Places, Arcadis. Image: Arcadis

There might be, according to Edel Christie, global president, Places, at Arcadis, a global design and consultancy organisation, another one to add to this list: optimism.

“Without a doubt, optimism bias is at the heart of this industry,” she says, discussing why projects all too often go over time and budget during a video interview with International Construction.

“While we want people to be aspirational, we also want some realism. Otherwise, it’s a very dissatisfying place to be,” says Christie.

“We need to get more confidence that what we said we’re going to do, we’re going to do for the price we said, when we said. Optimism bias is probably one of the prevailing qualities that exists in this industry.”

Arcadis is a consultancy for the industry on natural and built assets and works in many different sectors. Christie heads up Places, which focuses on property, defence, life sciences and data centres, although she is quick to point out that the different segments at the company are increasingly working with each other and crossing over.

A straight shooter

Christie comes across as a straight talker who calls things how she sees them, as well as someone with vast knowledge. This is not surprising given that she has been with Arcadis for 28 years, working in a number of different roles for the Netherlands-headquartered firm.

The optimism bias she talks about is at the heart of one of construction’s biggest issues, and one of the key reasons why her firm is hired – construction’s inability to consistently deliver projects on time and on budget. She believes the best way to address this is to spend more time before a spade, or the blade of an excavator, has come anywhere near touching the ground.

“When you spend more time at the front end, really running the scenarios, running the risk models, running the opportunity models, you can get more confidence about how that project’s going to progress. But you do need to have that mindset and culture,” she says.

“It’s good to talk about risks and opportunities and get them on the table and do some early work. In some industries, they’re far better at doing the surveys earlier. The sooner we understand our exposure, the more we can mitigate the whole programme.”

Sector going supersonic

The growth in data centres in the past few years has been rapid. McKinsey estimates that global spending on

“There is a high demand for data centres, but the critical issue for them is deliverability. What is it that makes something deliverable? If we were talking about this two or three years ago it was all about where’s the land where we can deliver it. There is land, but if that land is not powered you’re stuck again – you’ve got the next hurdle to get over. The biggest demand in the market right now is powered land.”

New York recently became the first US state to introduce a moratorium on new hyperscale data centres, with New York Governor Kathy Hochul signing an executive order pausing state environmental permits for new projects for up to one year.

Arcadis was involved in the design and engineering of the Millau Viaduct in France Image: Adobe Stock

Christie says that some parts of the US are “go, go, go” regarding data centres but acknowledges that there are some community concerns, and says that it is vital that all those involved in construction engage in meaningful dialogue with communities.

“Are they being done in a way that is conscious of what we need to deliver to society? Are we designing them to be efficient? Are we delivering them efficiently? Because it’s not just the design, it’s what happens when you build these things, that’s a disruption to the community. How can you do that smarter?”

The global president of Places says that one of the ways to build smarter and minimise disruption – not just for data centres – is through off-site manufacture and modular building. She notes that these themes appear consistently whenever they are talking to clients about large campus projects.

Whatever the industry can do to minimse disruption and speed up the process is to be welcomed, especially because – on top of

the already high demand for data centres – another factor is going to add to the crunch: the refitting of existing data centres.

“You’ve also got a lot of data centres that have been built that will be coming up to their refit. We will be getting into the next cycle for existing assets that will be going through their refurbishment,” says Christie.

“So, you’re going to have two things running concurrently: new [data centres] and, secondly, refurbishing the existing portfolios that sit around the world and how you can retrofit in a more compelling way from an efficiency, sustainability and loading perspective.”

The challenge for construction is that data centres are not the only sector trying to move quickly. Christie points out that semiconductors, life sciences, healthcare, defence, water and wider infrastructure programmes are also competing for investment, people and supply chain capacity.

While each sector has its own technical requirements, many of them rely on the same core skills and delivery expertise. A boom in one market can create pressure across several others.

“When you’ve got these big cycles, all running at the same time simultaneously, and I use the example of data centres, semiconductors and life sciences, there’s some common core skills that you use in all those areas,” says Christie. “Then there’s obviously very specific subject matter area skills.”

It is another reason, she argues, why clients and consultants need to think differently about how projects are planned and delivered.

Combining human and digital

Technology and digitisation are nothing new to construction. What has shifted in recent years is more of an analytical approach; having data in itself is not enough – what is key is being able to effectively analyse and use it.

“We’ve been talking about the role of digital capabilities for a number of years – everybody should be talking about it now. The new use is how can you apply it in an effective way and really make a difference. We talk a lot about the human and digital offer at Arcadis, how do we bring our human skills into the context of the conversation with our client and also then use that to apply ourselves using digital tools?

“We can all retrieve knowledge far faster than we ever could before. But you’ve got to interpret that knowledge. The knowledge is only effective if you can do something smart with it.”

Prototype design by Arcadis for one of the world’s most sustainable data centres, for Terra Ventures in San Jose, California, US Image: Arcadis

The blending of computer power with human brainpower and knowledge has the potential to be transformational for an industry striving for more efficiency.

It is already being used now in numerous different ways. Christie gives one example, saying, “We can use our computational design so our architects and our engineers can run iteration after iteration, thousands and thousands of iterations that would have taken weeks, months, years in the past.”

Emphasising the importance of data, she adds, “Data quality is becoming like the new gold... If you’re not attributing that data well, you can’t use it smartly. You can have all the technologies available to you, but it all needs an input and that input is quality of data.”

Humans at construction’s heart

Throughout the interview Christie shows her human and personal side with conversations about children, football, travel and Yorkshire. This is apt, as one of the main takeaways from the talk is how, for all the talk of AI, data, digital tools and modular building, her central point is a very human one.

Construction needs to get better at having difficult conversations earlier, when there is still time to do something useful with the answers. That may not be as eye-catching as new technology or a new method of construction, but it is vital, as is the need for a more realistic approach to project timelines and cost.

Humans are at the heart of construction, but the industry would be better served if it could temper what is, in most walks of life, a positive attribute – optimism. Ironically, less of this and more leaning into the right data, would leave those working in this sector with more reasons than ever to be positive.