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Inventing Construction

Inventing Construction

KOSMOS 77 Episodes Jul 1, 2026

Construction is changing, and this podcast helps you change with it. It features detailed conversations about the rapidly evolving construction industry, covering topics like BIM, digitization, sustainability, collaboration, and data power. Hosted by Elia González Salas and Ross Griffin from KOSMOS, new episodes are released every two weeks.

Episodes

Episode 78 - Leading Under Pressure: How Construction Leaders Build Freedom Instead of Burnout feat. John Douglas Jul 1, 2026 3098 The construction industry is known for deadlines, pressure, difficult conversations, high expectations, commercial risk, long hours, and environments that can sometimes feel negative, reactive, or ego-driven. But what if pressure is not only created by the project, the client, the deadline, or the people around us? What if pressure is also created by how we interpret, carry, and react to those sit
Episode 77 - Why Construction Handovers Go Wrong (And How to Avoid It) feat. Jonas Brandenborg Jun 15, 2026 2492 The construction industry often treats handover as the end of the project, instead of what it really is: the beginning of a building’s operational life.A lot of building data is created every year, and most of it is lost the day the building opens. The moment the building is handed over to operations, most project information becomes surprisingly difficult to use, or is delivered too late.In today
Episode 76 - Buildings as Energy Machines: When Buildings Become the Grid feat. Nicolas Kastbjerg Jun 1, 2026 2975 The reality is this: our buildings are full of surplus energy. And we waste most of it.Across offices, hotels, hospitals, and data centres, enormous amounts of heat are generated every single day. Ventilation systems blow it away. Cooling systems spend electricity to remove it. Mechanical systems operate in isolation, unaware that the building next door might need exactly the energy being thrown a
Episode 75 - From Spreadsheets to Smart Sites: LCA Data Collection feat. Oline Stærke May 15, 2026 2345 Walk onto almost any construction site today and you’ll find the same paradox.Projects worth tens or hundreds of millions are being delivered with cutting-edge design tools, advanced materials, and increasingly strict sustainability targets. Yet when it comes to documenting what actually happens on site, many teams still fall back on the same tools they’ve used for decades.Spreadsheets. Emails. Fo
Episode 74 - Aligning Cost and Carbon: A Data-Driven Approach to Better Decisions feat. Anders Honoré Agerlin May 1, 2026 2777 Cost and carbon are measured in two different worlds. Clients want lower carbon. But decisions are based on cost.Not because they don’t care. Not because they lack ambition. But because the information rarely arrives aligned.In many construction projects, cost consultants work in one silo. Sustainability consultants work in another. They use different assumptions. Different structures. Different t
Episode 73 - Planetary Boundaries: The New Building Code of Earth feat. Karl-Martin Apr 15, 2026 3366 7 out of 9 planetary boundaries have already been crossed. That’s seven critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth.For years, sustainability in construction has focused primarily on carbon. But planetary boundaries introduce something far more systemic. They redefine the limits within which humanity, and therefore our industry can safely operate.In today's ep
Episode 72 - Data Centres: The Backbone of Our Society feat. Merima Dzanic Apr 1, 2026 3196 If you read the headlines, you might think data centres are the problem. They use energy. They take up space. They create “just a few jobs.” They’re described as grey, windowless boxes that quietly sit in industrial zones, consuming power and giving little back.But here’s the uncomfortable truth:If you switched them off tomorrow, modern society would end.In today's podcast episode, we sit down wit
Episode 71 - Can Academia Keep Up with a Rapidly Changing Construction Industry? feat. Sarah Davidson Mar 15, 2026 2780 The construction industry is moving faster than ever. Digital twins. Information management frameworks. AI-assisted workflows. Data-driven decision-making. Asset-focused delivery. Clients demanding structured data, not just drawings.Meanwhile, universities operate in three- to five-year curriculum cycles, shaped by accreditation requirements, professional standards, and institutional governance. S
Episode 70 - Using AI to Replace Surveyors feat. Phil Chell Mar 1, 2026 2816 The construction industry has a people problem. Across markets, firms are struggling to hire and retain building surveyors, quantity surveyors, project managers, and estimators. The demand for construction is growing, regulation is increasing, risk is rising, and yet more people are leaving the industry than entering.In today's episode we're talking to Phil Chell, CEO and Co-founder of Chiron.ai,
Episode 69 - The Future of Concrete feat. Andrea Charlson Feb 15, 2026 2858 Thinking about concrete as a sustainable material might sound a bit weird. But when you look past the headline statistics regarding its carbon impact, you start to see a material that is undergoing a quiet, chemical revolution.In this episde we explore this topic with Andrea Charlson, a Senior Sustainability Specialist and Circular Economy Lead at The Concrete Centre in the UK. With a career spann
Episode 68 - How You Turn Jobs into Careers feat. Antonio Contegiacomo Feb 1, 2026 2814 The real competitive advantage in construction isn’t technology, contracts, or delivery models. It’s people. It's highly competent people that enjoy and experiences meaning in the work they do everyday. In this episode Elia is joined by Antonio, Director at KOSMOS, to a conversation about why he joined KOSMOS and how construction companies can stop offering “jobs” and start building careers – and
Episode 67 - The Dangerous Power of Data in Construction feat. Sara Mehrabi Jan 15, 2026 3353 Talking about data in construction might sound like a technicality reserved for IT departments. But when you look at how projects are actually run—the "headless chicken" scenarios on-site, the reactive decision-making, and the billions lost to inefficiency—you realize that data isn't just a tool; it is the foundation of the industry’s future - but we have to do it right and remain in control.In to

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