By Elisabeth Girgis-McEwen
Last week of July, our team had the privilege of joining the international CSCE/ISARC/MOC 2025 conference in Montréal—a gathering of about 500 interested in both technical excellence and a widening circle of innovation. Our formal presentation, Advancing Knowledge Mobilization through Road Mapping, focused on the knowledge repository model and emerging logic for structuring a robust, responsive database.
The surrounding conversations, questions, and side sessions reminded us of the plurality within the building system. Discernment to move data to knowledge comes from how we work and learn as much as the database we are building.
A heartfelt thanks to Dr. Thomas Froese (photo) who carried our project forward in the presentation room. Dr. Froese walked through an overview of the project, the logic of the knowledge model and our shift toward emergent, rather than rigid, roadmapping – a direct challenge to the often-reductive impulse in systems change. Rigid roadmapping, while effective in stable contexts, can become a structural barrier in complex systems change.
In the Q&A, one attendee asked about opening the tool for broader use—echoing the original intention to make the platform accessible and impactful across user communities. Prompted by a demonstration of results of AI integration with the database, another attendee raised the rapid pace shift of opportunities in automation of workflows from tools like NVivo to R. We affirmed: our dataset is indeed well-suited for LLM-supported insight generation.
In addition to presenting, we were also pleased to participate in a working session exploring the creation of a national CSCE taskforce on housing. This initiative recognizes the complex, cross-disciplinary nature of Canada’s housing challenges. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and contributing to this important effort as it develops.
The conference also reminded us that innovation is rarely singular. In a session on AI and robotics, we saw tools deployed to meet immediate, practical needs. Construction leaders such as Canam, Hatch, Pomerleau, Horizon Legacy, Fayolle and AECOM use these new tools in very different ways with benefit ranging from increased safety, quality and communication. Meanwhile, the plenary session, “When Industry Takes Over Construction”, spotlighted a French strategy where Zoubeir Lafha emphasized how human-centered design and innovation are deeply intertwined.
In a world of conflicting truths and changing demands, our project remains committed to learning with complexity. The model we are developing, resting on a repository of best practices, is an evolving space that welcomes uncertainty, makes room for divergent visions, and ultimately seeks to nurture aligned, system-level action. If you attended the session or want to connect around shared directions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our team is always looking to learn from those navigating similar challenges—from policy to practice, design to delivery.
📸 Photo credit: BPiBS team (featuring Dr. Thomas Froese presenting)