Pietro Vecchiato met experts, academics and PhD students at one of America’s most prestigious universities last week during a session dedicated to the real estate and construction market in Saudi Arabia. 

Stanford University hosted our Vice-President of Client Partnerships, whose presentation explored the potential use of industrialised construction (IC) to meet the kingdom’s evolving housing needs. 

Pietro, who possesses a PhD in industrial engineering, laid out how the Saudi 2030 Vision programme is changing the socio-economic landscape in the country. With several mega-projects already underway across the nation, the need to build quality real estate – in particular housing – has come into sharp focus as demand rockets. 

Among those in attendance at the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) were Professor Martin Fischer, who is a director of the CIFE, and Jerker Lessing, a leading global expert in the field of IC and an adjunct professor in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. 

“Industrialised construction is something that could play a crucial role in shaping the lives of millions of people by providing the country with quality housing in a time- and cost-efficient manner,” said Pietro, who has been living in the Middle East for over 10 years. 

“The forum was a fantastic place to start these discussions to figure out how best to implement industrialised construction at scale and I look forward to continuing them into the future.”