I. Policy Leadership: Comprehensive Empowerment from Top-Level Design to On-the-Ground Implementation

As the core support for high-quality development in the construction industry, smart construction has established a policy framework characterized by national strategic guidance and localized, detailed implementation.

At the national level, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Construction Development” clearly states that by 2025, the level of intelligent construction will be significantly enhanced, and the digitalization and intelligentization of the construction industry will reach world-leading levels. The “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of New-Type Building Industrialization” proposes “coordinated development of intelligent construction and new-type building industrialization,” and includes BIM technology, the Internet of Things, AI, and other technologies as key areas for promotion.

Local Practices: Shanghai has released the “Implementation Plan for Pilot Smart Construction Cities,” aiming to cultivate 10 leading smart construction enterprises and 30 demonstration projects, with subsidies of up to 20 million yuan per project. Guangdong is piloting the integration of “smart construction + prefabrication,” and cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou have mandated that starting in 2024, 100% of newly built government-invested projects must adopt smart construction technologies. Jiangsu and Zhejiang have established smart construction evaluation systems, incorporating indicators such as digital collaboration and intelligent construction into green building ratings.

Standard Assurance: The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is leading the development of an “Intelligent Construction Standards System” that covers the entire process—from design and construction to operation and maintenance. Standards for the application of BIM technology have achieved full coverage across all disciplines, promoting digital collaboration within the industry.

II. Market Uprising: A Scale Explosion Driven by Digital Technologies

Policy guidance and technological maturity are jointly driving the smart construction market into a period of rapid growth, and a comprehensive, industry-wide ecosystem is gradually taking shape.

Scale Data: According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China's smart construction market reached 860 billion yuan in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 41%. The market is projected to exceed 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 35%. By 2030, the market size is expected to reach 3.2 trillion yuan.

Industrial chain layout:

Upstream: Technology companies such as Huawei and Tencent provide IoT and cloud-computing platforms, while Glodon and Yingjianke offer BIM design software with a market share exceeding 60%.

Midstream: China Construction and CSCEC are developing smart construction platforms. Shanghai Construction Group’s “Smart Construction Site” system has been deployed in over 500 projects, boosting construction efficiency by 25%. Robotics companies are accelerating their market presence; Sany Heavy Industry and Country Garden Bozhilin have launched construction robots for tasks such as rebar processing and concrete pouring, with these robots already applied in more than 300 projects.

Downstream: Real estate developers such as Vanke and Poly have established digital construction systems. Vanke’s “Smart Construction Platform” enables real-time monitoring of project progress, quality, and costs, and by 2024, the coverage rate of smart construction in newly built projects will reach 80%. Government-invested projects are setting benchmarks; large-scale applications of smart construction technologies are being implemented in areas such as Beijing’s Sub-center and Xiong’an New Area, achieving “digital design, intelligent construction, and smart operation and maintenance.”

III. Core Transformation: Reshaping the Production and Management Models of the Construction Industry

Smart construction, through technological integration, enables a fundamental transformation in the construction industry—from “traditional and extensive” to “digital and precise.”

1. Digital Design: BIM technology enables three-dimensional collaborative design with a collision detection accuracy rate of 99%, reducing design changes by 30%-40% and shortening the design cycle by 20%-25%. AI-assisted design tools can rapidly generate design solutions and optimize indicators such as building energy consumption and structural safety.

2. Intelligent Construction: Construction robots are replacing human workers in high-risk and repetitive tasks. The efficiency of rebar-binding robots is three times that of manual labor, reducing the incidence of safety accidents by 60%. Smart construction site systems leverage IoT technology to monitor personnel, equipment, and materials, enabling early warnings for schedule deviations, quality traceability, and a reduction in material waste rates by 15% to 20%.

3. Intelligent Operations and Maintenance: The building’s digital twin platform monitors equipment operating status in real time, and AI algorithms predict potential failure risks, reducing operations and maintenance costs by 25% to 30%. Smart security systems, energy consumption management systems, and other intelligent solutions enhance the building’s user experience. In office buildings, smart operations and maintenance can achieve annual energy savings of over 18%.

4. Collaborative Management: A digital platform covering the entire lifecycle breaks down data silos across design, construction, and operations & maintenance, enabling cross-enterprise and cross-discipline collaboration. As a result, the overall project cycle is shortened by 15%-20%, and comprehensive costs are reduced by 8%-12%.

IV. Development Pain Points: A Triple Challenge of Technology, Ecosystem, and Talent

Despite its rapid development momentum, smart construction still faces stage-specific bottlenecks:

Insufficient technological integration: Data interfaces among different enterprises and various software systems are not standardized, resulting in a cross-phase reuse rate of BIM models of only 40%. The adaptability of technologies such as AI and IoT to construction scenarios still needs improvement, and robotic operations lack sufficient stability under complex working conditions.

Weak ecological synergy: There are technological barriers between tech companies and construction enterprises; traditional construction firms show limited willingness to undergo digital transformation; and small and medium-sized enterprises face difficulties in participating due to constraints in funding and technology.

There’s a huge talent gap: There’s a severe shortage of versatile professionals who possess both architectural expertise and digital skills. The average digital literacy rate among industry practitioners stands at only 35%, and the scale of training in related university programs is insufficient.

High cost of investment: In the early stages of smart construction, both software and hardware investments are substantial. The cost of digital transformation for a single project increases by 5% to 8%, and the investment payback period is approximately 3 to 5 years, which poses a constraint on the adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises.

V. Future Trends: Deep Integration of Technologies and Upgrading of Industrial Ecosystems

As technology iterates and the ecosystem matures, smart construction will evolve toward “full-process intelligence and all-factor collaboration.”

1. Deepening technological integration: AI, BIM, and IoT are deeply integrated to enable automated decision-making across the entire design, construction, and operation & maintenance process. Digital twin technology covers the building’s entire lifecycle, with virtual simulations dynamically synchronized in real time with the physical structure.

2. Large-scale application of robots: Miniaturized and flexible construction robots are becoming mainstream, with the penetration rate of robots in scenarios such as interior decoration and exterior wall construction expected to reach 40% by 2026.

3. The rise of the industrial internet: Cross-enterprise collaboration platforms are becoming widespread, enabling resource sharing in areas such as material procurement, equipment leasing, and labor allocation, thereby further boosting industry concentration.

4. Green and Intelligent Collaboration: Smart construction is deeply integrated with green buildings and renewable energy sources, leveraging digitalization to optimize building energy consumption and achieve the dual goals of “low-carbon construction + low-carbon operations.”

5. Perfecting the standard system: Nationally unified data standards and safety regulations for intelligent construction are gradually being implemented, promoting standardized industry development and reducing collaboration costs.