Collective Digital Factories for Buildings: Stigmergic Collaboration Through Cryptoeconomics

The chapter describes conceptually how a blockchain (BC), through smart contracts (SC) and tokenisation, can act as a stigmergic information layer for the creation of collective digital factories in construction. The chapter focuses on the orchestration of a series of design agents and tools in the design of buildings; however, the presented framework can be extended to the whole lifecycle of the AEC industry. Furthermore, a cryptoeconomics-like strategy for the AEC industry is explored, based on smart contracts, having the potential to operationalise the stigmergic coordination via token incentive mechanisms. We expect that stigmergic coordination through cryptoeconomic incentives on the blockchain is a better fit for the fragmented nature of the construction industry, compared to current modes of organisation; consequently, the scope for presenting this strategy is threefold: the incentives mechanism can lead to an increase in productivity, a reduction in both whole-lifecycle carbon and waste, and a decentralised governance through smart contracts. While blockchain and decentralised ledger technologies have proven to have the potential to be embedded deeply as an information governance layer in many industries, the scope within the paper is limited to the digital aspects of the AEC industry, forming what we call “collective digital factories”. An engagement strategy of the manufacturing sector of the AEC industry is presented with arising open questions discussed at the end.