How Linker turned Mathias Boutier into a leading voice on AI and construction in France
People criticize Shein and Temu, but there is something much worse. In the construction industry, we are doing exactly the same thing on a massive scale. My heart sinks every time I drive past these new “eco-districts” popping up. Behind the facades that look well-designed and the few trees hastily planted for the sales brochure, the reality is quite chilling. We are building entire neighborhoods of financial products that no one actually needed. The mechanism is always the same, and it is dictated by Excel spreadsheets: - Land costs have eaten everything: the price of the plot is so high that nothing is left for construction. To "make the balance sheet work," we choose the shoddiest materials, the cheapest insulation, and the most fragile finishes. - Out-of-touch urban planning: we create entire buildings without knowing who will live in them. We build in absurd areas, far from job hubs, simply because the tax incentive schemes are favorable there. - The shrinking of lives: homes are becoming smaller, poorly designed, and dark. We are no longer designing living spaces; we are optimizing "yield units." The result is the Temu of construction. From a distance, in the renderings, it looks nice. In reality, it is poorly finished, uncomfortable, and won't last. Worse still, the ecological cost remains a scandal that is too quiet. We are outraged by textile pollution, but construction is far more devastating. Building 1 m² of these "low-cost" homes emits nearly a ton of CO2e. We are polluting massively to build things that people will hate living in. At BAM - Because Architecture Matters, our role as project management assistants is to bring back pragmatism: prioritizing usage over square footage, mandating materials that age well, and reminding everyone that a home is a shelter for 50 years, not a perishable product. The real estate development profession is going through an unprecedented crisis. Perhaps asking these questions and stopping the treatment of housing as a mere financial product would be a good way out.
Everyone shared this chart with alarm. I see exactly the opposite. Here is why 👇 1. The end of the 80-hour work week. The real problem today isn't a lack of work; it's the massive commitment required in the face of stagnant fees. The result: agencies that only run thanks to interns and constant "all-nighters." Before cutting jobs, AI will primarily allow project managers to live normal lives. If AI can absorb 30% of the production workload, we don't lay people off: we finally stop burning ourselves out. 2. AI automates what was already "sacrificed." Technical specifications, feasibility studies, competition 3D models... Many of these tasks were either already outsourced or performed at a loss. AI isn't stealing the architect's work; it's allowing them to bring margins back in-house and save time on time-consuming and often unpaid tasks. 3. AI design: a lot of noise for a pixelated soup. We are being sold an AI that designs buildings in one click. The reality? It’s often "messy," unbuildable, and totally disconnected from the context. It’s usable as raw material, but it requires even sharper expertise to turn it into something viable. The architect's added value has never been more decisive. The future doesn't look like the picture Anthropic painted. That’s what we set out to build with AGLO: an AI copilot that frees architects and engineering firms from administrative burdens, without erasing their role. How do you see your profession in 5 years?
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