Digital Construction Awards 2024: Laing O’Rourke’s Ben Hardie is Rising Star of the Year

At Laing O’Rourke, Hardie has used his time to advance the industry, attending numerous STEM events and careers fairs where he has demonstrated the built environment through a virtual reality headset. He is an evangelist for digital tools and technology in construction, learning coding and developing the Power BI dashboards for project data management on The Whiteley project in London, where he is based.

On his first project, Soho Place, he created several 4D animations that were used to illustrate key build sequences to the project team, client and subcontractors.

He has also delivered numerous Navisworks training seminars, contributing to the digital literacy of his team. His ability as a mentor was recognised in his admission to Laing O’Rourke’s digital engineering ‘buddy’ scheme. This scheme was set up to help new starters from the graduate programme by pairing them with more experienced digital engineers.

Becoming a mentor is a testament to his skillset as this is usually only a position taken up by more senior digital engineers. He embraced the opportunity, having come from the contractor’s learning development programme himself.

Despite his recent transition from academia, Hardie did not waste any time in sharing his knowledge. He delivered lectures to engineering students at Exeter University, leading Navisworks fundamentals training sessions and providing technical support as students engaged in coursework.

He is deeply committed to leveraging digital construction enhancements, such as migrating 2D drawings to data-driven 3D models and creating accessible visual method statements. His diverse digital skillset earned him the affectionate moniker “The Swiss Army knife of digital engineering” on site, reflecting his versatility and largely self-taught expertise.

Hardie said: "It feels incredible to be named Digital Rising Star of the Year. It is really special to be recognised for the work that I’ve done over the last couple of years. Being part of digital construction means you are able to effect a lot of change. It is really exciting. I also have to give a lot of props to my team – Laing O’Rourke has been a great support in terms of my career progression."

Read about the rest of the award winners.