Bruce Bell is Product Leader in the Technology & Innovation group at Laing O’Rourke, a role he began in March 2026. He brings more than 25 years of experience working at the intersection of architecture, digital manufacturing and construction technology. His career began in the early 2000s at Foster + Partners, where he worked at the forefront of emerging digital design tools such as Generative Components.
Bruce later founded Facit Homes, developing and scaling a digitally enabled homebuilding platform and delivering complex residential projects. He specialises in large-scale systems thinking and the productisation of buildings, focusing on how manufacturing principles, platform approaches and digital delivery can transform the way the built environment is designed and delivered. His work centres on the digitisation of construction, turning emerging technologies into practical, scalable solutions that improve productivity, reduce risk and enable better buildings to be delivered at scale.
This session introduces the Technology & Innovation work at Laing O’Rourke and explores how digitalisation, systems thinking and advanced manufacturing are reshaping the way major infrastructure is delivered.
Bruce Bell will set the context by outlining Laing O’Rourke’s approach to productising construction and digitising delivery.
Musa Chunge will present the Digital Bridges programme, demonstrating how design automation and configuration are enabling configurable, rapidly deployable bridge solutions. J
Jason Callear will then showcase how advanced manufacturing is transforming large-scale structural reinforcement through automation, robotics and digital production systems. Together, the session highlights how integrated digital and manufacturing approaches are turning construction into a scalable, repeatable product.
