AIA Technology in Architectural Practice Conference--Part 2

• Federal AgencyInitiatives
• Use of Digital Design Tools
• High-Tech and Cost-Effective IT Management
• Large Firm Perspective
• The Next AIA-TAP Conference

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the AECbytes newsletter!

This issue continues with presenting the highlights of the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice conference (San Francisco, CA, Oct. 16-19) started in the last issue of my Cadence AEC Tech newsletter. In that write-up, I discussed the main theme of the conference, the technological aspects of BIM captured during a joint session with executives from the leading software vendors, and other topics of discussion such as legal barriers and process changes. In this issue, I'll describe some of the individual sessions I attended. For a write-up based on my own presentation at the conference, see the "Trends" column in the Nov 2003 issue of the A-E-C Automation Newsletter.

Federal Agency Initiatives

At a session on federal agency initiatives led by Stephen Hagan of the GSA, we learned about some of the efforts being undertaken by organizations such as the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and the General Services Administration (GSA) to promote building information modeling. These include developing prototype applications for 3D object modeling and XML schemas for data interchange. All the federal agency initiatives are being coordinated in an industry wide resource, the Whole Building Design Guide developed for NIBS. The "whole building" approach is to create a successful high-performance building by integrating all the building systems so that they can work interdependently, as well as involving inputs from building owners, occupants, and operation and maintenance personnel right from the programming and planning phases. The WBDG website has an extensive Design Guidance section providing whole building design guidelines for different building types. However, these are currently in a textual format. To make this resource more useful, it needs to be in a more intelligent format, such as a tool that can interface directly with a building information model and provide design guidance in real time, interactively, while the design is being developed.

Use of Digital Design Tools

A study on how designers currently use digital design tools was presented at another session by Kristine Fallon, whose firm performed the study for the Department of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago. The study showed up some interesting results, collated from 63 responses to a survey. For instance, of the top five most frequently used design tools across all categories (such as data gathering, documentation, design exploration, analysis, and so on), only two are CAD/BIM applications. AutoCAD still tops the list, followed by Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Architectural Desktop, and Adobe Illustrator. Purely BIM applications like Autodesk Revit and ArchiCAD are at the bottom of the list of 19 applications, while generic 3D applications such as Autodesk VIZ, formoZ, and 3ds max are closer to the top than the bottom. The current usage of 3D design tools seems more focused on form and appearance, which is the strength of traditional 3D applications, and less on the intelligent use of the 3D building model, as in a BIM application. One of the main concerns expressed with regards to the use of a BIM application was its inability to easily model organic shapes, and several architects present at the session expressed their fear of being straitjacketed by BIM.

Based on my analysis of current solutions, I don't think that any BIM application provides the flexibility and fluidity of modeling 3D forms that 3D applications such as VIZ and formoZ offer. Thus, there will always be buildings for which a BIM application would be out of the reckoning. However, for the vast majority of buildings with regular forms and standard components, the benefits of BIM are substantial and make a strong case for adopting it.

High-Tech and Cost-Effective IT Management

Paul Seletsky, Director of Technology at Davis Brody Bond, LLP, presented a session on outsourcing services, parametric design, and specific communications devices as logical, viable, and cost-effective alternatives to current architectural technology implementation. He described technologies such as ClearCube, which replaces the traditional desktop PC with a small PDA-sized user port. The user port connects the user's peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) to a dedicated PC blade that sits in a remote centralized location. Up to eight PC blades can be housed in a chassis called the cage, which provides network connectivity, power, and remote blade switching. In addition to freeing up desk space, this solution simplifies the tasks of hardware maintenance and software upgrades and allows them to be outsourced to service providers, which would be cheaper than maintaining full IT support inhouse. Similarly, services such as phone and e-mail can also be outsourced for substantial savings. Additional cost-saving strategies that can be implemented in design firms include using new technologies such as Voice over IP that routes phone calls through the Internet rather than regular phone lines, deploying hosted Web-based solutions for project management and collaboration, and aggregating hard drives (referred to as grid computing) to carry out high processing tasks such as rendering and animations.

Large Firm Perspective

In this session, the IT heads of three large firms--Lawrence Rocha of WATG, Jill Rothenberg of ADD Inc., and Ken Sanders of Gensler--shared their experiences and insights on the move towards BIM implementation. All three firms were in various stages of implementing Autodesk Revit, and the general advice with regard to BIM was to "just go ahead and do it, " however, with some caveats. For one, the right kind of pilot projects need to be selected to improve chances of success; also, upfront training was important to provide the necessary technical expertise; and finally, the fact that the software still has idiosyncrasies and is not perfect needs to be accepted. Considering that 50% of the time during the construction document stage is currently spent on coordination, the ability of BIM to automatically coordinate documentation, schedules, and reports can lead to huge time-savings and provides firms with a definite competitive edge. At the same time, clients are not yet demanding BIM. Until this happens, BIM adoption will proceed at a relatively slow pace and take 5 to 10 years to become the norm rather than the exception in the AEC industry.

AIA-TAP 2004 Conference

The next AIA-TAP conference is planned for Nov 11-14 2004 at the University of Waterloo in Cambridge, Ontario, jointly in association with ACADIA, the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. The working title of the conference is "Poetics and Practice of Fabrication: Digital Processes and New Materials" and the focus will be on exploring how digital interfaces, automated prototyping, and production tools can reshape building design practices, and the resulting workflow, roles, and education.

In a world that gets increasingly high-tech with each passing day, the role of technology in building design and construction can only continue to gain in importance. Thus, focused conferences like the annual AIA-TAP, which highlight the current milestones in building technology and give pointers to what lies ahead, play a critical role in informing, educating, and advancing the state of the art in building design. I am looking forward to AIA-TAP 2004.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.

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