Are We Forgetting Design?

When I agreed to contribute a "Viewpoint" to AECbytes, I assumed that I should write about BIM since that seems to be the hot topic these days. I'll do so, even though I am a lot more interested in areas other than BIM. One, in particular, would normally be the main priority of the AEC industry and yet it is hardly even mentioned by most of the other contributors to this "Viewpoint" series. I am, of course, talking about design.

Many talk about BIM as if it were a new discovery and all the larger CAD vendors make claims that they invented the term and even the concept. How untrue! I remember discussions about BIM back in the 70's, even though the term was not coined yet. It was coined later by Charles Eastman, as Jerry Laiserin has well documented in one of his newsletters.

How could we have talked about BIM thirty years ago when the technology we have today was not available yet? The answer is simple. BIM is not really a technological advancement. Yes, the computational speed and memory available today are many times more than what was available in the 70's and, in addition, they are a lot more accessible, thanks to the PC revolution. Both are key factors for implementing BIM, which may be why the concept has resurfaced so vigorously in recent years. Whatever the case, BIM is an "attitude" a lot more than it is a "technology," which even a white paper of one of the larger CAD vendors recognizes. If BIM hardly represents a technological advancement, what is all the fuss about?

It is interesting to note the trends which surface every few years that give CAD vendors something upon which they can base their marketing and which might make them appear as innovators. This something today is BIM. A few years ago it was the Internet. The ability to collaborate and interact online was promoted rather extensively and it sometimes sounded as if the Internet was invented specifically for the AEC industry. Some years before that, it was knowledge based systems, at least on the demand side, which found the vendors ill prepared to do much about it. They improvised a few claims but mostly they made sure that the concept was forgotten. It continues to be an ingredient that is still missing from BIM. Is all this indicative of where BIM will be in the not too distant future?

BIM's recent popularity may be due to that it has actually already been popular among design professionals even before the vendors discovered it. This may, after all, be a case where the software developers responded to demands by the practitioners. If this is true, then the claim by the software vendors that they originated the concept is a paradox, to say the least. The other side of the coin is that many professional firms have implemented their own BIM systems, using programs other than those that make the loud claims about BIM offerings.

It has correctly been pointed out that BIM can gain from parametrics and is at its best when it is associated with parametrics. Design can gain even more, at least from true architectural parametrics, which is another huge subject. We have yet to see true architectural parametrics anywhere, except maybe in some experiments at Universities.

The parametrics that are so much advertised by some of the commercial CAD applications have been borrowed from engineering (as drafting was in the early days) and do little to address architectural semantics. The latter would require a lot more intelligence and creativity (both of which will have to be of the artificial brand), and sensitivity to design theory. Yes, these are areas that require a lot more research before they can actually be commercially implemented. Wouldn't it be nice if the larger CAD vendors invested a substantial portion of the cash they collect towards the exploration of some of these areas, rather than simply buying technology developed by others? Wouldn't it also be nice if they continued the development and offering of software with some innovative design oriented ideas, even if it initially failed to achieve any significant market penetration? What a great opportunity to impact the future of design and its culture! Some of us, smaller CAD developers, do just that and are having a lot of fun. So do our users, who are so eager to tell us what they want, and it is rarely BIM. Why is that?

It may be that they are already happy with what we quietly give them, which they can use to set up their own modeling information systems. It may be that they are happy with the robust modeling we offer them, which, after all, is the basis for all this and a prerequisite for extracting and attaching information. Or it may be that their main interest is in design. It is probably all of the above. However, there is no doubt in our mind that the latter is the single most important factor, judging from the suggestions and requests we receive.

Many design critics believe that the new digital tools have inspired and are currently driving a new era of design explorations (call it style or movement, if you prefer). Quite a few of the avant-garde designers create their designs by using available tools in ways they were never intended for. In doing so they are showing us the way to the next cultural evolution. Any chance that we may have some of them express their Viewpoints here?

About the Author

Dr. Chris I. Yessios is the President and CEO of auto·des·sys, Inc., and Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University. He holds a PhD in Computer Aided Design from Carnegie-Mellon University (1973) and his formal education includes a BArch (1967) and a Diploma in Law (1962), both from the Aristotelian University in Greece. He taught and researched at The Ohio State University from 1973 to 1995, where he was a Professor of Computer Aided Design and Director of the Graduate Program in Computer Aided Architectural Design. During his tenure, he wrote and published more than 100 research papers and book chapters and conducted research worth a few million dollars that resulted in a number of prototypical CAD and 3D modeling systems. His list of sponsors includes IBM, DEC, and the National Science Foundation.

In 1990, with David Kropp, an ex student of his, Yessios founded auto·des·sys, Inc., developer of the popular 3D modeling software, form·Z, that has won numerous awards. Yessios has also received a number of awards himself, including the Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (1995), the Award of Excellence from the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (1998), and the Professional Achievement Award from the Architect's Society of Ohio (1990)

Note: The views expressed in Viewpoint articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AECbytes. Also, no advertising or sponsorship is accepted for Viewpoint articles.