New Challenges, New Opportunities

Globalization and outsourcing have been hitting U.S. businesses with tough competition, challenging stable businesses with inexpensive labor, and recently, driving up construction material costs. While these economic forces can be devastating, some people have found ways to thrive. I would like to tell you about innovators I've met who have found ways to carve out new kinds of design businesses with technology. I'll describe specific tools that have opened up new opportunities and point out the steps that have been important to their success.

Design as an Economic Engine

Milton Tan, Director of the new DesignSingapore Council, helped me see architectural design in a larger context. He explained, "Singapore being in the midst of several low-cost Asian manufacturing countries, its government has long realized that its role as an industrial center would have to diminish. Instead of trying to compete on price and functionality alone, Singapore will add value with innovative design ideas. Design is seen as a new economic engine for Singapore."

The government decided to position Singapore as an international design center for Asia—a place where smarter, better solutions could be created. After the dot-com bust, the government of Singapore decided that creative content was a crucial component making technological advances valuable. They put together a new Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, which combines expertise in the arts and technology with sustaining business enterprise, and put together the public-private Design Singapore Initiative.

Tan cites that in recent years, the creative industries (sciences, engineering, fine and performing arts, design, software) have led the economic recovery in the UK. The book, The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, explains how certain cities become magnets for those in creative endeavors and benefit from their efforts. By being tolerant of experimental behavior, these cities end up hosting creative people (artists, writers, musicians, designers, etc.) and multi-ethnic and gay communities. The resulting diverse cultural mix is attractive to well-educated professionals who can provide the capital to make creative ventures successful. To hone Singapore as a magnet for creative professionals, the council is sponsoring conferences, competitions, and educational initiatives in conjunction with private partners. They envision a design library and museum as well as an incubator for emerging firms.

Tan emphasizes that there are advantages to re-conceptualizing design in broader terms: he sees opportunity in between traditional disciplines. To open up boundaries, his Council does not mention "product design", "graphic design" or "architecture." It uses loose categories such as the design of images (i.e. signage, interfaces, and fashion), objects (i.e. jewelry, furnishings and cars), places (interiors, architecture, landscapes and cities) and time-based experiences (multimedia, cinema). By working with international corporations to customize corporate branding for local Asian markets, they open up the chance to develop many aspects of the "lifestyle." This would include advertising in print, video, multimedia as well as the range of associated marketable products.

Entrepreneurs

Even if you don't live in Singapore, you can still use design and technology to open new opportunities. I'll describe how some individuals have used promising tools to develop business niches.

I've been studying how mobile tools allow architects to gather field information quickly and accurately. Inspectors can check off code-compliance items and document construction coordination problems with palm-top PDA's and digital cameras. Programs for handhelds such as PocketCAD, Pocket DGN, ZipCad and Felix CeCAD facilitate simple on-site drawing. Kurt Diebolt of Vertical Access has teams on scaffolding and ropes using an application called ArcSecond PocketCad to markup and add attributes to drawings of historic buildings. Lars Henderson uses the PocketCad program connected to a Leico laser-measuring tool to create simple take-off drawings to scale.

The Io digital pen by Logitech records pen strokes made on Anoto's patterned paper and creates a digital version of the same pen strokes when the pen is docked via a USB port. I'm using the pen to study how designers draw, as I can replay the drawings as interactive animations using Logitech's IoReader software. The pen is handy for drawing and taking notes on site where lighting is too bright for a laptop. Logitech is working with companies to customize their software so that forms filled out in the field can be transmitted to a database.

Digital databases can support design decisions in a variety of ways. Ronald Kellett and Cynthia Girling of the Neighborhoods Labs have developed a set of tools that translate planning decisions for laymen. Potential zoning plans are input into GIS, and using typical permeability for specific use categories, an estimate of the impact on rainwater runoff can be made. Their database of case studies shows a range of planning choices and visual styles available for specific building type and zoning categories.

On the construction site, digital models are becoming increasingly important. In the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco's Presidio, View by View Interactive has been developing a three-dimensional model. Working with Webcor Construction and the client, Lucasfilm, the group realized that a meticulous as-built model would reduce headaches and streamline facilities management and renovation. Unlike computer models used in conceptual design, this geometric model is to contain every component from every discipline. As shop drawings arrive, ducts, hangars and components are added; any holes needed are identified and added to the ArchiCAD model in parallel with the real holes. Prior to the Letterman project, Mieczyslaw Boryslawski and France Israel had originated their own architectural modeling software, Architrion, and had created high-end animations. Whereas their earlier visualization work was crucial to getting financing for projects, at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, their current virtual model is helping identify and resolve coordination issues before they generated costly rework.

Rapid prototyping machines have allowed people like Eileen Ruth Webb to create a new kind of business. Trained as an artist, she developed creative concrete and metal work into a successful niche, tailoring her practices for digital fabrication processes. By understanding specific computer technologies, she can eliminate the general contractor and directly offer clients a range of choices and tailored solutions. Knowing how the cutting and forming tools work with different materials gives her creative freedom and the kind of dimensional precision that eliminates guesswork.

Webb has learned to negotiate and sell CAD/CAM work, modify conventional contracts and payment structures. For the Dallas Police Memorial, the original 37-page contract provided by the general contractor ultimately was condensed into a single page purchase order. "Recently the city of Los Angeles changed their insurance requirements based on my past legal documents that realistically reflect the impacts of digital/computer based construction models. They dropped them completely. The letter from the city agency is a landmark. The whole process has been win-win."

Another rapid-prototyping story got started in Eugene, Oregon, when Joe Potter sold his gypsum wallboard manufacturing company. He got together with John Broome, who had been coaching business leaders, and his colleague Jim Woodall to create a tinkerer's shop for the new millennium. Their digital prototyping shop, Tarleton-Bull, builds on their knowledge and connections in manufacturing, 3D engineering, creative acumen and old-fashioned craftsmanship. They developed what they call a "Collaborative Creation Process" to make ideas come to life. They can take designer sketch ideas, create a 3D model, prototype and assemble its components, create refined versions, and even manufacture small runs of the final product. For things like an electric massage machine, they can create a working model to see how weight and movement affect functionality. While they typically work objects such as custom automobile parts, they are interested in scaling up to work with architects. "Anything that can fit through the big garage door will work. On second thought, we can also build outside."

Tarleton-Bull is helping firms adopt digital processes that give a competitive edge with reduced errors and greater efficiencies. Broome explained, "Often firms are so entrenched in the old ways of doing things that the leaders can't imagine how new tools could fit in. Smaller, new organizations can change focus quickly. Within larger organizations, there are often creative people who are stifled by entrenched roles and workflows. Making room for creativity upstream in the design process can liberate these individuals and fully utilize their skills to enrich the organizations." From working with the International Innovators Open Forum, which he developed and led, Broome finds it most useful to identify "pressure points" for innovation: places in the workflow where new ideas and new ways of working can invigorate the whole process.

Pointers for Success in a Down Economy

Often there is a triggering event that pushes people out of their complacency, making them aware of the changed situation: new competition or a lay-off. This opens their eyes to find problems that need solving, or deficiencies that spell opportunity. A person needs to assess his or her skills and experience to see how to best take advantage of new technology. A big challenge comes in communicating the value of the service in terms that the audience will understand.

Rather than talking in terms of aesthetics, designers need to find ways to put economic measures on their work. For example, daylighting consultants often mention Heshong-Mahone's study of big-box stores because it quantifies how much more money is spent in stores with daylighting. By showing the health costs of poor design, designers can find new opportunities. Taking another example, a recent study showing that pedestrian-oriented cities have lower obesity rates gives a strong argument for why urban designers should be included early in city planning initiatives.

Academics are finding that linking design studies to health can attract funding. Kent Larson of MIT has a project to create the house of the future, HouseN, with health monitoring of volunteer inhabitants. Julio Bermudez of University of Utah is using abstract geometric forms and colors for real-time visualization of medical factors such as respiration and heartbeat. In both cases, the medical connection supports deeper exploration of aesthetic, technical and theoretical questions.

Companies and institutions need to support design technology innovation. For example, a crucial infrastructure issue is to get many industries to use the same language to talk about buildings. Our AIA Technology in Architectural Practice group is fostering communication on open data standards between associations in planning, design, construction, facilities management and corporate real estate. From an April 2004 meeting of top representatives, a new Building Connections website will be created to explain how these groups are addressing interoperability as a first step towards inter-disciplinary views of the design-build-lease-manage-decommission building cycle. U.S. National Institute of Standards in Technology has recently made a great case for this cause by quantifying the costs of NOT having a common language: see their report "Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry."

In November, we will host a conference on digital fabrication that will examine how designers can use industrial processes to reposition architects in the building process. We will discuss how tools like rapid-prototyping, pre-fabrication and automated production can change roles and workflow, leading to new business models. This partnership between the AIA-TAP group and ACADIA, the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture, will bring together building professionals, software developers and university professors. We will cultivate the spirit of adventure that's required to break out of the traditional mold. As Jon Broome, who works with eccentric inventors told me, "The most far-reaching ideas could be crazy … or genius!"

About the Author

Associate Professor Nancy Yen-wen Cheng (B.A. Yale, M.Arch. Harvard) researches how digital media can enrich the architectural design process at University of Oregon. She has orchestrated Web-based design collaborations and studied media in design education. She is currently studying how a pen that creates animated drawings can be used to teach sketching techniques and study design process. She is the 2004 Chair of the AIA Technology in Architectural Practice group, an editor for the International Journal of Architectural Computing and a former officer of ACADIA. She regularly presents papers on digital design at research conferences. Prior to teaching architectural design and digital media in Oregon, she taught at University of Hong Kong and practiced in Boston. Nancy can be reached at nywc@uoregon.edu.

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