Most architects can agree that they would prefer to spend more time designing and less time managing. Management is a vital role architects play, yet increased efficiency is always valuable. Whether it involves coordinating consultants or ensuring a job site is progressing to meet the contract documents, architects are in charge of orchestrating many moving parts throughout the life of a project. With an app like Archireport, architects can keep track of projects in the office or on site, wherever the work day may lead.
Notes, reports, and paperwork are all in one place, accessible to all project team members, and go wherever your smartphone goes. By creating a more seamless workflow, it eliminates busy work like transferring notes from phone to computer or drafting emails to keep everyone in the loop. Archireport allows users to sketch directly on site photos, pinpoint exact locations on plans to correspond to notes, and to attribute elements to a specific project or tradesperson.
Using a mobile app on the job site eliminates the need to bring printed drawing sets and notebooks to construction meetings. After the meeting, reports are automatically generated in PDF format straight from the application, so no need to type up meeting minutes upon returning to the office, freeing up time and increasing productivity.
Over 4,000 users worldwide currently subscribe to Archireport, with more than 100,000 reports sent each month on 5 continents. Users of Archireport include architects, contractors, real estate developers, engineers, and more. For the past 8 years, a bilingual team of 8 people, based in Rennes, France, has been working to make the app easy and intuitive. In October of 2019, Archireport introduced a new feature with its ar.live module, adding a new dimension to site supervision and project management.
Communication in a project can sometimes feel one-sided to the design team. Onsite job supervisors are busy and information seems to go missing in the distance between the office and the project site, often leading to unnecessary travel, forgotten tasks, or miscommunications and misunderstandings. Driven by user feedback, the Archireport team has developed a new site application that integrates with the Archireport app called ar.live.
In Archireport, architects can send their remarks directly to the team working onsite, who receive the notes on their smartphones immediately in the ar.live app. Back in Archireport, the architect is then notified of task completions or questions, eliminating a whole chain of emails that would’ve otherwise been necessary. This workflow also guards against the possibility of using outdated information to make decisions and saves the time that would be wasted on extra site visits while still keeping the design team informed of the site’s progress.
For the tradespeople on site, they have access to all the details of each remark and can choose to either ask a question or mark a task as complete. If they have a question, they have the ability to add a comment and even a photo for greater clarity, or if the task is to be marked “Completed,” they can also add a description and photo of the work. In Archireport, the remarks that have been completed appear as pre-approved but the architect still has the ability to check the work and can choose to close or re-open the item as necessary.
Through this method, the architect is able to keep up to date with the construction progress while also speeding up the review and approval process of site questions as they arise. By facilitating the communication between contractors and architects, this means the construction team no longer has to pause work to wait for the architect to come to site and make a determination and instead they are able to get back to work more quickly with the remote sign-off ability. Architects would no longer need to interrupt their work day with an unplanned and possibly unnecessary trip to the project site. With all the remarks centralized in a single application, it’s easier for the whole team to stay organized and track towards the project’s completion.
Archireport launched ar.live in October and they are accepting feedback for future developments. To be one of the first ar.live users, you can create an account to try Archireport free for 30 days, with the ar.live module included.
