Finding the right tools to represent a project idea or carry out a construction job remains an ongoing challenge for architecture and design professionals. While software for drafting, 3D modeling, and calculations has increased precision and efficiency, many architects continue using legacy tools learned in academia or practice—tools that feel familiar, but don't necessarily offer the best design experience. From overloaded interfaces and clunky workflows to endless plug-ins and constant back-and-forth between disconnected software, traditional design tools often reveal their complexity and fragmentation.
When architects are still students, a moment often marks a turning point: their first encounter with software. It's not just about learning a tool but discovering a space where ideas transcend physical models, taking shape in a digital environment and beginning a relationship many will carry throughout their careers. What happens next? Software keeps evolving, and with it, the design experience. In recent years, this evolution has accelerated—machine learning, AI, prompts, and integrated workflows have moved from the periphery to the core of design practice, becoming part of the shared language between software and users. As these tools take hold, a key question emerges: How will this reshape our experience of designing architecture in the future?
In the world of interior architecture, where creativity and culture intersect, Tola Ojuolape stands as a designer whose work is a testament to personal narrative. From her early studies in art and construction to her degree in interior architecture, Tola's career has been shaped by a deep connection to her Nigerian heritage, discovered during her travels back to the African continent. This journey has profoundly influenced her design philosophy, creating a process tightly woven with history, culture, and a sense of place.
Every act of building begins with the transformation of raw materials, energy, and land, and this inevitably entails environmental impact. This encompasses all the changes a process triggers in the natural world: from resource extraction to pollutant emissions, from energy consumption to biodiversity loss. Measuring this is complex, as it spans multiple dimensions. Carbon has emerged as the common metric, translating these effects into greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂ equivalent) directly linked to global warming. This standardization has made it omnipresent and comparable across materials, systems, and sectors. Reducing carbon emissions, therefore, means addressing the root of global warming, which is a particularly urgent task in the construction industry, responsible for about 39% of global emissions. In response to this challenge, MVRDV NEXT, the innovation and digital tools division of the Dutch architectural firm, launched CarbonSpace, a free, open platform that brings carbon accounting to the architect's desk, right at the napkin sketch stage.
Early-stage design may be where everything begins, but without careful consideration, it's also where everything breaks down. On average, firms report that nearly 15% of all work done generates zero revenue, much of it tied to concept design. Relying on a patchwork of tools like Rhino, Excel, Revit, and Miro, architects often spend weeks swapping between platforms just to get a concept and presentation out the door. Data gets trapped in screenshots, rework piles up, and by the time the model is ready for documentation in Revit, the creative momentum is long gone. Snaptrude 3.0 Was Built to Fix that.
Despite major breakthroughs in other industries, with tools like Cursor reshaping how software gets built, or AlphaFold revolutionizing protein structure prediction, AEC is still waiting on its defining AI moment. Yes, many visualization tools have made waves, especially when it comes to generating beautiful imagery. But they fall short when it comes to understanding the actual design process. They don't grasp the constraints, logic, and decisions that turn those visuals into real, buildable architecture.
And that's exactly where AI's most valuable use case in AEC lies: not in how a building looks, but in how it comes together.
Often admired for its simplicity and ability to clearly communicate via scribbles on an espresso martini-stained napkin, the napkin sketch is perhaps one of the most recognized forms of creative leadership in the industry. Not only is it iconic, but this type of early-stage, iterative sketch helps to set project direction in a fast, easy, and effective way. However, the work that follows to translate that sketch into design (and ultimately win work) often robs firms of a profitable early-stage design phase.
Designing the next 'wow' project? It's like trying to catch lightning in a bottle—except with BIG and D5 Render, you're handed the jar. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a global leader in architecture, is renowned for its bold designs and commitment to innovation. Constantly exploring new tools, BIG pushes the boundaries of design technology to optimize workflows and enhance creativity. With iconic projects worldwide, BIG has redefined architectural storytelling. By leveraging D5 Render's all-in-one platform, the firm has optimized its real-time design and visualization workflow, combining D5 rendering, animation, and AI to bring concepts to life with exceptional speed and precision.
As the global climate crisis intensifies, the construction industry faces increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, prompting a fundamental reassessment of building practices. Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, known for its commitment to sustainability, presents an honest exploration of this challenge in "Carbon Confessions," an exhibition at Munich's Architekturgalerie. The exhibition provides insight into the firm's ongoing efforts, highlighting both its achievements and the obstacles encountered in the pursuit of carbon reduction.
The Phasing Animation feature in D5 Render 2.9 redefines how professionals present complex projects. It simplifies the creation of dynamic, step-by-step visualizations, perfect for showcasing construction phases, product assemblies, and landscape transformations. With pre-designed templates like Drop/Rise or Ascend/Descend, users can quickly arrange objects in sequence without the need for complex keyframing, making it easier to illustrate how a structure is built, how a product is installed, or how elements grow and evolve within a landscape.
Tomás Bravo has been selected to be part of the ArchDaily's 2024 Best New Practices, highlighting his work about the dialogue between architecture and territory, and the use of advanced technologies to analyze nature and heritage through a process that involves a project in itself. Originating from Chile's diverse and complex geography, he proposes using classical architectural representation in combination with technological tools and measurement methodologies to bring the territory and heritage closer to architecture professionals and their clients.
German-based architecture and design studio Beta Realities has developed the “Collective Parts” initiative, a design and technology platform for enabling the construction of affordable 3D printed housing. The project has been recognized as one of the winners of Inititative99by ICON, a global architecture competition aimed at reimagining affordable housing that can be built for under $99,000. The other winners of the open category are MTspace Studio from New Zealand and For Everyday Life from the United Kingdom. The competition also highlights contributions from students as a separate category, featuring Casa Fami by IAAC from Spain, Juan Felipe Molano from Colombia, and Victoria Roznowski from Germany.
The discipline of architecture has undergone considerable change, primarily driven by advancements in the application of technology. Architects, long viewed as the futurists of the constructed world, are now utilizing progressive techniques and resources and expanding the use cases of technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). This transition extends beyond professional practices into architectural education, bringing opportunities to redefine the approach of architects toward their craft.
Smartphones and tablets have become so powerful that has abruptly changed the concept of workshops since the introduction of apps into the architecture industry. They have generated a more productive and efficient workflow on-site or on the go, covering different aspects of the field with versatility and variety. While some are specific to professionals, others appeal to every architecture enthusiast, with user-friendly interfaces, simplified navigations, and reachable information.
ArchDaily has selected the best architecture apps in 2023 featuring technical drawing and modeling essentials, sketching canvas for all levels, construction and management platforms, toolbox apps, and interfaces to get inspiration from.
Rayon, an innovative online design tool that aims to create a new collaborative approach to developing "mundane buildings" within the city, has been selected as part of ArchDaily's 2023 Best New Practices. Founded in 2021 by Bastien Dolla and Stanislas Chaillou, it is a collaborative design software that brings together professionals in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. The software company believes that there is a “culture of the ordinary” in architecture. This culture represents an ecosystem of buildings that may seem unremarkable or aren't impressive landmarks in the city. However, these buildings and their construction professionals make up 90% of the urban fabric and contribute to the design culture that collectively gives identity to the city. The founders believe previous software generations have neglected this culture and propose Rayon as a novel tool to fill that gap by enhancing collaboration and user ergonomics.
In today’s globalised, ever-evolving world, the architectural field continues to re-invent itself. Innovation has seen the emergence of new building technologies and new methods of communicating with clients, however, in some ways, a large majority of the architecture industry is still outdated – architects relying on client fees received from projects to run their architecture firms. Perhaps as a consequence of the emergence of start-ups in the technology sector, and the increased competitiveness of the global economy, architects have more recently chosen not to confine themselves to within the world of architecture and use their unique skill-sets and abilities in entrepreneurial ways.
"Understanding precedes action." That is the motto of the Urban Observatory, an interactive installation and web app created by TED founder Richard Saul Wurman that compiled a wide range of urban data for over 150 cities, allowing users to compare various characteristics of those cities – from population density to traffic speed limits – side-by-side. Urban Observatory was first created in 2013, a banner year for news about urban big data; later that same year, Waag made headlines with its interactive map visualising the age of every building in the Netherlands. The emergence of such platforms allowed people to see the world around them in new ways.
With the rise of Google Earth and other GIS tools, and platforms like envelope.city, or environmental simulations based on digital twin models of cities, urban big data has quietly come to underpin a wide range of tools used by professionals who shape our cities, with both the amount of data collected and the influence it has over decision-making expanding dramatically. However, these advances typically happen behind closed doors and in undemocratic spaces. How long must we wait for software that has all the user-friendliness, accessibility, and appeal of those older platforms, but which provides the average person with the tools to shape their city? In other words, if "understanding precedes action", then why after almost a decade are we not seeing big-data-driven apps that encourage the public to actually do something?
Architecture is a long-standing profession, one that has produced the iconic landmarks we admire around the world, monuments which we revere around the world, and played a part in establishing the organisation of the cities we live in today. This description, however, is architecture in the traditional sense - and there are numerous examples of individuals and firms who have strayed away from traditional architectural practice, either through delving into adjacent fields or 'disrupting' the field with the harnessing of new technologies.
