2022 could be remembered as the year when surprising AI-fueled tools became accessible to a larger audience: from text-to-image generation Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E 2 to unsettling design experiments such as This House Does Not Exist, to surprisingly smart OpenGPT, a language-processing designed artificial intelligence to generate human-like text.
Cautiously described by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as "a preview of progress", any user can talk with OpenGPT about almost anything: the results are astonishing and it easily can embody an umpteenth so-called threat for creative-related jobs. However, OpenGPT does not have access to browse the internet. Instead, it interacts based on the gigantic database that it has been trained on. As expressed by Gannett's Eric Ulken, "even the best generative AI tools are only as good as their training", so what an "inappropriate request" is has previously been tuned (by humans) as well.
From smartphones to space rockets and self-driving cars, the power of technology in this modern digital era is enormous (and practically limitless). It has impacted every aspect of our lives and will continue to open up endless possibilities that today we cannot even begin to fathom. When applied in a socially and environmentally responsible way, technology has the power to enhance productivity, communication and sustainability, enabling global communities to function efficiently, addressing people’s everyday needs and improving their quality of life. Simply put, good technology serves humanity. And just as the healthcare or manufacturing industries have taken advantage of this, the architecture, design and construction world cannot fall behind.
Bergerheide / Iglesias Leenders Bylois Architects. Image Courtesy of Vectorworks
Architectural firm Iglesias Leenders Bylois Architects (ILB Architects) has begun to incorporate the use of building information modeling (BIM). The greatest advocate is architect Meindert Leenders, who believes every architectural office should be working with BIM:
“It doesn’t need to be a big project. Take an actual case, set yourself a few achievable goals, and try to work them out in BIM." ILB chose 'Bergerheide' as a trial: a project consisting of three park villas, designed in collaboration with the construction company Dethier. The rules for collaboration were clearly set out by project director Vlaanderen Bouwt vzw, providing the architects a sturdy framework for experimenting with BIM.
Wolf Point East Building / Pappageorge Haymes. Image Courtesy of Graphisoft
Considered the second most requested skill (behind field experience) in the industry and used by a growing number of design professionals, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has proved to be the present of architecture. But with constant new features and exciting improvements, it is also very much the future. For decades, the revolutionary software has established itself as a powerful tool with a long list of invaluable capabilities: detecting errors, reducing costs and material waste, mitigating risks, optimizing workflows and, above all, allowing for seamless, multi-disciplinary collaboration.
Standing at 78 meters tall, the Museum of the Future (MOTF) is far from reaching Dubai’s famous skyline, which features skyscrapers like the unparalleled Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest tower. However, with its bold shape and striking façade illuminated by more than 14,000 meters of Arabic calligraphy, it certainly succeeds in taking its place among the city’s most iconic buildings. The award-winning project by Killa Design and Buro Happold, described by many as ‘the most beautiful building in the world’, opened in February of 2022 in Dubai’s Financial District. In a total built up area of 30,000 sqm, it accommodates exhibition spaces for innovative ideologies, services, and products, as well as theater spaces, a laboratory, and a research center.
Nottingham City Hub. Image Courtesy of Ares Landscape Architects Ltd.
The noticeable shift from 2D CAD in landscape architecture is in part due to external pressures, such as the UK’s requirement for BIM level 2 framework on government-procured projects. Even where there’s no BIM mandate, there’s inherent pressure to deliver BIM files when working with consultants who’ve already matured their workflows with BIM.
“I’ve always been quite interested in keeping up with what’s happening on a technical front,” said Nick Lawrence, a practice director at A&Q Partnership in London. The architect, who studied engineering in undergraduate school, leads the building information modeling (BIM) effort at A&Q Partnership and says his studies greatly influenced his interest in information modeling.
His interest extends beyond personal. Relying on BIM framework has been crucial for A&Q Partnership, who work on large, multi-building commercial and residential projects.
Nordic Structures. Image Courtesy of Quebec Wood Export Bureau
Offsite construction is a fast-growing sector within the global building construction industry. With that growth, many challenges lie ahead for all parties involved, especially architects, who have traditionally remained at arm’s length to the means and methods of construction. Cost challenges have led many firms to want to learn more about optimizing for offsite delivery methods. To help speed up industry transformation, a cooperative and open-source initiative led by the Quebec Wood Export Bureau has been developing a suite of nonprofit and collaborative tools for architects. At www.offsitewood.org, they offer a free Revit plugin, detailed content packs, and a BIM-integrated early-phase embodied carbon estimator called Carbon Fixers.
https://www.archdaily.com/976601/mass-timber-resources-bim-plug-ins-and-carbon-calculation-all-in-one-placeDaniela Porto
In the original design for the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon envisioned the shells supported by precast concrete ribs under a reinforced concrete structure, which turned out to be prohibitively expensive. As one of the first projects to use computational calculations, the final solution - reached jointly between the architect and the structural engineer - consisted of a precast ribbed system of concrete shells created from sections of a sphere. At the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the project team used CATIA software (typically used by the aerospace industry) to model and materialize the complex curvilinear shapes of the titanium-coated volume designed by Frank Gehry. Challenging projects tend to spark the creativity of those involved to make them possible, but there are constructive systems that interact well with existing technologies. This is the case, for example, with engineered wood and the BIM system. When used simultaneously, they usually achieve highly efficient and sustainable projects.
For many design teams, logging into multiple applications a day to access BIM information is the norm. Yet the information contained in each of these applications tends to be siloed, making it difficult for project teams to make informed decisions, collaborate, and share information.
The Digital Twin . Image via Shutterstock/Videoflow
The emergence of the Digital Twin phenomenon has heralded a great change in terms of urban planning. It essentially presents the city as dynamic, in virtual form. Ensuring every element from the historic fabric, new construction, and public transit is accounted for in one three-dimensional model. Not only does it present key elements in terms of the landscape, but it also encompasses often overlooked conditions such as the presence of light throughout the day, shadows, and the presence of vegetation and trees. All of which contribute to a better preliminary process of site analysis.
Technology manufacturer 2N is diversifying its range of products by offering A&E, BIM technology, and other strategies for architects and designers.
2N is a Prague-based company engaged in the development and manufacturing of products in the field of IP intercoms and access control systems. According to an IHS report in 2016, 2N is the largest global manufacturer of IP intercoms, and a major innovator in the field of IP access systems, IP audio, and IP lift communicators. The company was established in 1991 in the Czech Republic, where its headquarters remain to this day.
The popularity of pre-designed and pre-fabricated homes is growing, moving much of the construction process from the building site into factories. While countries like Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom are increasingly adopting modular buildings to meet labor and housing shortages, Nordic countries like Sweden already build 90% of residential single-family houses in prefab wood. Despite the recent surge in interest, off-site building is by no means a new concept. In fact, the construction method has been present throughout history in many attempts to consolidate its use in construction: as far back as A.D 43, the Roman army brought with them prefabricated forts to Britain, while Japan has been building in wood off-site and moving parts in pre-assemblies for at least a thousand years.
Project conceptualization has the largest impact on the functionality, performance, and cost of a building - this is when key decisions about layout and aesthetics are being taken. Although the depth of data required to make these decisions is best served by BIM, it is understandable why architects are reluctant to use BIM tools in the creative process.
With new advancements in software opportunities, Open BIM is tiding over the disconnects between different project sectors, making the workflow more efficient at both large and small scales. Open BIM extends the benefits of BIM (Building Information Modeling) by improving the accessibility, usability, management, and sustainability of digital data in the built asset industry. Open BIM processes can be defined as sharable project information that supports seamless collaboration for all project participants, removing the traditional problem of BIM data that is typically constrained by proprietary vendor data formats, by discipline, or by the phase of a project.
In May, aec+tech hosted an event on Clubhouse discussing how architects are using generative design in architecture firms today and towards the future. Five guest speakers from reputable architecture and tech start-ups —Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Outer Labs, 7fold, and RK Architects— joined the session to share their experiences and insights.
Le Corbusier's fascination with the automobile is evident in the architect's various photographic records of him posing proudly next to a car in front of his architectural work. According to the Franco-Swiss architect, in addition to enabling more efficient and economical construction, the industrialization of architecture could form the basis of improved aesthetic results in the same way the modern car chassis supports the creative and modern design of the automobile body. Yet, while vehicles have experienced impressive changes since the 1930s, it can be said that architecture has been slower to adopt the advances of other industries.
But that has been changing little by little. Driven by concerns around sustainability, the use of non-renewable fossil resources, and efficiency, coupled with accelerating demand to build new buildings and more accessible infrastructure, the construction industry has been incorporating numerous new technologies, including those adopted from other industries. In addition, renewable materials such as wood have been identified as an ideal construction material—especially when incorporating innovative mass timber products such as CLT and glulam, design methods and processes like BIM and DfMA, tools for visualization such as VDC, and tools for manufacturing such as CNC. We know, these are a lot of acronyms, but we will try to clarify them throughout this article.
