Technology in Architectural Practice

In 2002 I graduated from UC Davis, studying Design. I did not go to an architectural school, rather I studied the process of design. After 8 years of professional experience and now as a licensed architect there is one thing I have learned to be neccesary. Proper planning, and I am not referring to programming. 

Based on these experiences the preference for use of Revit is to apply it as a tool once proper planning and exploration of contraints and the responses have been decided upon.  This means after studying the region, site, demographics of users and neighbors, climate, codes, budget, ect, countless sketches of the desired experience may be created. Personally, I am completely against the idea of jumping into a program like Revit without having properly planned or studied the project with multiple  sketches. Here is the reason why:

1) our hands have taken hundreds of thousands of years to develope as a tool, and a there is not a cobmination of processors, ram, and graphic cards that can work quicker than the hand and pens to create some initial concepts.

2) after having planned and examined the project through sketches, there is at least a road map for what needs to be done. making myself and the project team that much more efficient throughout the remainder of the project.

An important thing to take into account is communication through the model, so I render with Revit, then postprocess images in photoshop. I even take hand sketches and render them with use of the iPAD and postprocessing in photoshop. The preference between the two is based on who I am presenting or communicating. 

BIM is here to stay and I love it as a tool. I have used Vectorworks, Bentley Architecture, and for the past 2 years have been using Revit. I prefer Revit, and it is a wonderful tool to validate the design concept and help improve the design through discussion with trade partners, contractors and the client. Revit or any other program is not about hourly billings, and by using it will not make anyone x-times more proffitable. It can actually have the adverse effect, because proper thought and information is not being put into the creation of the model and its documents. So go slow at the beginning to go fast at the end!


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Brian Crilly
Architect
Lionakis
Sacramento CA
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Brian, your summary is spot on. 

Some time ago I was deep into the world of CAD and subsequently BIM to the point where I was producing commercial code for plug-ins and expansion modules to various CAD/BIM platforms.  I learned the various programming languages of the different platforms because I found myself continually constrained by the limitations of the programs used to produce the architecture for my firm.  At the time I worked for a very large international firm that partnered with Pritzker Prize signature architects as the architect of record and our function was to turn their design into production drawings. 

The lessons I learned from these impressive architects was that too many people in our profession become enamored and then trapped by the "magic box" (the computer) to produce architecture.  Many simply forget how to study "...the region, site, demographics of users and neighbors, climate, codes, budget, etc,.." because they become so dependent on the computer to provide or assemble that information for them.  Heck many have even forgotten how to sketch or create a study model and yet those are the real tools of all conceptual design. 

The lesson here is that BIM is very much like a Rapid-O-Graph pen, it makes for very impressive prints but will not produce architecture for you.  That part must be done by the architect with pencil/pen/paper, clay or any other physical media that can explore commodity, firmness and delight.  Failure to plan properly will guarantee poor performance of the design whether it's in BIM, CAD or done by T-Square.  BIM is a very sophisticated tool that can easily seduce an intern or architect into believing that it is the only way to produce architecture.  Like calculators, BIM is here to stay, and just like calculators, it will give you the wrong answer if you do not plan and set up the problem and enter it correctly also.

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Ricardo Ramos Assoc. AIA, LEED® AP, CSI
Alpha Analysis, Inc.
Arcadia CA
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