Technology in Architectural Practice

I am reaching out to members of the Technology in Architectural Practice 'Kn' for advice on how to build my next-generation practice.  I left traditional practice and formed a technology company based in Seattle, Washington with the goal of solving some of the problems we have in conceptual design of projects leading to BIM.

We need a discussion on this forum about how our industry is filling the technological gaps in contemporary 'project-level' practice for bridging project start-up, concept design, design development, construction phase, and project life cycle. 

As principal in an E-A firm, my teammates' difficulties starting projects that were headed to BIM was - and remains - a real problem.

Many of us in the profession agree that 'good' and effective architecture and design begins in context, and that all projects are contextual regardless of whether the designer tends to respect the context in the design.  This of course is the designer's prerogative. Our municipal design firm was fundamentally successful in large part, in my opinion, because we always began our projects within context - immediate surroundings, sometimes extending to the region. My teams usually 'get creative' and gather high resolution imagery from Google Earth Pro.

But however, this bothers me greatly!  I began the architectural journey working in a land title office, where I worked with surveyors and drew plat maps.  Photogrammetry was the bane of our existence!  And now 25 years later- my skilled architect teammates are 'pulling' images across assumed points, lacking spatial accountability, at a whole new level of abstraction. 

Context is a problem for architects and engineers because there is always insufficient information available.  The information available free over the Internet has been captured with really cool technology, but is not of professional grade.  Our modelers begin every project with 'stretchy' image data, and they use rudimentary photogrammetry techniques they have derived themselves, and fill in gaps with unsubstantiated data in order to build the information they need to begin a conceptual design and project.  (If you've not seen this in action, ask one of the modeling pros in your office to apply a photo texture in SketchUp.)

That 'data' is not data at all but rather relativistic approximations.  Google is working on a major implementation to the technology behind Google Earth, which promises to provide much needed 'granularity' to the worldwide dataset.  Google recently sold SketchUp to Trimble as a result of this huge improvement around the corner.  But, architects will only get a third of the way to 'concept-design-nirvana' with the improved technology.  I say this because the technology is ill-suited to look inside and beneath structures, and thus unable to connect inside-to-outside, which of course is fundamental to architecture.

My dilemma is this - I've bought the best available technology, and ported it to architectural applications.  I want to measure and collect data on projects for as many architects as possible, as fast as possible, to make the best use of my investment while the opportunity (problem) remains a part of our daily experience in architecture.

My goal is to help architects and engineers to continuously improve their contextual modeling capabilities.  My product is custom 3D spatial datasets.  My information is professional-grade.  Unlike information available free on the Internet, I am capable of reaching into and beneath structures.  Unlike 3D scanning, my service is rapid and a fraction of the cost with higher potential accuracy and much faster work in the office.  My data collection for each project is backed up with full 1080p video, for easy reference on the desktop.

There are no project-type limitations.  Costs are quite low as my application is fully robotic, requiring only one person, me- to take measurements, collect data, transmit to customer, and return to base. 

I'm interested in your experience and your firm, how you gather contextual data (digital camera, tape measure, electronic distance, wait for professional land survey); what digital and imaging sources you use (Google Earth, Google Earth Pro, aerial photographs); your problems in workflow (developing a concept design in format usable in subsequent phases, assuring accuracy of spatial data, going 'backward' from a design development phase to a concept level development); and your thoughts on how these areas of practice are or should be aided by technology.

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Doug Brinley
Owner & Manager
Glapin Milphrey, LLC
Seattle WA
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Pardon my ignorance, but it seems to me that you think you have come up with an answer, and now you are creating a problem to ask.

Contextualism is not always the solution, but nevertheless we perform site analysis for our projects, just as we tend to breathe subconsciously. We still do it pretty much the way we did before CAD and intenet: site visits, surveys, photos, climatoligical data, all the stuff we always do.

I may be missing something here, but I just don't see a problem.

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Charles Graham AIA
Architect
O'Neal, Inc.
Greenville SC
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Charles, I appreciate your candor.  You have a good point; of course it could seem as though the means are justifying the ends.  I'd like to compare and contrast technologies to illustrate a point. 

If you have an electronic distancer (HILTI PD40 or better; $400) in your office and have used it a few times, of course it's obvious it is useful, and saves time, and allows measuring stuff you'd not be able to reach with a tape measure.  But, the skills involved are pretty much the same as when we had a tape only - still have to take intelligible notes, know what to measure and what not, etc.   And when we're back in the office we pretty much have to reconstruct the space similar to how it was laid out when it was constructed.  That's pretty costly and inefficient.

And you can go hog wild and spend $850 and get a Leica DISTO D8 with a inclinometer - and that will measure about anything you can come up with.  It's an awesome handheld tool that is a huge step up from a conventional distancer.  It'll even Bluetooth your measurements to a laptop in real time.  But, that tool will test the note-taking ability of any human.  So it's good for capturing geometry of a frame, clearances, etc. when these are critical measurements in a retrofit project.  But its not meant to map a facade, or produce a 3D dataset.  

But today we can take a sheet from the engineering playbook and use pro quality tools that were not available before.  They're still costly, but not when its a shared responsibility.  Imagine you put a wide-angle camera in a theodolite, and motorized the theodolite to follow you around like a robot, and drive the theodolite with software - that is closer to what the state of the art is for measurement.  That, in the hands of an architect, can do some astounding measuring tasks.  And that is exactly what I'm doing.

If you're not doing that, I encourage you to think about how you'd improve your work if you did.  And then before you try to do something about it, call me because chances are I've already done it.

You indicated you're doing the same old stuff (done that too many times myself).  So if I may ask, how are your team members getting 3D data into their SketchUp, 3DStudioMax, REVIT, etc? 
Doug

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Doug Brinley
Owner & Manager
Glapin Milphrey, LLC
Seattle WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-06-2012 19:03
From: Charles Graham
Subject: Does your firm begin BIMs with quality contextual data?

Pardon my ignorance, but it seems to me that you think you have come up with an answer, and now you are creating a problem to ask.

Contextualism is not always the solution, but nevertheless we perform site analysis for our projects, just as we tend to breathe subconsciously. We still do it pretty much the way we did before CAD and intenet: site visits, surveys, photos, climatoligical data, all the stuff we always do.

I may be missing something here, but I just don't see a problem.

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Charles Graham AIA
Architect
O'Neal, Inc.
Greenville SC
-------------------------------------------

Doug,
The profession needs good people like you who are willing to move into a new realm of information. 
Our difficulty has not been in the gathering of data on what is readily visible, it is in gathering information on what is hidden. Our work is in healthcare. A continuing frustration is being able to supply infrastructure support from central locations to the area of renovation or addition. The inability to have accurate 3 dimensional representation of existing above ceiling utility routing costs hundreds of thousands in change orders due to unknown conditions, weeks of costly project delays, nullifies the advantage of using BIM for prefabrication and causes infection control issues that cost the lives of patients. 
It is my opinion that information could best be gathered by the least intrusive means possible. As example, gathering information through bore-scopes and reviewing data gathered with the people who have actually worked in that specific area may be a method, but others may have better ideas or methods including radiology and ultrasonic modeling.  
We have to overcome the mindset that our projects are linear and start with information gathering and end with a ribbon cutting. Our ability to impact the built environment is circular. If we complete the design/construction process with a complete data set on what we did, the client has the information to manage his building and the next fellow has a starting point for the subsequent project. Pay it forward. Leave behind good data.



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Douglas Elting
Visions in Architecture
Lincoln NE
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-10-2012 20:39
From: Doug Brinley
Subject: Does your firm begin BIMs with quality contextual data?

Charles, I appreciate your candor.  You have a good point; of course it could seem as though the means are justifying the ends.  I'd like to compare and contrast technologies to illustrate a point. 

If you have an electronic distancer (HILTI PD40 or better; $400) in your office and have used it a few times, of course it's obvious it is useful, and saves time, and allows measuring stuff you'd not be able to reach with a tape measure.  But, the skills involved are pretty much the same as when we had a tape only - still have to take intelligible notes, know what to measure and what not, etc.   And when we're back in the office we pretty much have to reconstruct the space similar to how it was laid out when it was constructed.  That's pretty costly and inefficient.

And you can go hog wild and spend $850 and get a Leica DISTO D8 with a inclinometer - and that will measure about anything you can come up with.  It's an awesome handheld tool that is a huge step up from a conventional distancer.  It'll even Bluetooth your measurements to a laptop in real time.  But, that tool will test the note-taking ability of any human.  So it's good for capturing geometry of a frame, clearances, etc. when these are critical measurements in a retrofit project.  But its not meant to map a facade, or produce a 3D dataset.  

But today we can take a sheet from the engineering playbook and use pro quality tools that were not available before.  They're still costly, but not when its a shared responsibility.  Imagine you put a wide-angle camera in a theodolite, and motorized the theodolite to follow you around like a robot, and drive the theodolite with software - that is closer to what the state of the art is for measurement.  That, in the hands of an architect, can do some astounding measuring tasks.  And that is exactly what I'm doing.

If you're not doing that, I encourage you to think about how you'd improve your work if you did.  And then before you try to do something about it, call me because chances are I've already done it.

You indicated you're doing the same old stuff (done that too many times myself).  So if I may ask, how are your team members getting 3D data into their SketchUp, 3DStudioMax, REVIT, etc? 
Doug

-------------------------------------------
Doug Brinley
Owner & Manager
Glapin Milphrey, LLC
Seattle WA
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