by
Sara Malone
AIA Professional Practice Editor
Four-dimensional modeling software could change the face of the architecture
profession—not only in the way work is getting done, but also the
role that architects will play within the design and construction process.
This emerging technology will incorporate existing CAD-modeling techniques
with scheduling, estimating, sequencing, fabrication, delivery, and installation
information. If we adopt this technology, says Jonathan Cohen, AIA, of
Berkeley, Calif.-based Jonathan Cohen and Associates, it will change the
roles and relationships within the whole building industry, providing
an opportunity for architects to expand their sphere by taking on more
of the entire process.
A matter of integration
Not since the time of master builders has there been a fully integrated
design-construction method. There is little or no vertical integration
among the entities involved in construction, and the building industry
remains resistant to the integrated methods that have proved effective
in design and manufacturing of products such as automobiles.
“In many ways, information technology made communication worse
rather than better,” says Cohen, who chairs the AIA Technology in
Architectural Practice Knowledge Community. “The reason for this
is that within our own spheres we’ve automated some of our processes,
but the systems we’ve developed don’t readily exchange information
with other systems. I can give you an example. CAD was originally designed
to automate hand-drafting. Architects simply switched from drawing with
a pencil to producing those drawings on a computer. And when that computer-generated
material was passed along to the contractor, who needed to do an estimate,
work out a schedule, and figure out how to stage the construction, the
contractor couldn’t use the electronic information the architect
had developed with the software developed to automate the contractor’s
processes.”
Cohen adds that the people working on the project before the architect
to select a site or analyze finances and the people who work on the building
after the contractor is done, such as the facility managers, have heretofore
used their own programs and remained pretty much electronically isolated
from the other entities in the process.
As a result, much exchange of information is still reduced to paper,
Cohen notes, increasing the opportunity for delay and error.
Internet promises productivity
The Internet offers the possibility of connecting the project team over
a network, yet the inability of software programs to talk to each other
remains a real liability. The shared building model and the Internet offer
the possibility of productivity and efficiency improvement in the building
industry.
“What does this mean to our traditional roles and relationships,
and what opportunities does it represent for the architectural profession?”
Cohen asks. “We think very significant ones, but only if architects
understand it.”
The one who controls the project information will be at the center of
the building team. The duties of this new kind of architect will encompass
a comprehensive overview of a project throughout a process that extends
from site selection and programming through facilities management.
“This model has to be hosted somewhere,” he points out. “It
could be that the maintenance of the model is something that the architect
does over the life cycle of the facility, rather than just during the
design phase. It would be much too complicated for building owners to
use it, necessarily, so it could be an opportunity for architects to offer
this continuing service of maintaining a growing electronic model of a
building that is used during building operations and facility management.
This is just one example. But it’s going to mean new relationships
between designers and builders.”
The reason why design/build is gathering steam, Cohen observes, is that
it enables certain things to be done concurrently that used to be done
sequentially. It saves time and is more predictable because it brings
the builder in during the design phase.
“This idea of the single building model really supports the idea
of working concurrently rather than sequentially,” he says, “because
a contractor can be working and contributing to the model even while design
is going on. It can support new kinds of organizations that could offer
design/build services supported by a single information source. It would
mean alliances among firms; not just thrown-together teams like we have
now, but alliances based on agreed standards, methods, and processes.”
Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved. Home Page
|