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.”

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