High-Tech Productivity

Dietzel & Partners - Munich, Germany

After taking over Dietz Architects in 1989, Michael Dietzel, owner of the now renamed Architekturburo Dietzel & Partners in Munich, Germany, saw that the staff was still using pencil and paper tools for all of their planning and design. Too many operations were being duplicated, explains Dietzel, who immediately set out to acquire computer equipment and software to increase the firms efficiency. I found a CAD program back in 1990 that had a graphical user interface, was object-oriented, 3D compatible in every respect, and was nevertheless still affordable. This all sounded like science fiction in those days, but ArchiCAD® already had all of these features at that time.

Object orientation and ArchiCADs scalability impressed him from the start. The fact that ArchiCAD can be used for larger projects has repeatedly held true for us in practice. I know of no other program which delivers such good results for presentations, layouts and publications.

Today, the 20-person office has five ArchiCAD workstations in their Munich office and another four in their Dresden office. The firm's client base is composed largely of financial institutions, but expanding into insurance companies, commercial and housing developers. A modem and Apple Remote Access link workstations in the two offices and permit data to be stored centrally and accessed by all employees.

Another key benefit of ArchiCAD, according to Dietzel, is the GDL interface: Simple GDL commands can be used to construct all conceivable 3D elements and store them as parametric objects in a customized library. In addition to knowing the relevant commands, the user merely has to be familiar with sine, cosine and tangent as well as IF/THEN structures. All CAD programs let you construct or use libraries, but these libraries do not let you change the parameters so easily. This is where ArchiCAD wins hands down in terms of productivity.

During a recent renovation project, the Stadt-und Kreissparkasse Plauen Bank in the Vogtland region of Germany, construction was not allowed to interfere with the banks day-to-day activities, and there was no flexibility in the budget for unforeseen building problems often encountered during renovations. Despite the problems, the firm managed to satisfy and meet all of the clients requirements. ArchiCADs integrated database allowed the architects to start determining correct dimensions and accurate costs at a very early stage. This is a distinct competitive advantage that benefits us time and again, comments Dietzel.

The Internet is the next great challenge for Michael Dietzel. Together with another business, he has constructed a page on the Internet which allows readers to view plans relating to a particular building project. His future plans are to integrate a QuickTime VR model onto his web page allowing clients to take a walk through a future building. This will allow Dietzel to make his work accessible to a wider audience while raising the interest of future clients.