A generation ahead

The Graphisoft Design Forum was an exclusive event held in Budapest. It was intended to gather forward-thinking, pioneering and highly successful architects under one roof, focused on one topic - the future of virtual modeling within Architecture and how the architect, the building owner and the wider community can benefit from it. A brave objective - requiring a creative response within the context of modern construction and design processes, and tight new regulations on building efficiency.

So what are the trends in architecture that we can identify which are forcing us to change our behavior? In fact, why re-work the wheel at all? In a key panel debate, we challenged some of today's leading minds to consider the issues facing the industry today, and architecture tomorrow...

"You just can't do new things the old way," - and new things are being, and will be, increasingly demanded from the architectural profession. "In this process of change there'll be a lot of casualties, and only some winners!" says Vlado Bazjanac of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, a long-term advocate of using technology to drive greater value into the role of the architect and the inherent data held within their Virtual Buildings. "What we're talking about is so perfectly logical - the benefits are incredible," he says. "The virtual building model arms the architect not only with a vital competitive advantage now, but critical insight into how buildings will be created way into the future.

"I too want the industry to understand the potential of 3D modeling software as a tool," agrees Kimon Onuma of Onuma Associates. "The architectural community is missing the opportunity. We can't think in business terms as we are undervaluing ourselves. We're limiting ourselves to 6-10% fees in any construction project while the realtor gets the same for far less work. We have huge potential if we can use these computerized tools to offer more value - but we need to embrace it as an industry."

"I think this sort of notion of value engineering being a threat to architecture is maybe misunderstood," suggests Heikki Hartela of the large Finnish construction firm Hartela Oy. "If we have tools with which we can continuously understand the cost implication of design options, we can from the outset control the process so that we never exceed the budget and never need to cut things. When cost estimates are done too late you just get a lump sum which you know to be too expensive. You don't know what or why it's too costly. You then go and usually cut the wrong things from the project!"

And yet the market is evolving fast, warns U.S. Ray Lucchesi of Lucchesi Galati Architects. A critical blurring of market roles is going to blend the identities of the architect, the builder and real estate broker. "They will become one persona, and the builder will take the lead. Still architects are not seeing this social trend." The possible sidelining of the architect will be led by market pressure he points out. "The creativity and environmental demands will still be there, but we'll be embedded at a lower level!"

That may be the case for the traditional architect, but Archicad and IFC interoperability are a bridge to securing a deeper working relationship. Anshen and Allen's Tony Rinella: "If the world of the builder, the architect and the engineer were to miraculously blur - we'd be in better shape as many of the artificial barriers to collaboration would have been removed and there'd be the chance for us to participate at the compensation level of the builder - which the design team can't meet today."

And, as Vesa Peltonen of Evata Finland points out, collaboration itself is bi-directional. "For the first time I've seen contractors interested in working with other design input people."

Bazjanac continues: "There'll be new job descriptions. I can tell you it's already happening - what I call a "Billing Information Design Coordinator". That will be a real job title and you'll all have to have a position like that in your offices to operate in the future. Collaboration is already taking place. You need everyone who plays a part in the design and delivery process to be involved, contributing knowledge, from the outset through to the end of that process. We now have the technology which can exchange such information easier and without errors."

Magnus Troedsson, BAU Architects in Stockholm, points out an obvious assumption - that computers per se don't make for better architecture. Sure productivity is lifted, but how can software be beneficial in architectural terms?

"Remember, once you've generated the Virtual Building, you are enabling the use of many other tools that just need to become interoperable. You'll be many steps closer to the idea of experimenting with your designs before you start building them," says Bazjanac.

"And besides," says Tom Cederqvist of CEJ Architects in Finland, "everyone benefits. But this is only a tool. The more information we get out, the better we'll all understand each other. Normally no one understands the traditional architect's impression. In 3D, the client understands it pretty well! Since architecture itself is 3D, why do we even talk about the pen?"

Tony Rinella brings the debate full circle - at the heart of this is the need to balance the commercial, environmental and data compatibility expectation of the market with delivering great buildings and the real pleasure of designing. "The tools we use to express our concept in many ways shape the concept itself. As the tool moves us further from the human hand, the ideas become further distanced from the human soul."

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Clearly our challenge at Graphisoft is to balance the demands and expectations of architectural New World through a design tool that can be as intuitive to the architect as possible, while ensuring seamless data transfer to best-in-breed add-ons, construction firms and building owners alike. Then there'll be a truly integrated design-building-manage process.