Residential Architects and Technology
I’ve written another article for the AIA CRAN Chronicle. This time I talk about the relationship between residential architects and technology (for both design and production). Specifically I discuss what holds many small firms back from testing new methods and then I explore Morpholio Trace, which I find to be an interesting app that bridges the divide between digital and analog stalwarts. Enjoy the article.
If you missed my first article for the AIA CRAN Chronicle (Great Recession Survival Tactics for Generation Y Architects: Become the BIM Manager), read that one too.
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Conor Moriarty
I was half watching tv a couple of nights ago while working and I came across a tech display on this home improvement show. For once, I was genuinely impressed and could see an immediate and practical use for it. I’d be really interested to hear what you think.Brief discussion of it and a bit more info here, http://forums.cgarchitect.com/71902-augmented-reality-3d.html and the show clip is here http://youtu.be/QDZfJtDmzkw
Jared Banks
That is very cool. I think iVisit 3D by Abvent does something similar. I think the QR Code on the wall is a little gimicky and unnecessary. I’d love to see BIMx gain location awareness. Wouldn’t be hard. We already put location data into the model. Plus elevation information. And the iPad knows where it is. Seems like it’d be easy to sync the two and give the user the opportunity to modulate a starting point to get reality and digital perfectly synced.
In general though I love this sort of tech. Have you seen the IKEA app? It does something similar but puts tine IKEA furniture in the space. I definitely foresee this sort of tech becoming more prevalent and I hope the big AEC software players take it seriously. Thanks for the links.
Augmented Reality/Hyper-Reality is going to be awesome. I can’t wait!
Symm Vafeades
I agree with this wholeheartedly. The simple trace paper analogy is great for architects. I had introduced Morpholio Trace to a principal client of mine a few months ago, the next day he was on site with a potential client, started taking pictures with his iPad and underlaying the photos in Trace and showing the client design problems and solutions on the spot. This was his first meeting and landed the client immediately. No doubt the simplicity of the app encouraged the architect to just jump in and use it without hesitation that he didn’t know how to use this “new” tool.
Fast forward a few months, and the Trace app does start to show it’s limitations. The firm wanted to transition to a Dropbox based project directory, and Morpholio has limited in/out functionality. That combined with the principal feeling much more comfortable sketching and annotating on his iPad and wanting more capability lead me him to GoodNotes, which is more feature robust and can work directly with Dropbox. Now not only is the principal doing sketches and redlines form wherever he likes, it automatically updates on Dropbox for the rest of the design team.
Now the hurdle is getting interior designers and contractors comfortable with using collaboration technologies like Dropbox. (And Dropbox has many strengths, but also weaknesses, in this arena, but that’s another article.)
Symm
Jared Banks
That is an awesome story. I love that the client so quickly got hungry for more functions. That’s so cool.
I’m not familiar with GoodNotes. I guess I need to do some research! Thank you so much for sharing.