v5: Could you explain your project, and talk a little about what generated the idea?

David - We are working on a project for the Internet, which would allow architects to look for materials, products, and other information on line. It came about from some of our ideas about what e-commerce could be, and also from an article by Cecilia Rasmussen which we saw in the Los Angeles Times about the Architects and Engineers Service. This was a service established by an architect named Mary Louise Schmidt in Los Angeles in 1914. It was basically a place where architects could find information about products that were new, and had architectural relevance, or new ways of constructing or building, new materials and such, as they became available. Manufacturers provided the support and paid for the cost of research. Eventually Schmidt leased out space free of charge, so architects could even have office space for free. It was not related directly to design, but it led to a lot of good design. So that was kind of where we started from.

This attracted us as a model, but in some senses a service just like that would not work today. We made some adaptations using new technologies, to use the Internet as a base for exchange, since the Internet has so many new possibilities for exchange. A service like this that uses a new way of working is really attractive to us.

v5: In 2001, how do you see a modern architectural office working?

Marty - The four of us are most concerned with design - that's our primary focus. And we understand that the materials and techniques that go into making design possible are very important. We see this as a design tool more than anything. Right now, the problem with computers is that you sit down at the computer and you just do construction documents. It's very hard to use the computer as a design tool. It's starting to be that way, with modeling, so you can think of the building as a model. We hope at some point to push this model idea so it's kind of a working model that includes the materials and includes all these different criteria, from the very first stages of design. Not everything would be resolved when you start with it, but you can get in there and work with it and see the impact of various decisions on not only the form but also on cost and scheduling, and all these different things that are important to a project. If you use it right from the very
start, your design develops through this model, and this is what you eventually will hand over to the contractor.

Thanks to the Internet, the client, contractor, architect, engineer, anyone on the team, can get together and look at it at any time. Eventually, this same living model will go to the contractor. The subcontractors pick parts of the model and they start to build it. They can make construction changes and substitutions, just as the architect can make a design change, and it's reflected in the model. The thing is alive all the way through. It can even be used by the person who's managing the building - even the person who needs to order light bulbs can do it through this model.

Our intent is to get it active and integrated as early in the process as possible, so it's not just a tool for doing drawings, but an integral part of the design process.

v5: What is an architect's typical day like once this becomes a reality?

Adam - The architect gets up at nine in the morning and walks into the office and turns on the computer. The interface between Internet and desk top is completely unified. Correspondence has been happening overnight from another part of the world, sitting there waiting to be addressed, the latest consultant or engineer concerns are all broken down by a directory, by project. So the architect, depending on the phase of the project he or she is involved in, can engage and do design work on one aspect, project management in another, and it's happening instantaneously. In one sense, it's almost like juggling several things at once, but in real time.

Michael Rotondi said that when he was building his own house, he never really had face-to-face interaction with the contractor. He would be at work all day, and he'd come in the evening and he'd walk around the site noting what had been done during the day. He would leave notes stuck to things or a light shining on a piece that he wanted changed. The building grew and changed through this process. There's something kind of interesting about that, how he had several balls up in the air at once. I see that as a model for some of the ramifications of this system in the future.

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