Architect Adam Woltag Interview 4




	Akami Introduction page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4








			Architecture is understood as a whole, experienced in parts and constructed from millions of pieces. Many of which are mined and milled thousands of miles from where they will be used as a part of a building. There is strong competition for the organization skills and tools needed in the process of construction. Today we must keep pace with the opportunities offered us by new technologies so we can explore and account for new levels of design. X-Zone Pusan South Korea- AJAL Elevation, Plan and Building Parts drawings. Anthony Lumsden’s office is doing some amazing work in 3d models.



				The “smart model” will have to contain the attributes of information needed to understand all components in a building, their material, their size and their place of origin. Attributes- A smart detail shown from The Visual Dictionary of Buildings.

v5: What's really keeping someone from sitting down and just taking the first step, taking each piece through to a virtual 3-D model that has the same data? I know it would be a bear to do the first one because you have to find everything that you're assuming you'd receive through the Internet. But it would at least give you a working model, or a test case.

Marty - You can model all the parts in three dimensions and put them in one place, but the "smarts" are missing. The "smarts" are when you take this nail and pull it out, how much does that nail cost? There's all these other things you have to consider when you're designing that don't translate into three dimensions. You can think of it as other dimensions that have to be in the model for it to be useful and to make the design process rich. So I think that's where the five years comes in. It's critical that architects bring in their knowledge of how they've used these products in their own experience.

v5: In Form Z you can build a component model, assemble the studs and do the slab - how far away are we from taking a component model like that and moving it into a sort of intelligent model?

David - I think we're five years away from three-dimensional modeling. I throw that out as a magic figure, but the rate of technology changes dramatically. That's a pretty long time in terms of technology. I think that it will take at least that long.

There are two issues that have to be resolved. One is the issue of the different software being able to talk to each other, in some language that everyone understands. I think that is beginning to happen, but it hasn't yet. The second issue is that there has to be some way for that model to incorporate the physical properties that it takes to be built. Once the connections between the models are not just coordinates in space but understand the way they have to fit together, then you have a smart model.

For example, maybe a flashing detail would know what kind of roofing it has to work with. So if you put two incompatible elements together in a building, the model would let you know you're doing the wrong thing. In a way, manufacturers are already doing this - a certain roofing material manufacturer will suggest flashing - they can suggest materials that work well with their products, so I think that's possible.

v5: So I understand the advantages of continuing to work in a three-dimensional realm, conceiving it three-dimensionally, developing it three-dimensionally, building it three-dimensionally, instead of jumping back and forth between written specs, 2-D drawings, all of that seems very attractive. How do you go about getting everyone to talk together?

David - Tell them that they're going to make money! There's a lot of interest in e-commerce right now. Part of the goal is being able to select a product before it's used, find if it's available, what its size is, and the cost. As we said, our interest really stems from the design portion of the process. We hope that by making this information available and people using it that they'll have more time to design. They'll have more time to make decisions, and they'll spend less time with substitutions. That is really the benefit for architects.

Marty - One of the most important things for us to deal with is that right now, the architect makes the specifications, but that really isn't the last word. The contractor is always the one finally choosing the products. We believe that we can entice manufacturers to sign up just by saying, look, if you use this system there's a higher degree of likelihood that you're going to lock in that selection, even through construction, because the architect can make the best choice. Maybe the contractor is making a cheaper choice, but if you give them more information from the start they can make a better choice. I think the manufacturer will buy into that; if it's more likely that they'll actually use this product, then I'll invest in this technology. That's one of our approaches to manufacturers.

Adam - Right now in the office where Marty and I work, Marty is using a system called Blue-Line/On-Line, Inc. It is basically an Extranet site that allows all the different consultants to have all the information accessible from one spot, on the Internet. You essentially publish it on the Web site, and everyone can download it. Then there are tools to mark it up with comments.

I, on the other hand, am unfortunately not using that system. I'm trying to manage thirty consultants on a job, and the amount of time I spend talking on the phone, faxing information and all of that really takes a lot of time away from doing the things you really want to do, which is spending time on making the project really something special. Already people are seeing this. There are people looking just at facets of how the Internet might engage the building profession. But as David mentioned, we're looking for a single source, a way that all these things can work together with one another, and if architects can be more efficient, and if owners can save money, if manufacturers can get their products locked in sooner in the design process, and if contractors can have access to accurate information, we see those things as really beneficial to the whole building process.

v5: This would put the architect in the role of "building" a virtual building. It seems like you're really talking about a shift of responsibility here. Today, a contractor oversees the construction process - it's in their contract. The architect generates the design, and the contractor marshals the forces to implement that design. But I think what we're talking about is developing a virtual construction site, almost, that will be mastered not by a general contractor, but by the architect. It seems that there's a big shift of responsibility on to the architect that's inherent under this conversation.

David - The AIA has recognized that there's been a change recently in how much responsibility and risk, and therefore liability, the architect will take on in an architectural project, so they've been pushing away from the contractor. And just recently they've changed their mind! They decided that, actually, we're going to be out of work if we keep going that way! So they've made a big push for design-build, they've written documentation for it, and architects are moving towards that. Some of the government contracts that are out now are only for design-build teams. So that's a whole other complicated issue. But architects are moving this way, and I think that they actually want to.