Yes, it’s 2010, hurray. It’s no mystery that technology is moving quickly these days. This speed of change is causing us to become increasingly excited, yet perhaps a bit more critical of our interactions with computers in our day to day lives and as they relate to our field of architecture and planning. As the rate of computing power increases ever more quickly for a set unit of time, we have grown to expect technology to be able to do anything. This leads us to ask the technological gods such mundane questions as, “why do we need to launch twenty different software applications to realize the design of a building?” …

Last Wednesday was the first time I spoke at a conference – Autodesk University 2009. As I mingled in the crowd I suddenly realized that about one out of 25 of the 6,000+ attendees of the conference came to our 1.5-hour session. This is definitely minor compared to the fascinating keynote speeches highlighting new technologies and industry trends. Besides, there are also over 600 classes, labs, and virtual sessions. Nonetheless I’m glad that we were part of the event, not with the sole intention to promote HOK, but to demonstrate our ability to lead the industry trend in both design and technology.

A little about our class:

We …

In celebration of ‘the Fifth of November’, aka ‘BIM Day’ I thought I’d post some ideas of what BIM (Building Information Modeling/Management) might look like in the future. This could be 20 years or 30 years, or never, but we should never stop thinking ‘what if’. In fact, recently I’ve been thinking about the possibilities so much that I’m getting scared that I don’t really know nearly as much as I should.

At any rate, I’m going to post possible future-casting ideas for the way in which we could be using BIM in the future to harness the power of the ‘building in vitro’. Some of these ideas are simply and process software related, but a majority of the focus is …

If you’re in the design industry, I’m sure you’ve heard of BIM.  Building Information Modeling is the newest way engineers, architects, and other designers convey the art we produce.  At HOK, we take BIM very seriously, setting aside time to make a day of it.  November 5 is BIM Day!

HOK is on a journey to buildingSMART.  As such we have a large bank of BIM resources (HOK’ers, click here for your support).  For those of you outside of HOK (and even those within), here is what Miles Walker (an HOK firm wide BIM leader) had to say about BIM.

We have officially retired

…

On 22nd September my colleague William Lopez Campo participated in the closing event of Autodesk’s BIM Conference (more info) held in Berlin: a two-round 20 minute(each) LIVE “DesignSlam”.

William and three other participants (listed below) are all highly skilled in Autodesk software. They were asked to do design for a Facade (given one of the 4 sides of a building) and a Bridge (given the terrain).

• Prof. Martin Schroth – who studied at the University of Applied Sciences Biberach / Riss in Frankfurt and took his Master of Arts and in 2006 he founded his architectural studio in Rothenburg
• Moritz Fleischmann - who studied at the RWTH Aachen University, the ETH Zurich and in 2006 was graduated as a qualified engineer. In 2008 he

…

Since we were just discussing here in Shanghai/Hong Kong how to say BIM in Chinese, I thought I’d make an extra effort on collecting translation of BIM in as many different languages as possible:

Chinese 建筑信息模型

Dutch Bygnings Informations Model

English BIM = Building Information Model

German Gebäudedaten-Modellierung

Italian Modello di Informazioni Edilizie

Japanese ビルディングインフォメーションモデリング

Korean 건축/건설 솔루션

Portugese Modelo de Informação da Construção

Spanish Modelado de Información de Construcción

Do you know BIM in any other languages?

Please comment if you find any errors/more languages and I will update this post accordingly.

Recently I was introduced to two programs, CityEngine and CityScape, through Lee Miller, our firmwide resource for cutting-edge programs (as well as Revit). Developed by programmers who specialize in gaming, these programs can be used to create virtual urban environments instantly. I think the video below provide pretty good explanations for the intent and current abilities of these programs:

CityScape Demo Reel
During demonstrations of these programs, there are always praises mixed with disbelief from the audience. I was quite impressed as well; at that time I was under the time crunch to work towards the midterm review of a 4,500-hectare planning project, and the thought of using either program to quickly generate masses did flash through my mind.

… But what does it mean …

Ingredients:

2 Progressive Architectural Firms
1 Experienced Contractor
1 Innovative Client
A Boatload of Acronyms (BIM, IPD, LEED, etc.)
Lots of Teamwork
A Dash of Design Brilliance

Process:

Blend together all ingredients into a seamless, highly efficient, unbelievably gorgeous space. 

Outcome:

PLATINUM, baby!

View a video produced by DPR to showcase the project’s Integrated Project Delivery (and featuring comments from our own IPD Innovator).