Could you tell us a little about your background? What made you decide to found BIMMUNITY?

Sherif Abdelmohsen: Since my graduation from architecture school in 2000, I have developed a growing passion for computational design and the exciting cross-disciplinary studies between architecture and computer science. I first encountered this during my Masters thesis (2004), when I explored the integration of mixed reality and artificial intelligence in architectural education. This led me to further investigate this interesting area of research, where I pursued a non-degree   Fulbright program at the Computational Design Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. This experience allowed me to develop further modes of inquiry in areas at the intersection of design computing and design cognition. Following this highly experimental and eye-opening experience, I embarked on my PhD journey at Georgia Institute of Technology, where I was exposed to a wide array of concepts, tools and methods in computational design, specifically those concerning research and development in building information modeling (BIM).

After participating in several research and professional projects that involve the implementation of BIM practices in the United States and Egypt, and with the growing potential of BIM, GIS, database and cloud technology, a group of like-minded researchers and myself joined forces and established BIMMUNITY, a technology solutions company, with the purpose of developing a set of applications that address the efficient management of the built environment. Our team shares a lot in common, as we are all architects by virtue of our undergraduate education, but at the same time it embraces different and unique perspectives and experiences. Our team includes Ayman Assem, an expert in space layout planning and management and geospatial analysis, Mohamed Ezzeldin, a seasoned professional and expert in spatial design experience, and Ahmed Ibrahim, an expert in software development and information technology.

Since 2012, our team has been experimenting continuously and in different contexts and projects with computational approaches that involve behavioral mapping, space efficiency and optimization, building management, project planning, and many other concepts that all aim at enhancing conditions of the built environment. With the growing regional and global interest in management systems – both at the building and information level – and the corresponding advanced hardware and software leading to the development of smart systems, Internet of Things (IoT) at the level of cities and buildings, we decided to venture into that exciting market and contribute to the area of space and building management using our computational concepts and approaches.

How does your product help architects, engineers, asset managers and owners?

Ayman Assem: BIMMUNITY aims at the core of its technology solutions not only to deliver smart or efficient management tools but rather to empower its users. As numerous stakeholders are involved in the management of the built environment, including architects, engineers, property and asset managers, facility managers, owners, service providers, BIMMUNITY is primarily interested in meeting and supporting the needs and objectives of all those concerned parties through enhanced scenarios of operation, automated workflows, performance monitoring and tracking, optimized management of building facilities and spaces, and informed real time decision-making.

BIMMUNITY utilizes state-of-the-art concepts of building information modeling (BIM), geographic information systems (GIS), and database and server technology, to provide smart and real-time solutions, involving a variety of building types and stakeholders, within a fully integrated and customized platform. Our technology solutions range from managing not only spaces and buildings, but also communities and cities, using our flexible and scalable “city-to-room” services. Rather than a “one-size-fits-all” platform, BIMMUNITY’s fully customizable features address the needs of a wide variety of building types, including residential, commercial, educational, and mixed-use buildings, as well as stakeholders, including property holders, facility managers, service providers, and building tenants.

All stakeholders can navigate seamlessly through BIMMUNITY’s dynamic and user-friendly visual interface using its interconnected portals. Property holders can manage their properties worldwide and track income, expenses, and performances on their PCs or smart devices. Asset managers can work on enhancing the lifecycle performance of their assets through continuous tracking and monitoring of their performance. Facility managers can issue tickets and work orders to service providers and monitor all building systems and operations. Service providers can monitor their stocks and inventory and conduct their assigned work orders. Building tenants can visually navigate through their units and perform a variety of requests including services, bookings, and maintenance and operation requests. Architects and engineers can evaluate the impact of their design decisions while simulating scenarios of building operation for an improved and optimized building lifecycle. Using the analytical power of both BIM and GIS, all stakeholders can better understand the issues and impacts of their decisions. Other strengths include the support of data retrieval, tracking of component development and maintenance history, dataset availability for maximum on-demand use and recall, therefore supporting integration with other collaboration platforms.

You wrote your dissertation on design intent communication in BIM-enabled architectural practice. What did you explore with your research and what have been your key conclusions?

Sherif Abdelmohsen: My dissertation was based on the premise of challenging the archetypal postulation that BIM encompasses all the required parameters and rules about a design product or process in a way that is comprehendible by all disciplinary participants sharing the model and that communicates their goals, needs and intentions, besides communicating design information. Typically, studies involving BIM in practice tend to overlook some of the socio-cognitive interactions that occur in the workplace such as the negotiation of meaning and the active participation of multiple communities of practice, indicating that there might be discrepancies between what is exchanged among participants as design information when sharing a building model and what is exchanged as goals, needs and possibly conflicting intentions and interests when sharing a common ill-structured problem.

An ethnographic study was therefore conducted based on the question: what are the affordances and limitations that exist in BIM-enabled architectural practice in terms of communicating design intent among teams of designers working in interdisciplinary collaborative environments? The objective was to identify if current BIM exchange mechanisms convey what design teams really intended, if critical design knowledge is not conveyed using BIM data exchange capabilities and authoring tools, how effective shared building models in practice are in terms of communicating product data, design decisions, tacit knowledge and expertise, and to what extent they are hindered by tool complexity, learning challenges, or other factors.

Using personas as an additional method of analysis, and grounded theory coding as a basis for analytic induction, the dissertation arrived at the following major findings and conclusions:

Affordances and limitations of BIM differ according to individuals, disciplines and communities. Affordances included ones related to the tool such as parametric flexibility, and affordances related to collaboration such as coordination of information and conflict resolution. Limitations included incompatibility among tools, the cost of 3D modeling for participants and teams, and conceptualization limitations;

The communication of design intent involves not only interdisciplinary interaction between architects and consultants, but multiple and overlapping communities of practice that embrace interdisciplinary, intradisciplinary and non-disciplinary interaction, in addition to emergent communities that develop along the course of a project;

The BIM model can be described in terms of states that denote the level of its completeness and correctness and describe how effective it is in conveying and capturing the intent of participants in the context of their practices and interactions;

The shared BIM model can be represented partially as a boundary object with different relative weights and meanings in each design stage and for each community of practice;

The BIM model presented an amplification of the participation and reification processes in the workplace, where multi-membership and mutual recognition among participants belonging to different and overlapping communities of practice augmented the sense of participation, while the model provided different values and levels of interpretation for members of different primary and secondary communities of practice through reification;

In principle, the BIM model as a shared repository of information and boundary object is assumed to take into account all participation and reification activities. However, in practice, the convoluted meaning making processes, and the goals, needs and intentions of multi-member communities entail much more interaction patterns that are not necessarily captured in current BIM systems;

The differences in multi-memberships, values of BIM for different members, participation and reification activities, and the structure of primary and secondary communities of practice, should all be accounted for in technology development efforts in the larger population of AEC firms and practices.

What is your opinion on the future of BIM. How will it develop and continue to change the industry?

Sherif Abdelmohsen: The AEC industry has only just scratched the surface regarding the potential applications and merits of BIM in practice. As experienced with earlier tools, concepts and methods, BIM will still have its ebbs and flows, but will however inevitably prevail as a significant lead component of mainstream practice, perhaps just in a different fashion. As with CAD, there will still be that sector of the industry that deals with BIM as a single piece of software – as opposed to a workflow or mindset – that executes specific CAD commands only more efficiently, the same way CAD was used as a more efficient alternate method to manual drawing.

On the other hand, more progressive firms and AEC practitioners will start to develop mechanisms of adapting rather than purely adopting BIM in their everyday practices. With advances in other parametric and digital fabrication tools, approaches to many of the phases in the design, construction and operation processes are expected to change. Developing scripts and smooth translations between different pieces of BIM software will allow for a more streamlined, efficient and informative design and analysis process, allowing for a richer and more comprehensive design solution space with multiple iterations featuring a vast amount of detailing regarding assemblies, spatial qualities, materials, etc.

In my view, BIM will become so entangled into the profession that it will become harder for practitioners to even perceive it as unique or revolutionary. Advances in interoperability, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart systems will probably make the future less about BIM with respect to modeling and databases, but rather more about highly automated processes, tasks and workflows, advanced real-time performance simulations and optimizations, and highly integrated and efficient building lifecycle management.

To me, BIM will reach a point of saturation in the future with respect to its maturity and development concerning modeling and translation capabilities, to the extent that it will become part of standard practice, also similar to the early days of CAD/BIM transition. I think we are relatively close to this peak point, and it will be all about what’s the next generation of BIM? Whether we will be dealing with actual generations of BIM, layers of maturity and development of BIM, or whether it becomes totally obsolete, is up for discussion, but what is most certain is that we will be witnessing soon a state of transition from BIM.

Will software algorithms and robotics drastically change the design/build process?

Ahmed Ibrahim: I think these are two of the main technologies that will revolutionize the design/build process. We have not come even close to realizing their potential. We have always been focusing on such tools in terms of an aid to the conventional design or fabrication process, mostly at the prototyping level. In other words, we have been developing scripts and translated design-to-production algorithms for predominantly conventional methods of design and construction. What if these methods in essence are revolutionized? What if we can actually program tools and scripts that would design and build for us from A to Z? Is that even a valid idea? Can we simply run a script and use a bunch of robots and drones to translate our thoughts, concepts and requirements into designs, structures and functioning operations?

A first shot at this thought would perhaps leave us confused, or relatively scared, especially when we realize that many of us as professionals could be jobless in a matter of a few years. While we take this thought with a grain of salt, it might strike us that we are not that far from that (virtual) reality. Existing developments in each of the fields of artificial intelligence, algorithmic design, digital fabrication, and robotic manufacturing reveals a closer look that might speak to the validity of such a wild idea. Yes, human designers will never be replaceable – well till now – but the truth of the matter is we are moving to more and more automated components of the design/build process, including conceptualization, modeling, optimization, fabrication and construction, and building operation and lifecycle.

Recent efforts in machine learning and heuristic methods are addressing the process of how human behavior and thinking can be utilized, captured and simulated to produce intuitive design solutions. The power of current graphical algorithm editors such as Grasshopper and Dynamo is already producing overwhelming results concerning conceptualization, geometric editing, parametric adaptation, and advanced simulation and optimization. BIM interoperability tools and techniques are making it easier for software tools to talk together and address issues of synchronized modeling, analysis and evaluation regarding cost, energy, construction and operation logistics. Robots and drones are already being used in some cases to build large scale on-site construction using automated scripting related to manufacturing and site logistics. 3D printers, previously used only for rapid prototyping, are now moving into a mode of rapid fabrication of custom non-traditional building blocks and new materials. Sensor networks, IoT and smart technologies introduce yet another layer of technology related to construction and operation which is specifically appealing to contractors, fabricators and facility managers.

In fact, this digital chain is already there but is not fully captured in its totality. The future might be much closer than we think!

What is your advice for architectural offices which have not set up a BIM project strategy yet. What steps should they take?

Mohamed Ezzeldin: Apart from architectural offices that are not convinced with change to start with, many are willing to consider BIM in their practices but either have a false preconception what BIM is or are not fully aware of the ramifications of such a decision and what it entails in terms of the firm workflows, practices and logistics, and the accompanying implications, challenges, risks and obstacles along the road. Some other firms are willing to move forward with BIM but at a later stage when all issues are resolved and the process has become mainstream enough to learn, or when it results in a more intuitive design process and tool. In all cases, what is crucial is to first understand what it really means to adopt BIM in an architectural firm, which is not by the way just about hiring BIM software gurus, and purchasing and using the relevant BIM software.

One of the issues that many firms face is peer pressure, where they feel obliged to follow the trendiest software out there or suddenly want to detach from the past or the traditional. This might result in hasty decisions by firm owners to purchase software just for the sake of following the crowd or expecting a fast return on investment, and hence they force their employees to use it with an eye always on investment in product rather than process, which is ultimately destined to fail.

First of all, BIM should be embraced as both a tool and a process, so purchasing and implementing a specific BIM software such as Revit or ArchiCAD does not magically guarantee a full BIM adoption or experience. Second, what most firms should be considering in reality once the decision has been taken to adopt BIM – whether at the level of a single project or within the firm practices at large – is that what lies at the core of this adoption is transformation. Before purchasing the necessary software, it is all about the will to change; to transform in terms of mindset, thinking, workflow, process and collaboration. BIM was originally marketed as a business process, and yes it comes with endless merits and benefits, but what many do not realize is that what lacks in this package is the consideration of human dimension.

A multitude of issues are often not considered when adopting a BIM process or project strategy, including the work culture within the firm, workflows, mindsets, roles of different parties, and the nature of collaboration and communication within and among other disciplines. In essence, the adoption of BIM changes the nature of thinking, workflow and communication within a given project, and therefore the firm has to be conscious of these before moving to merely use any software. Implementation also typically requires a learning curve and a training plan for its employees, and this should be taken seriously. Other issues that need to be addressed before adopting a BIM strategy include the ability to manage transition and change, besides leadership, expertise and cross-generational dimensions.

Nevertheless, there are some myths and misconceptions surrounding the adoption of BIM practices. Some of these go as far as claiming that BIM is not suitable for design phases and designers do not benefit from it. Others address the drastic changes required in terms of project delivery, liability and legal issues, the changing role and responsibility of the designer, credibility of model information, besides the difficulty of handling all model information in 3D. In fact, many of these issues are exaggerated and can be considered obstacles to adoption. In many cases, the resolution of such issues can be easily dealt with better communication and through developing a shared system that addresses the nature of the desired workflow, communication method and model exchange format per project. In a nutshell, my advice is to consider and resolve first and foremost the social challenges and benefits related to BIM as a process within the firm then move forward with product-related issues such as software, model interoperability and other technicalities.

What are your plans and goals for BIMMUNITY in 2019?

Ayman Assem: Our goals for the development of BIMMUNITY as a smart management platform are endless. The current version of BIMMUNITY represents only the first phase of our ambitious project to develop a comprehensive building management platform. Our objectives for 2019 focus mainly on integrating our platform with an IoT framework, whereby our BIM and GIS databases become linked to real-time data input from the hardware equipment, sensor network and infrastructure of buildings, communities and cities.

Our platform initially targeted issues of optimization and efficiency of building operations primarily at the level of space management. Our aim is to incorporate energy management at the core of our extended platform, where real-time feedback from a building’s equipment feeds into our energy analysis and management system, whereby data related to energy consumption, carbon footprint, and waste consumption and reduction is measured, monitored, and tracked to generate real-time results and sustainability reports regarding existing buildings.

Currently, our system focuses on the smart building management of residential towers and commercial buildings. We intend to release versions of our platform that accommodate different building typologies. Our goal is to extend our platform to include educational buildings and hotels in the short term and more complex buildings such as hospitals and airports in the long term. Moreover, and in an effort to adopt a smart city approach, we intend to extend our platform to be more inclusive and customized, and to incorporate different levels of detail of management from spaces and buildings all the way to neighborhoods and cities.

What are your thoughts on the future of architecture and the built environment? What are the major opportunities and what continues to inspire you?

Mohamed Ezzeldin: Architecture is currently at a crossroads that creates a unique opportunity for designers and all parties concerned with the built environment. We are now at a more mature phase; a post-digital post-parametricist era that sails away from the typical formalistic associations in the architectural discourse. From a computational design perspective, the imminent question for practitioners, educators and researchers becomes: how perpetual or ephemeral are the computational strategies, processes, and methodologies that will influence the thinking, knowledge production, formulation, and resolution mechanisms in the area of architecture, engineering and construction in the future?

As an increasingly loosely defined term, computational design is growing – past the conventional morphogenetic-centered perspective – to encompass a plethora of transformations in activities, strategies, and methods. A paradigm shift is forthcoming in the area of architecture, engineering and construction and is yet to be tested; from generative to performative and automated, from the tangible to the intangible, from the physical to the phenomenological, from experimental rapid prototyping to large scale rapid fabrication, from mass production to mass customization, from the artifact-centered to the human-centered, from top-down formalistic approaches to bottom-up informed decision making, planning and management, only to mention a few.

Along all these perceived transformations in the industry, yet another set of questions emerge; where does creativity lie? Where do visionary opportunities for genuine innovation stem from; from rich local contexts and authentic values and inspirations, or blind replicas of routine automated processes, settings and configurations? And how will digital design change the nature of architectural practice? What is really more interesting and intriguing within this dialogue is the changing role of the architect in the future. Despite the anticipated anxiety resulting from the expected diminishing role of the architect due to these transformations, it is my assumption that some of the major opportunities and inspirations for yet some unique innovative roles for the architect lie within these future transformations. —

The post Beyond BIM: Architects Create a Wider Building Management Tool appeared first on Archipreneur.

BIMMUNITY is a cloud-based system that aims at empowering all parties concerned with the efficient management of the built environment. It utilizes state-of-the-art concepts of building information modeling (BIM), geographic information systems (GIS), and database and server technology, to provide smart and real-time solutions, involving a variety of building types and stakeholders, within a fully integrated and customized platform.

BIMMUNITY solutions range from managing not only spaces and buildings, but also communities and cities, using its flexible and scalable “city-to-room” services. Rather than a “one-size-fits-all” platform, its fully customizable features address the needs of a wide variety of building types, including residential, commercial, educational, and mixed-use buildings, as well as stakeholders, including property holders, facility managers, service providers, and building tenants.

All stakeholders can navigate seamlessly through BIMMUNITY’s dynamic and user-friendly visual interface using its interconnected portals. Property holders can manage their properties worldwide and track income, expenses, and performances on their PCs or smart devices. Facility managers can issue tickets and work orders to service providers and monitor all building systems and operations. Service providers can monitor their stocks and inventory and conduct their assigned work orders. Building tenants can visually navigate through their units and perform a variety of requests including services, bookings, and maintenance and operation requests.

The system infrastructure comprises several cloud servers and databases, including MySQL database, Google Maps for general map navigation, BIM server for managing data translation from 3D BIM models, and GIS server for creating and managing GIS data, web services and applications related to worldwide maps. All server outputs are communicated through an API gateway to serve any type of devices including desktop and mobile applications.

One of the key added values of the system is the BIM/GIS integration, where GIS augments the value of BIM design data through the analysis and management of infrastructure and project elements. Using the analytical power of both BIM and GIS, building users, managers and owners can better understand the issues and impacts of their decisions. Other strengths include the support of data retrieval, tracking of component development and maintenance history, dataset availability for maximum on-demand use and recall, therefore supporting integration with other collaboration platforms.

The integration of BIMMUNITY and existing Internet of Things (IoT) systems including smart systems, home automation and sensor network technology offers yet a further competitive edge, where real-time data and feedback from existing operations are detected, monitored and processed to provide comprehensive and accurate data representation. BIMMUNITY introduces a solution that is much more than an efficient management tool. It extends to deliver smart solutions that involve enhanced scenarios of operation, automated workflows, performance monitoring and tracking, optimized management of building facilities and spaces, and informed real time decision-making.

The post The Future of Managing the Building Community appeared first on Archipreneur.

Keep on reading to learn how Diana and Stefan founded this tech startup and how Bimarium could help your practice.

Enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found Bimarium? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Stefan: The decision to found Bimarium is rooted in my background as an architect. In my work, we were doing the entire projects in 3D, the building and also the interiors, up to the finest details. This basically meant that we had to build all the 3D models ourselves and that took us a lot of time.

The idea of having a library of 3D models of furniture that are traceable back to the producer, well done, compatible with multiple different CAD softwares and of course, free came into my mind then but unfortunately, I was too caught up in the architecture business so I put the idea aside.

Things changed when I decided to move to Berlin together with Diana, my life and business partner. We wanted a change in our lives and when Diana found a job in Berlin, I said “You know what, maybe this is the time to bring this idea to reality”. That summarizes our beginning.

Diana: I can’t take any credit for the idea because unlike Stefan, I am not an architect. However, I was a part of the execution right from the beginning even though I was working for a different company at the time. It felt only natural after a while to join the team full time, given that I have both an eye for design and aesthetics and also a solid background in business management. I believed in the idea from the start although what sealed the deal for me was the fact that it was us two building it together from down up.

Why did you choose Berlin to start your company?

Diana: I wouldn’t call it a deliberate choice, but rather an intuitive one. We decided to move from Romania to Berlin because we wanted a change in our lives and although we had never been to Berlin and we came basically without knowing anyone and without any palpable prospects it ended up being the right place for us and our life goals. So in other words, at the time when we decided to move to Berlin we hadn’t quite realized that we’ll actually found Bimarium.

Stefan: To pick up where Diana left off, we realized in retrospective that Berlin is a very entrepreneurial city which has a lot of resources to offer to new start-up founders like ourselves. Not to mention the fact that Germany in its whole, is a very good country for the kind of business model we have, given that german people spend an average of 6% of their annual income on furniture. That apparently is the highest quotation in Europe so needless to say that this makes Berlin a very good pick for us.

What problem does Bimarium solve and how can architects use your platform in their everyday work?

Diana: We fundamentally change the workflow of this category of professionals and we do so in two ways. First, we help them create better, smarter designs by offering them high quality 3D models of furniture, compatible with 6+ architecture softwares that they can download for free and use in their projects.

And second, we help them convert these designs into reality, by offering them the infrastructure to directly place furniture orders for their clients and be remunerated fairly for having generated a sale. It is widely known in the industry that 70% of all premium furniture is sold as a result of an architect’s or interior designer’s recommendation although oftentimes, this category of professionals doesn’t get rewarded. We think it’s only fair to receive a slice of the pie if you were the person responsible for making it in the first place.

And given that when you go for an architects’ services you are basically asking for recommendations on what to buy, it felt only natural to standardize and reward this process. So on Bimarium, every user, be it an architect or an interior designer that places an order with us will get up to a 10% standard commission of the entire value of an order and possibly larger, when we talk bigger volumes.

Stefan: In my work as an architect, I know for a fact that we are being paid left-overs for the concept design when you compare our fee with the amounts that the client ends up investing into turning our designs into reality. So of course, Bimarium is a way of changing this, of giving the architect first the tools, by means of the 3D models. To better illustrate his or her ideas followed by the possibility to not only recommend his/her client what to buy but also where to buy it from. So on Bimarium, you have everything in the same place: the 3D models to use in your projects and the possibility of directly ordering all the furniture pieces your client wants to buy, straight to his door and be remunerated for something that you used to do for free. This is a real revenue sharing business.

…so who’s your main customer and what is the business model of Bimarium?

Diana: So our customers are basically the final clients of our users, be they architects or interior designers. Regardless of whether we talk about an architect or a designer: They are our collaborators, a fundamental part of our business model. Because they aren’t paying us, we aren’t making use of their data for monetary purposes but we’re actually paying them for doing their work right.

Stefan: We are pushing hard to maintain the same prices that the producers we work with have across all platforms and this means we are sharing commissions together with our users. But this is the sort of business we believe in, one where everyone gets remunerated for the role they played in creating value for the end client.

How do you want to reach the end costumer who wants to buy furniture?

Stefan: Through our users. In other words, we see our users as the gateway to the end customers. So the platform as we’re building it, isn’t at all for an end client. To give you an example, if an end client comes on our site, she  won’t know that there’s a shop there because the website has this as a feature that you can use when you as, an architect, are done with the design phase. It’s basically like distinguishing between design phase and implementation phase, because they’re two different things. And we don’t want, for instance, architects who just want to get 3D content to be automatically flashed with prices and informations they don’t need.

So we have two ways of viewing the site. One is in design mode where you only see the library of 3D models and the softwares that they’re available in. And the second one is Buying mode where you will see the equivalent of the 3D model as a real product with prices, configurations, delivery and everything you need to know. So basically, our website is exclusively addressed to architects and interior designers. They are, like I said, our gateway to the end customer.

You merged your architecture and business backgrounds to start a company. Has that been a fruitful combination?

Stefan: Definitely. We, architects tend sometimes to get into too many details and oftentimes, overlook the bigger picture. Diana, however doesn’t have this problem. She comes with this “let’s do it” attitude which comes on top of her business background which, when you’re trying to build a network of producers and professionals comes very much in handy.

Diana: I strongly feel that in whatever industry you’re trying to do a business, you need firsthand experience, so you need people who have worked in that industry who know everything inside and out, know why certain things are necessary and others are just nice to have. And then there are other people who, let’s say, can counterbalance this knowledge, because sometimes knowing too much can be a bit of a curse. This is our situation. Stefan has all the industry knowledge and software knowledge whilst I know how to work with and around people. And this, like Stefan said, is a crucial element of building a platform like ours. Which brings together different stakeholders and helps converge their rather different interests.

What are the next steps for your business and how do you plan to grow it?

Diana: So we’re gonna launch the feature which allows architects to buy on our site in May. And to begin with, this feature will only be available in Romania because we have a lot of users from there and also because Romanian architects are strong in handling 3D designs and renderings, so for us, they are the ideal collaborators.

Stefan: In the meantime, architects from everywhere can use our in-house made library of 3D models. But yes, for the time being, the on-platform service of placing furniture orders will only be available for users from Romania. We thought it is a smart call for us to start there and see how we can refine the product and make it better as a result of the feedback we get. So if the first market will be Romania, the second one will definitely be Germany.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who want to start and build their own business?

Stefan: My advice is to be more confident and to try to see ways of adapting this very old profession to the times we are living. Technology and the use of technology only grows everyday so it would be only natural for archipreneurs to see how they can blend the knowledge of the architecture profession with the technological developments underway. Another piece of advice is to retain confidence and to pair up with other people, especially those that have what you don’t in terms of skills and capabilities. The way I see it, a successful business cannot exist in the lack of a strong team.

Stop dreaming and start doing. Work even when you don’t feel like doing it and especially in those moments when you doubt yourself and the choices you made the most.

Diane: My advice is not just for archipreneurs, but for entrepreneurs, and my advice would be the following: stop dreaming and start doing. Work even when you don’t feel like doing it and especially in those moments when you doubt yourself and the choices you made the most. In those times, just remember that through effort, perseverance and patience, you can get there. But these are the three hardest qualities to actually uphold, so beware, it’s no easy path. But it’s a wonderful one.

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming architects?

Stefan: To reiterate, I think we have more and more technology in our lives, and it’s only natural for that technology to become more present in our work. To make my point, I’ll start by telling you about this friend of mine, an architect himself, that made his Phd on the topic of how will architecture change in the future given the technological developments underway. In the 90s when the computer appeared it was used for drawing lines and making plans.

And now we are in this era of 3D because now we have the means to do the building in 3D. So of course he asked himself: what will the profession look like in the future? And his answer was that the future will bring to the fore the coding architect. And I believe in this prediction. In 50 years from now, we’re just going to write code and the buildings are gonna be done by themselves. So on a deeper level, I think moving from architecture, what I was doing before to Bimarium is a big step forward because the way I see it, in the future, we won’t draw anymore.

In 50 years from now, we’re just going to write code and the buildings are gonna be done by themselves.

Diana: I see it as a more liberalized playing field. In the sense of having all these small players that actually matter a lot get a fair cut of everything that is being traded as a result of their work. Be it furniture, windows, materials, you name it. In other words, I think there should be more and more companies that treat and reward these professionals to the value they actually create for others and society as a whole. And regarding what Stefan said, I think  you can either resist change or you can anticipate it and ride it. We chose the latter.

About Diana & Stefan

Ștefan Crăciunoiu is the co-founder and Head of Innovation at Bimarium. After having finished the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, with a degree in Architecture and Urban Design, he worked for several years in different architecture companies in Romania, mostly on  large residential projects, before founding his own Architecture company “Format 4” together with three other colleagues. Ștefan was always passionate about 3D and renderings, passion which lays at the foundation of Bimarium.  The way he sees it, Bimarium is a stepping stone in helping architects and interior designers do better, faster and more rewarding work, both from a design perspective and from a monetary one.

Diana Carmen Rus is the co-founder and Head of Development at Bimarium. Her academic background started with a BA in International Law and International Politics at London Metropolitan University. And continued with a MA in Management, Governance and Organisations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Professionally, she worked in the Romanian public sector, founded her own NGO “Brain Bloom” and was the Head of Publisher Development for a successful German start-up operating at the intersection of journalism and technology. She believes in a new way of doing business, one where the value created is shared equally across all stakeholders and for her, Bimarium is a true reflection of that.

The post Bimarium Objects: A New 3D BIM Platform That Helps Architects Create Better, Smarter Designs appeared first on Archipreneur.

BIM (building information modeling) is a sophisticated program that allows architects to collaborate better with their teams and clients with real-time design that updates shared instantly in the cloud. It helps architects make better design decisions, alerting them to common errors such as misplaced windows before the first brick has been laid. Clients can use BIM after construction is completed to maintain and reduce running costs thanks to the information it provides. The software is even incorporating virtual reality to allow clients to walk around buildings that don’t exist yet.

Hospitals and universities are already using BIM to make sure these institutions run as smoothly as possible. In fact, BIM optimizes public building use to such a degree that the UK government has made it mandatory for architects to use the software in the design of any new projects.

Juan Lago-Novás, director of the Master in Architectural Management and Design at IE School of Architecture and Design, says BIM software such as Revit, AutoCAD and ArchiCAD is blending the design and management sides of the business seamlessly.

“The biggest advantage of BIM is that it allows you to pre-construct your designs” he said. “It’s like Formula 1, where instead of spending millions on building a car then realizing it doesn’t work as expected, they are able to build it digitally and test it in a simulator.” BIM can detect where there might be problems with an electrical supply or perhaps a rafter that’s going to obstruct something.

BIM is an essential tool in explaining a client’s return on investment and what the running costs of a building might be. Whereas previously it’s been hard to sell a client on the virtues of investing in good design, BIM makes it a simple matter of math.

“You don’t need to be a designer to get information from BIM; it can connect to an app that any building manager can use,” says Lago-Novás, who is also principal of DSC Architecture in Madrid. “It knows the model numbers of machines in the office so it can tell clients what filters, cartridges or maintenance costs they might incur over a given period.”

When teaching the course, Lago-Novás says he likes to encourage his students to think of BIM more as building information management due to how well the software handles the business side of things. However, he envisions that BIM will be fully implemented in the design industry onces BIM stands for Business Information Management.

“An architect begins his design with a pencil, and CAD programs is really no different. A hand-drawn line on paper and a digital vector line on the screen are still just two points joined together.”

The difference with BIM is that it understands that those lines equal a wall. It knows what the wall is made of. It knows if that wall has a skirting board or not. You can ask it how many walls are in the building. This can be very useful when working on larger-scale projects.

Some say there are limitations to BIM, suggesting that it may stifle creativity if an architect no longer needs to come up with novel solutions to design issues. But Lago-Novás argues that while BIM solves a lot of problems, it doesn’t solve design.

He adds:

“The principles of architecture haven’t changed. These tools allow us to design the types of buildings that would have been impossible in the past. But there’s no substitute for a great designer.”

Juan Lago-Novás is director of the Master in Architectural Management and Design at IE School of Architecture and Design. The course is intended for those who see the potential of business opportunities in architecture and the new roles emerging from the industry’s evolution.

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It is the age-old story of technology changing the industry, simultaneously eviscerating old and creating new job profiles. Early CAD systems were extremely expensive and involved the use of cumbersome machines operated by specially trained workers. Designers had to bring their work to the CAD Departments and wait for hours or even days to receive plotted outputs. While this way of working seems ridiculously inefficient, back in the time of the first minicomputers and mainframes, this technological advancement allowed for the production of work which previously took 10 to 12 people to complete.

Blue-collar workers such as painters, plasterers, carpenters and brick masons may become extinct due to automation and new technologies, but according to several studies, computerization jeopardizes desk jobs the most-particularly middle-skilled positions that involve the execution of routinized tasks. The term “job polarization” describes the diminishing employment opportunities when it comes to jobs requiring moderate level of skills, especially compared to high-skilled workers and those at the bottom of the labor market.

Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne from Oxford University, authors of “The future of Employment”, have created a table ranking architecture jobs by probability of computerization according to which model makers, technicians, drafters and urban planners are at a much greater risk of disappearing compared to architects, interior designers and civil engineers. Meanwhile, computerization has birthed some new occupations within the field of architecture, mainstream profession in particular.

Here we bring you five relatively new job titles featured extensively on job boards across architecture-related platforms and websites:

#1 – BIM Specialist

Since the introduction of virtual building solutions during the 1980s and the emergence of 3d representation, the industry adapted to include these into its design processes and use building information technology in decision making, cost estimation and production of construction documents. Parametric modeling, associated data and rules have evolved to a degree which required highly-skilled employees that can keep track of the changes and be in charge of different aspects of the project. The position BIM Specialist can relate to different areas of expertise, from modeling, consulting, developing applications and software to researching and management positions. The general requirements for the position are usually a certification for specific software and experience in project planning and tracking.

# 2 – Digital Making Technologist

Over the last 15 years, rapid prototyping has found its way from car and aerospace industries into architecture. Large architectural firms dedicated to innovation and emerging technologies have established their own teams of specialists focused on the production of physical models and complex geometries, 3d printing and digital fabrication. The job title Model Maker has been substituted with Digital Making Technologist, describing employees capable of handling an entire set of complex tasks related to in-house rapid prototyping. Since 3d printers are being adopted as a new standard design tool, the demand for people skilled in handling technical and creative aspects of digital fabrication has significantly risen. Management skills and ability to handle infrastructure systems are highly valued when considering potential candidates.

#3 – Social Media Manager

The recent boom in social media has been embraced by architecture as well as other disciplines. The way architects communicate has changed drastically. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Pinterest and other platforms have permeated the industry and helped introduce a new position within the industry-Social Media Manager/Communication Manager. Many among the large firms working across the globe rely on their social media followers to communicate their ideas and brands and integrate user feedback into future designs. Choosing the best platform, forming a community and handling various social media accounts are the main responsibilities of potential social media managers.

#4 – 3d Architectural Visualizer

Pencil drawings, ink tracing and watercolor representation of architectural projects are things of the past and, as such, today they mostly have value as collectibles. Ever since the emergence of the first version of CATIA in 1982, it became apparent that the new technology can be applied to architectural representation. Today, architectural visualization has developed into creating photorealistic renders meant to infuse designs with the element of reality. Visualization can be part of the design process itself, but is most often used to represent finished projects. Architectural visualizers work either as part of a specialized visualization agency or as members of an in-house team in the case of large architectural firms. Working within a specialized agency can refers to 3d artists specialized in modeling, lighting, rendering or post-production, requiring extensive knowledge of specific software. People looking to break into the archiviz industry don’t have to be architects, but most jobs actually require an architectural background.

#5 – Motion Graphic Designer

Although photorealistic renders have become an industry standard, an increasing number of firms and developers turn to animation and promo videos to reach their target audiences. Architectural films conveying atmosphere and sense of lifestyle are becoming increasingly popular and facilitate a more interactive way of presenting projects to clients. Large firms such as Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid Architects and several developers have created videos which provide immersive experiences of spaces and urban interventions. Although this type of content can be created in-house, most large companies hire specialized agencies for the production of great-looking video content.

[The above-mentioned job profiles have seen numerous iterations over the years, causing some confusion among job seekers. The fact that the IT industry has hijacked the word “architect” can be a source of frustration for those looking for employment within the field of architecture, but this appropriation also reveals the increasing complexity of the job market and the immense influence technology has on all industries, including architecture. ]

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ think tank, Building Futures, have published a report that examines the role of architects in 2025. Through a series of interviews and round-table sessions, the study presents prevailing opinions of leading architects, consultants and contractors working in expanded fields of the practice.

“The profession is heading towards consultancy. I think that architects will have the greatest influence if they concentrate on high-end consultancy and strategic thinking,” states a project manager of a global consultancy. Another chief executive thinks that the “entire range of middle sized practices from about 25-150 people will be gone” by 2025.

What are your thoughts? Do you think your job will remain relevant in by 2025? Which other positions will emerge in the next few decades?

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