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COLLABORATIVE & INDUSTRIALIZED CONSTRUCTION

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Latest Articles on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry

What is needed then is a

data backbone to connect

the building design to the

fabrication detailing and

installation sequences.

FACADE DESIGN AND FABRICATION: THE EXPENSIVE DISCONNECTIONby Patrick

Most BIM (Building Information Modeling) technologies today disconnect the production of permit drawings from the processes for fabrication and installation. When owners include subcontractors in preconstruction services (as they often do with general contractors) they have the ability to coordinate these activities and reduce errors.

What is needed then is a data backbone to connect the building design to the fabrication detailing and installation sequences. It is common practice to have architects design a facade, independently from the manufacturer who fabricates the facade, and also independently from the general contractor and subcontractors who install the facade system.

Construction projects have included waste levels of more than 25%, and a major portion of that waste is related to the building envelope and facade. Waste consists of redundant document production, unused stored materials, idling workers, rework of installations, and other factors.

Owners and general contractors need to understand how much waste is connected to facade design engineering and planning processes.

New Contract StructureThe Design-Bid-Build relationship is the traditional contract model. Unfortunately, it makes it difficult for owners to drive project efficiency because of a lack of transparency in business processes and cost management systems.

In these circumstances, no one can take ownership of cost management over the entire life of a construction project. The Design-Build-Operate relationship is one answer to this issue.

In this form of agreement owners have the ability to coordinate the work of general contractors, subcontractors, building product manufacturers, operation and maintenance companies, and other stakeholders, in order to find a better way to deliver projects.

This approach makes building construction more like large scale product manufacturing, which historically has had much less waste.

Information Exchange ProblemsWhen facade design engineers make fabrication documents, information exchange is a critical issue. If a building has a complex facade shape, it is important to seamlessly generate accurate 3D geometry and to produce specific 2D drawings for CNC cutting machines.

Current BIM software has limited capability to produce 3D geometry appropriate to fabrication. Therefore it makes sense for architects to access libraries of parts used by a manufacturer rather than creating similar information from scratch.

It is hard for facade design engineers to adapt to frequent design changes and reproduce facade production documents on the fly, unless they are directly connected to the architect’s model.

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Installation PlanningInstallation is, of course, an important perspective from which to improve productivity. If the unique types and shapes of facade panels grow in number and variety, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage onsite installation.

If delivery sequence and installation processes of panels are not managed well onsite, it is hard to understand which panels should be installed in which positions. This could result in a large waste of time and resources.

To compound this problem neither manufacturers nor architects include cranes, scaffolds, and other installation equipment in the documents. This third data source must also be included to optimize the delivery process.

In summary, we need new contracts, new processes, and new tools to address the massive amount of waste in building construction. The separate processes of design, fabrication detailing, and installation planning need to be combined into a single environment to properly understand costs and risks in building projects. A promising solution for such an environment is on the cloud.

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Latest Articles on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry

“We then have a model that has history, which allows us to add information without having to start over,” she points out. Having the right tools in the classroom also has helped Harris to emphasize the importance to students of moving from the “big idea” to the materiality of the future assembly.

“The idea has to be complete and you have to use these tools to develop it and make it a reality,” Harris says. She adds, “That’s how we’re able to have a lot of our projects built in the end: because we are very conscious of the materials and assemblies and reality of what these things are. If that can work with the big idea, that’s perfect for us.”

A Big Idea RealizedAIA seems to agree with Harris’ philosophy. Morphosis Architects won the AIA 2014 BIM Award in the categories of Stellar Architecture Using BIM and Delivery Process Innovation for its work on the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas.

Morphosis used parametrics in creating the museum’s façade, which is comprised of pre-cast concrete modules that are repeated and reorganized to form a highly complex geometrical pattern.

The software enabled the team to achieve an effect that appears random and unpredictable, but in actuality emerges from a rationalized, pre-fabricated system allowing for a more efficient construction and installation process.

The AIA jury noted that the project stood out “by how it leveraged BIM not just in design but in the shop drawing process, and in the fabrication and installation they achieved things in a time that would have been unimaginable otherwise. BIM assisted in fabrication, documentation, and implementation. The submitter had a willingness to share their digital files to better improve the project.”

In its submission, the project team revealed that the museum’s success depended on this integrated process. The accuracy of the early design allowed the team to share highly detailed 3D models with the owner, fabricators, and contractors who used them to develop shop drawings and even a framework for installation.

The result: a world-class museum delivered on budget and ahead of schedule.

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SPOTLIGHT ON MORPHOSIS ARCHITECTS’ KERENZA HARRIS: TEACHING THE VALUE OF PARAMETRICS FROM CONCEPT TO FABRICATIONby Akio

Founded in 1972, Morphosis took its name from the Greek word meaning “to form or be in formation.” While the name alludes to the firm’s “dynamic and evolving practice,” today it might also apply to its innovative use of parametric design tools.

Since joining the firm in 2008, Kerenza Harris has been a key part of Morphosis’ development and integration of these new technologies into design work.

Today, she is helping Morphosis to develop automation systems and parametric tools that can be integrated from the earliest concept design stages through fabrication.

Raising ExpectationsOwners, fabricators, and contractors are expecting highly specific information earlier than ever. “It is a bit of a challenge because it forces us to have more complex models earlier on,” Harris notes.

In addition, some owners are beginning to expect highly sophisticated models as a baseline for design presentations. While Harris notes that modeling makes it easier than ever to show owners precisely how a project will work, it is creating new expectations about the designer-owner relationship.

Lost in TranslationEmbedding such sophistication into models so early can also prove challenging later in the process—should the model need to translated into another format.

“Every time we need to communicate with someone, be it a contractor, fabricator or client, there has to be a phase of translation,” Harris explains.

When this translation occurs, there is always the risk that embedded information could be lost in the shuffle. By bringing contractors and consultants onto the same software and encouraging closer collaboration, such shuffles can be reduced.

The Intelligence of Parametric DesignHaving detailed information from the earliest stages is the beauty of parametric design, Harris notes. Using one program from the first line creates an intelligent model with a history.

“We go from simple geometry; a line, a surface, a plane, a solid, to architecture; a room, a building, a door, a window. As we move

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forward, the window, for example, becomes embedded with additional information: it has a certain size and uniform specification,” Harris says. “As the idea becomes more cemented, it becomes architecture.”

Along the way, models are imbued with an “intelligence” that can be linked to methods of fabrication, specific materials, assembly processes and so forth. This can prove especially valuable, Harris notes, when changes are necessary.

When information is imperfect or incomplete, it is possible to embed new information into the model without breaking down the entire system.

The Tools Make the DesignTools such as CATIA have given Harris an edge in explaining the need for specificity to the students she taught in her former position at Texas Tech University, as well as in her lectures today.

Such software allows students to begin working with simple forms and shapes, and then develop those shapes into complex projects with specific materials and systems.

Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. Photo credit: Roland Halbe

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Latest Articles on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry

SPOTLIGHT ON DR. DAVID GERBER: BUILDING A STORIED CAREER AROUND EASING DESIGN COMPLEXITYby Akio

Today Dr. David Gerber serves as assistant professor of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California, but the title he claims is far simpler than his multi-disciplinary research aims.

The son of an engineer and a computer scientist, Gerber has called many countries (and at one point, a sailboat) home, and his work today reflects that blend of technological interests and global perspectives. A design architect by training, Gerber has worked for some of the world’s most innovative architecture and technology firms, including Gehry Technologies and Zaha Hadid Architects.

Since then he has served as professor, lecturer, author, and founder of several technology startups, but his work revolves around one theme: the intersection of architecture, design with computation, and technology.

Finding A Better WayIt was during his time with Zaha Hadid Architects more than 14 years ago that Gerber says he discovered the lesson that would set his career trajectory.

Exploring ParametricsThe Singapore master plan was a project with a painful lesson, learned under a tight schedule and cost constraints, among other challenges. Yet Gerber knew the tool he had commissioned while working on the project—what he calls the first parametric urbanism tool—was a first step toward smarter design.

From Zaha Hadid Architects, Gerber went on to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design to pursue his doctorate. It was in a class taught by his advisor that Gerber discovered CATIA®.

It was among the first classes in which architects were instructed on CATIA, and it was eye-opening for Gerber to realize that there already existed technologies in engineering disciplines that he and his colleagues had tried to duplicate in the architectural setting.

“This became the 4-year trajectory of my PhD studies, in which I wrote one of the first PhDs in architecture on parametric design,” Gerber says.

His early experience in CATIA, through classes and work at MIT’s Media Lab where he was appointed as a research fellow, became an asset that helped Gerber earn an internship at Gehry Technologies, where he was able to further develop this knowledge for architecture.

Since then, through lectures, teaching and publications, Gerber has set out to help others realize the “better way” of delivering highly complex projects.

Removing UncertaintyGerber believes that parametric design tools and the shift to 3D design have become so valuable to designers because they help address the problem of uncertainty that is characteristic of design.

“As designers, we have a huge amount of responsibility because our visions carry with them 100- to 200-year lifespans and life cycle costs,” Gerber says.

Given this duration, he sees design as inherent with enormous uncertainty. As a result, Gerber says, “It’s our duty to enhance the design process, and therefore the design product, with more and more intelligence.”

Parametric and generative design systems are one key for linking otherwise fragmented expertise in the AEC industry and applying it to accurately achieve the complex aims of today’s projects.

Of course, there is room for more innovation in this new approach toward integrating project expertise. Gerber describes his world today as being about solving the problems that lie at the intersection of architecture, engineering and construction through an emphasis on the humanistic expression of design and integrating the innovations in the computer science field.

“My ultimate aim is to provide higher fidelity information, and capture higher fidelity knowledge to better equip the architect and designer,” Gerber says.

That path, as he describes it, has been “to develop parametric skillsets, technologies, and knowledge to better equip designers to handle real-world complexity, while maintaining the highest level of quality in design possible.”

Gerber had won the title of project architect and manager for a massive new project: the One North master plan in Singapore. The design called for a 30-year master plan for a city of 200,000 people, with 5 million square meters of gross floor area over 200 hectares of land.

At that time, parametric design wasn’t a term ever heard in architecture, but the connection of information it allows was greatly needed by such a complex project.

“There weren’t any tools for me to appropriately manage my responsibilities, which was to link the data to my geometry while my geometry was changing on an hourly basis,” Gerber recalls. “And the data sets were enormous.”

Ultimately, Gerber developed a program that linked this information. However, he left the project thinking, “There has got to be a better way to enable good design, while not losing the bidirectional impact from geometry to data, and data to geometry.”

“Paradigms in Computing: Making, Machines, and Models for Design Agency in Architecture”

by David Jason Gerber and Mariana Ibanez Images courtesy of David Gerber

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