Probe-04_Family_Counseling

Probe-03_Tattoo_Parlor_SD

Critique: "Report on Integrated Practice - 8"

As BIM is understood and enabled processes adopted, a more collaborative approach to building design is possible.  The architect's consultants, as well as builder and appropriate subcontractors and fabricators, can be tightly integrated into the design process, assuring that effort is not wasted on non-viable design paths, and that the resulting building will perform as desired."

- Jim Bedrick & Tony Rinella, Report on Integrated Practice, 8

BIM offers a new level of opportunities for collaboration between various disciplines throughout the design process.  Likewise, the necessity for collaboration in the profession is ever-growing as project teams continue to grow well into the double-digits to accomplish medium to large projects.

Although BIM is envisioned to ease the collaborative efforts between many disciplines  it is important to note the implications collaboration will have on the role of the architect and the process itself.  The architect has often been regarded as the leader or coordinator in projects.  With BIM allowing for design collaboration, the architect's abilities to lead and communicate efficiently are critical.  With many minds and perspectives working on a design simultaneously, the architect must be able to guide the team towards a common and synchronized goal or risk disputes and discombobulation   

In a sense, these roles are the architect are nothing new.  However, with BIM allowing for simultaneous design, rather than linear processes, the methods in which the architect fulfills their role must adapt to these new parameters.

Probe-02_Labyrinth

Critique: "Report on Integrated Practice - 2"

The unique contribution of building parametric objects ... provide a core base of architectural knowledge.  

The definition and behavior of these base objects, more so than their implementation, are an important kernel of architectural knowledge that should be controlled by the profession, not by software companies.

-  Chuck Eastman, Report on Integrated Practice, 2

With the expansive growth of libraries and pre-sets becoming accessible for BIM software, it could be viewed that the way we assemble buildings is becoming more reliant on the established "kit of parts."  As Chuck Eastman points out, this reliance on the "kit of parts" often places the fate of building practices in the hands of the software developers.  An extensive, but limited assortment of parts, tool-kits, pre-sets, materials, and construction methods are provided within BIM software, tempting designers to simply "plug-in" elements of the building without significant thought to the possibilities for customization.  

However, the abilities to customize and design every detail are possible in BIM.  Eastman stresses the importance of the need for skilled modelers, who are capable of manipulating BIM with a wider range of control, in order to ensure projects are steered by the designer, rather than by the components which have been made available. 

This is where BIM software can either pose a threat to the profession or provide opportunities.  We can either let the software control our designs and architecture will become a real-world application of "The Sims" videogame, or we can learn to utilize the tool to manipulate its full range of custom, yet informative modeling capabilities.

Probe-01_BIM_Pavilion

Scandinavia: Sketchbook 2012 [denmark]