General Design
Design Software
The process of designing a project can be both exciting and stressful. The architecture firm has a vision for designing the project, but how is that idea transmitted to the client so that they really “get it?” It is the architect’s responsibility to communicate to the client and community how the building will both function and how will it look.
Michael C. Ellegood , the Public Works Director for Maricopa County, said that when choosing the right firm to work with you need to ask, “Do they have the staff, and do they have the software?” He believes that you should be less interested in firm charges and more interested in cost effectiveness.
Architecture firms using BIM (Building Information Modeling) software, such as Revit Architecture are finding that they can design more freely, keep information better organized, and administer more efficiently. Buildings are complex, and optimizing a building’s performance requires incorporating many variables into design. To meet the needs of the industry for sustainable buildings, accurate information and collaboration between disciplines are needed early in the design process. Revit is an integrated process for exploring a project’s key physical and efficient characteristics digitally. Because of this 3D modeling software, both the architect and the client can examine the project digitally before it is built. A major advantage of this digital review is the substantial elimination of costly change orders and project delays which can negatively affect a project’s success because of increased costs and scheduling issues. Firms utilizing this type of software have dedicated resources in training personnel, transitioning over their current systems, and purchasing the right software and hardware to meet these needs. This is an enormous value to a client who is using a firm that is offering this service.
“Repurposed” Spaces
Our nation is facing the deepest recession in years. Families, businesses, non-profit organizations, and the government are all facing shrinking budgets. This could be a time for keeping things the same and just sitting back and waiting until the economy changes, or it could be a time for gaining new knowledge and choosing to be innovative. This is not a new idea. People didn’t always have the money or the energy to build something new, so they had to take what they had and reinvent it.
Think of the field of education. It is always changing its teaching strategies and its environment. Research is showing that math and science need to work more collaborately with the arts. This means that new space concepts have to be designed that will look more to finding areas that can be repurposed into labs and eliminating the traditional classroom setting; therefore establishing “repurpose” space. Businesses, too, are discovering that with fewer employees less office space is needed. However their areas for marketing and advertising have to be recreated to become more technical and client friendly. Many are choosing smaller buildings and establishing more appropriate work spaces.
Choose to take a leadership role in showing that now is the time to be both innovative and progressive in originating new visions for design. We know one has to be smarter and more creative about how to get money and how to budget money for projects but helping clients to make an impact with their project is foremost. It is critical to make an environment that promotes-not hinders-open concepts, team building, and the well-being of clients, students, employees or patients. Understand the challenge-models have to change. Get creative. Re-envision your project and possibly “repurpose” a space-a penthouse becomes a college research center, an airplane hangar turns into a tropical rain forest resort, or a contemporary art museum is in the shell of a former power station. The possibilities are as endless as your ability to “think outside the box.”