THE HUMAN TOUCH IN ST LOUIS

One thing I love about going to a conference is the opportunity to explore a new city. St Louis is called the Gateway City, not because of its giant catenary arch on the banks of the Mississippi, but because it used to be where you started from, back in the day when people said things like "go west young man."  It was a good place to buy everything you needed to stock up your wagon train, and by 1900 it boasted the busiest railway station in the world with 42 platforms lined up under a single roof span.  Union Station is now a conference venue and host to this year's BiLT North America, where the future of BIM and digital construction was hotly debated.

I had just one day to tour the city, so after a quick stroll around the base of Eero Saarinen's famous arch, I headed inland to check out Wainwright Building.  Designed by Chicago architect, Louis Sullivan in 1890, this was a seminal building in the development of the modern skyscraper.  I was struck by the contrast between the bold, rhythmic verticals of the facade and the wild, intricate detailing of the terracotta spandrel panels.  It seems to be a conversation between traditional craft skills and technological innovation.  Wainwright building stands at a turning point in the history of our industry.  Loadbearing masonry and staircases had set limits to the height of buildings for centuries.  Structural steel plus Otis elevators suddenly made a ten storey building seem perfectly reasonable.  Sullivan chipped in, as architects do, by showing how this new potential could be given a coherent expression.

Today, the innovations are digital.  Cloud services are everywhere, and the whole world is a database.  Will A.I. and robotics finally bring construction into line with the efficiency levels that other industries have achieved?  BiLT is a "by users, for users" conference.  The speakers are mostly hardened BIM addicts like myself.  We get together and talk about "BIM-wash", unrealistic claims that inflate the expectation of clients.  We hammer our heads against the thorny problem of data standards in a complex and diverse industry.  We used to think that BIM was all about a "single source of truth", a virtual building that coordinates the entire team, from concept design through to building maintenance.  That idea is still valid, but the focus is shifting.  We are starting to accept the fact that different roles require different tools.  What matters most is being able to connect the data.

Imagine a technician maintaining passenger elevators.  They might use a smartphone app to guide them through diagnostic routines and record actions taken.  The elevator company can farm this data and use it to analyse patterns, predict needs.  It could feed into software for stock control, staff training, product development.  Meanwhile, building owners have virtual models of the facilities they operate across the world.  Architects and engineers have models of projects they designed and processes by which decisions were made.  How do we make useful connections between these different data structures and software packages?

There are busy little algorithms that seem to know what adverts to send us on Facebook or LinkedIn, based on our activity on apparently unrelated platforms and services.  Imagine a web of connections between designers, manufacturers, installers and operators.  What might your digital assistant announce if it was plugged into this network?  “Good morning, I have compiled 17 floor plans that illustrate different approaches to the problem you are currently working on.  Would you like to see them?” Or perhaps it would ask, “Did you know that Louis Sullivan designed a building in 1890 that shows remarkable similarities to your current sketch?” Microsoft Word has been making intelligent suggestions to me as I type this article, so why wouldn’t my design software do the same?  It may come sooner than we think.

It’s always important to have some fun in the evenings during a three-day conference.  Our visit to the City Museum in St Louis fitted that bill admirably.  Look it up.  I would describe it as a cross between an art exhibit and an adventure playground.  Sculptor Bob Cassilly took a derelict shoe warehouse and populated it with salvaged architectural and industrial objects. These are combined into structures that you can climb through, slide down, clamber over, or just admire.  In the middle of all this I found an exhibit of terracotta by Sullivan & Elmslie.  What are we to make of architectural ornament in the modern era?  Will 3D printing technology bring swirling leaves and Celtic strapwork back to prominence on building facades?  The seminal essay “Ornament and Crime” by Adolf Loos laid out the case for simplicity as a background to modern life in 1910.  Artists like Picasso and Matisse broke away from realism around the same time.  For the most part Architects remain highly critical of “Historical Pastiche”.  Ornamental detail made sense when it was closely tied to craft skills, when it was a collaboration between architect and artisan.  But in a world of where algorithms and robots construct our cities, where will we find that elusive freshness and vitality.

The closing keynote brought Sabin Howard to the stage, a figurative sculptor in the classical tradition.  His process begins with hand-drawn studies from life and physical manipulation of wet clay. Then it proceeds more mechanically by way of digital scaling and industrial casting.  Finally, there is a return to manual techniques to impart the final surface textures.  There is an important analogy here.  As construction becomes more mechanized and design more computational, where will we find that human touch?  It would be possible to laser-scan the terracotta panels of the Wainwright Building and 3d print them at a variety of scales.  But is that what we want to do with our digital superpowers?

I left St Louis deeply impressed by the spirit of a time when architects and craftsmen worked closely together under the direct inspiration of natural forms.  But I was also thinking about the birth of the skyscraper and the bold simplicity of a huge catenary arch overlooking the Mississippi.  At the back of my mind was a simple question.  How will we maintain the human touch in a digital world?

FLASHBACK TO PORTO

This is another dormant post.  (dating from November 2016)  It's fun for me to look back on what I wrote a few months ago and finish my sentences, so I hope it's also of some interest to other beings out there. Flashback begins here:

I'm back at work now, but still reflecting on a very stimulating two weeks wandering across Europe.  Previous posts dealt with my weekend in Bavaria and the build up to RTC in Porto.  Of course I fell in love with Porto, and though some complained about the venue (distance to hotels, poor wifi) I was more than happy to trade convenience for ambience.  Conferences are primarily about people, so the mood of the moment is critical.  Here is a shot from the riverside terrace of the old customs hall where RTC took place.

There are two beautifully engineered bridges here: one high, soaring concrete curve, spanning the steep banks of the Duoro; one low, sweeping steel curve, skimming over the water. The view is downstream, towards the sea, and behind the chimney (top right) lies a hidden gem of modernist architecture, built in the late 1980s. 

I first became aware of the Faculty of Architecture by Alvaro Siza when I was a mature student, completing my architecture qualifications in Joburg, 25 years ago.  It's a deceptively complex composition, resulting from the careful placement of rectan))gular blocks on a triangular site.  From ground level it seems to be far more irregular than it really is.

The Alfandega Conference Centre is an impressive combination of Metal and Granite, generally vey hard and tough but with the occasional extravagant decorative flourish.  There are tram lines everywhere which were used to transport inported goods on low trolleys to their temporary resting places, awaiting customs clearance.  The floors formed of shallow brick jack-arches spanning between steel joists are typical of fire-proof construction across Europe in the nineteenth century, as are the cast-iron columns.  Everyone I spoke to was intrigued by the little round turntables wherever the tram-lines crossed.

Porto itself is full of tall, narrow houses and steep, cobbled alleyways.  Granite is the predominant material, sometimes plain and square, sometimes intricately carved and curvaceous.  Everywhere there are balcony railings and ceramic tiles, both with infinite variations on decorative themes.  The moorish influence is immediately apparent. 

I had one day to walkabout the old town with an umbrella before plunging into the BCS, a one day event focusing on "content", and bringing together manufacturers, designers and content providers.  This is another little hobby-horse of mine.  I think we should not be focussing on CONTENT as such, but rather on the role of manufacturers in BIM processes, and more particularly on how to enhance existing collaborations between designers and manufacturers using digital tools.  Stefan Larsson of BIM Object gave a very lively keynote address, and the morning sessions generated some heated debate.  It was my second time to meet Stefan, and I do think that BIM Object has made a tremendous impact in terms of alerting manufacturers to BIM.  The BIM Supply initiative that they are about to launch looks especially promising to me and I really do hope it develops into a robust platform for interactive collaboration and data flow.

My contribution was a short "rebuttal" and I used the opportunity to press my case for collaboration platforms, rather than object repositories.  I think it was well received, even though I was denied the use of slides :)  You can see the full version, complete with visuals at my docs.com site here

LINK

The afternoon workshops were a bit of an anticlimax in my view.  I'm not sure why.  Perhaps the initial vision of using a forum like this to develop standards and protocols for object creation is a bit unrealistic.  It's very valuable to bring people together and thrash ideas around, but moving on to formulat concrete proposals may be premature. 

My own position is that we have to get the collaboration processes right first, and that once manufacturers are using BIM-like environments to collaborate with designers they will see the value in continuously refining "BIM objects", in standardising datasets, improving interoperability, etc etc.  As long as BIM objects are just another marketing gimmick they are providing to designers for free, we are not going to make substantial progress.  But if they were to become essential tools for their own Specifications Advisors on the ground in every major city around the world, then I think they would become really motivated to ensure that they were really effective.

So what about RTC ... the last ever RTC as it happens.  Well it's only a name change really, but hopefully will continue the trend of opening up the conference to the wider BIM community.  Personally I find the new BiLT acronym a little clumsy, and the logo ... well it's better than the old one, but I still shudder to think what my good friend Ian (a proper logo designer) would think. 

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding, meaning the quality of the sessions, attendees and interactions.  On that score, RTC Porto was excellent.  You can never entirely predict how the sessions you select will turn out.  I always look for variety, to dabble in areas I might not otherwise consider.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This time I found a couple of the labs really stimulating.  The plenary sessions on day one were good, and the evening events were excellent.  Here's a snip from the keynote address: digital fabrication research.based in Zurich

LINK

People complained about the internet, but for me the ambience more than compensated.  Early evening breakouts by the riverside were just magical.  These conferences are all about the people.  Tips and tricks are svery well, but you can pick those up on the internet.  The value of a really good conference is in the sense of being part of a dynamic community, converging from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds to indulge a shared passion.  The North American conferences are great, but the European flavour is subtly different and I really enjoyed the experience.

I had two sessions to lead, a whistlestop tour of Project Soane, and a Modular Doors Lab.  I enjoyed them both in their different ways and received good feedback.  I'm doing all this for my own benifit, primarily, and at 65 I'm not really looking to enhance my resume or gain international exposure.  But it's nice to be part of a community and to feel that you are contributing something useful.  Obviously I share some common ground with the European BIM/Revit croud, despite having spend more than half my life in Africa and the Middle East.  It's a home-coming of sorts for a self-confessed global citizen.

And of course the gala dinner was a fitting climax, followed by a visit to a little classic of modern architecture the next morning.  Thanks again Porto, see you in Singapore next month, and perhaps in Arhus later in the year.

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CURTAINS FOR AARHUS

I don't know much about Aarhus.  Didn't know anything until it was announced as the next venue at the conclusion of RTC Europe in Porto.  I won some free accommodation in a not-very-serious quiz at the end of the Building Content Summit (if they remember) which has enticed me into submitting a couple of abstracts.  More to the point, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at my first European version of the event and made some good friends.  No longer RTC of course, this will be the first BiLT Europe, rebranding to reflect a broadening audience, with a somewhat improved logo.

Arhus means "River Mouth" apparently and the town has Viking origins. Turns out to be Denmark's second largest city, with Scandinavia's largest University and a massive container port. I'm looking forward to drinking in some Scandinavian atmosphere, assuming it works out.  Perhaps I will manage a day or two in Copenhagen also, some buildings there I would love to see.  And of course every culture has its own quirks in terms of building techniques and styles: the way these have been expressed over the years.  Always inspiring to visit a new city with a few hundred years of cultural history behind it.

Conferences give me a motivation to explore something more thoroughly and in more depth than I might otherwise do, and I usually try to do something significantly different each time. Over the past year or so I have had some interesting challenges using Revit's Curtain Wall tool, and I realise that I would like to undertake a more systematic review of its capabilities and quirks.

Overlaying an element of randomness onto a regular grid is a simple but effective architectural maneuver, with obvious relevance to the Curtain Wall tool.  I've really enjoyed trying out different approaches to this, and look forward to sharing my experiences.  Nothing fancy, just basic Family Editor stuff with a sprinkling of lateral thinking. 

Revisiting a project to prepare a presentation usually throws up new ideas. 
You wouldn't expect to use curtain walls on Project Soane, but there are many internal areas where he used a finish that imitates stone courses with recessed joints, so I've been experimenting with curtain panels that mimic various tiling patterns.  Fill patterns with matching render appearances are all very well, but sometimes you want to express the 3 dimensionality of the joints in shaded views.

I've had several goes at the Mushrabiya Screen in the past, with varying degrees of success.  Last week I put a couple of ideas together with a slightly different twist.  The result is a very flexible modular system for generating new scalable patterns, rapidly and reliably. It's my best attempt so far, and subject to further development over the next few months.

I worked on a project last year which is just coming back to life again.  Not going to reveal any specific details, but it involves insulated panel walls that slope and curve.  All this is half-hidden behind a slatted screen which is not yet modelled, our scope is the interior fit-out, so I've been modelling someone else's design as context for ours.  It was an interesting challenge and I'll be sharing my solution for what it's worth.  Something of a hybrid, but it does the job.

I've also been giving some support to teams doing concept designs for residential developments.  My contribution has mostly been to develop families that facilitate rapid mocking-up of external façade ideas.  One of the techniques I am playing with involves using the curtain wall tool to model both structural frame and infill treatments.  It shows some potential, at early concept stage, when things are still very fluid. 

I've also done some work, at the request of another colleague, on ways to model junctions of mullions with shaped sections that give better close-up results than the
default "square cut-off".  Again, it's early days and I will be exploring this further before venturing towards the land of the Vikings.

And to conclude this post, I have also been exploring the use of curtain walls to represent timber panelling.  Not so sure about this one.  I think it will only really pay off where there is a lot of regularity and repetition.  Shaping and cutting around doorways, windows, fireplaces etc. is a bit of a nightmare.  Still it's an interesting challenge to stretch the capabilities of the tool.

My second abstract also involves an in-depth study of a particular Revit category: Planting.  But that will be another post.

TRIPTIX

I am in Porto, having spent a fascinating weekend in Bavaria with my old, young friend Bernhard and his gorgeous family.  Along the way I was lucky enough to get a special tour (available once a year) of the Zeppelin Fields structures which a certain Mr Hitler used for spectacular propaganda events some 80 years ago.  I actually did a simple massing model of this as part of my research into colossal scale in the build up to my final pumpkin project in 2014

 

The tour gave some fascinating insights into how it was actually built, as well as a peek into the intriguing dilemma of how to set about "restoring" or at least maintaining a monument with such a terrifying history.  I won't go into that now, but it would be very interesting to do a bit more modelling and to talk about the moral issues involved in historic/heritage projects.  Many of the monuments we revere and hold up as symbols of national pride were built for oppressive regimes using something close to slave labour, but we tend to forget that if it was more than 1000 years ago.

 

Here's a shot of one of the areas that is very rarely accessible to the public.  This is the back door lobby where Adolf was supposed to gather his before mounting the podium, but apparently it was never really used because the fuhrer preferred to drive up in front of his audience and be seen to walk up the steps.

 

 

Returning briefly to my Desert Pumpkin work of 2014, here is an image that references the Cathedral of Light spectacle that Albert Speer devised to instill shock and awe in the assembled party faithful.  Searchlights defining space on a monumental scale.  I did this by processing images derived from Revit in Photoshop.  Would it be possible to mimic this kind of spectacular lighting directly in the rendering engine I wonder?  Another little experiment to while away a future weekend perhaps.

 

 

My title is a confused reference to the "Tips & Tricks" sheets that we have to prepare as part of our speaker submissions for RTC.  I tend to rebel against this aspect of the event.  It's not really my thing.  My "classes" tend to be less about teaching specific skills and more an opportunity for my to ramble on about my current obsessions.  Some attendees love it, others find my sessions irrelevant to the serious business of furthering their BIM careers.  It takes all sorts, or at least that's my excuse.

 

But I stumbled across my slides from the Washington event, and I thought it might be nice to put them in a blog post in the build up to RTC PORTO.

 

This one is actually quite conventional.  A genuine tip almost, and I should credit Marcello for setting my mind thinking along these lines by highlighting the ability of splines to do "scaling" work during one of his sessions that I attended.  Was that in Auckland?  How time flies.

 

The next one is more typical of me.  It's a tip I guess, but veering off in the direction of philosophical  guidance as opposed to technical hints.

 

 

 

It's time to head off for breakfast now, so I'll pause here and press the "publish" button.  If you are in Porto, please look out for me and say hello.  The most exciting part of the event as far as I am concerned is meeting friends old and new, sharing worldviews and such like.