User and Group-Centric Design Technology

Image from: MxR, Mixed Reality Model Interaction

My focus and interest is on building interfaces and interactions around design behavior. Human-Computer Interaction built on emerging interfaces is only compelling and useful if centered around the tasks that make design a rich and nuanced activity: discussion, sketching, modeling, and testing hypotheses. Building new design technologies may lead to novel design modalities, but they must not sacrifice traditional behaviors; rather they must extend and augment them.

Building Information Modeling

as Design Prototyping

Modeling for the sake of modeling is like a zero-calorie diet: it might make you feel full but, in reality, it's lacking substance. I approach any BIM more as a prototype than as a database. It may serve as both, but any database is only as good as its organization and query mechanism. Building a model as a prototype moves focus where it is needed: while the aim is the "whole building," we should never forget that digital models are only representations.

Interoperability

and Digital Agility

The right tool for the job...for the right phase...with the right team....with the right collaborators...and the right contract structure...and the right _____ (insert qualifying statement). Whatever ends up filling in the blank, digital agility requires great interoperability, whether out-of-the-box, or as a customized, project-centric solution. I have spent more time than I care to admit learning what tools do and do not do: what software APIs do (and don't support) support. I have learned that streamlining a process is only possible if a stream already runs. For those cases where new ground must be broken: that's where agile interoperability is crucial.

Beyond BIM

Making use of good representations.

Despite the high-fallutin' BIM perspective, I have always enjoyed getting my hands dirty in an actual model where compromise and cleverness go a long way. There's a lot of "use-voodoo" that comes with using tools day in and day out. Learning software APIs is one thing, but using the tools well takes practice. The only way to go beyond BIM is to go through BIM.

Modeling for a Reason

Getting the most from a model.

Wringing the most out of a model - once you have it - is where the fun begins. (Not to say that modeling itself can't be fun, but really!) Slicing and dicing a model to get implicit information - the sort that allow for simulation, fabrication, and coordination - is as important as extracting the explicit information stored in a schedule or a view. Once you have gone through this process of modeling for simulation or fabrication, it's hard to model without a goal in mind.

BIM and Coordination

Bottom-up and Top-down

At the end of the day, buildings need to get built. As interesting as the translation mechanisms are from BIM to Building, no amount of automation - at least not in the nearish future - is going to relieve the fact that coordination and communication are key ingredients to any process that is reasonably complex. As with any complex process, there are going to be conflicts and resolutions...my favorite aspect of building prototypes is how they serve as a context for communication and coordination.

Parametric Approaches

Designing with change in mind.

At LMN, I introduced the firm to parametric approaches to design. Parametric tools - such as Grasshopper or Generative Components - require designers and teams to think in a different way about the nature of both their design representations and the solutions to the problems they create. Let's face it: a design is only as interesting as the problem it creates...and parametric approaches to design engender the best problems: ones that change.

Parametric Knowledge Community

LMN Architects - Intranet Site

Created, maintained, and contributed to the LMN Intranet Knowledge Community on Parametric Design. With Scott Crawford and Chris Grammens.

Simulation and Analysis

for all phases of the design process.

Responsible for GreenBIM, Simulation and Analysis initiatives at LMN Architects. Served as a firm-wide advocate for the methods and technologies necessary to performing early and iterative design simulation on architectural projects. Specific focus on daylighting simulation, airflow modeling (CFD), weather, climate, and thermal analysis.

Simulation Knowledge Community

LMN Architects - Intranet Site

Created, maintained, and contributed to the LMN Intranet Knowledge Community on GreenBIM, Simulation, and Analysis.

High-end Visualization

Skills, tools and infrastructure.

I have always loved computer graphics, special effects, and animation. I have experience setting up the software (rendering engines) and hardware (purpose built servers and VMs) underpinning network-based Renderfarms. I have experience deploying MentalRay, VRay, and Radiance to cloud-based infrastructures such as Amazon EC2 - even in the Linux environment. Additionally, I have deployed, maintained, and supported the software and hardware necessary to post-processing high-end visualizations: video-editing, matchmoving, compositing, encoding, and content delivery (CDNs).

Visualization Knowledge Community

LMN Architects - Intranet Site

Created, maintained, and contributed to the LMN Intranet Knowledge Community on Visualization, Rendering, and Animation.