New Expression, New Profession: An Architect's Journey with Software Tools

N E W E X P R E S S I O N
N E W P R O F E S S I O N

© 2008 DNM Architect • REV: 11/18/08 1


ABOUT THE Author...
Writing well is usually not easy for an architect, and writing honestly
really tough for someone who has spent a dozen years in the software
industry. It’s not exactly that we lie; we lie inexactly. Exciting ideas
come and go so quickly that we sometimes blur the articulation of a
new idea with the rationalization for an already obsolete idea. In both
technology and architecture, we spawn and then we spin. It's a bad
habit.

This disclaimer, coupled with a few biographical milestones below,
disclose my double handicap as an architect who worked more than a
decade in the software business and came out the other end as an
architect.

After receiving my M.Arch from Georgia Tech in 1982, I started
practice in Atlanta working for a small firm that specialized in small to
medium size residential and commercial projects. We bought our first
CAD system in 1985 for the sole purpose of qualifying to compete for
some library work. The best ROI we could achieve for this investment
was to turn it off and lock it in the closet. Even then, I understood that
technology was just a practical means to another end.

I went to Europe for three months in 1986 and managed to stay 6
years, falling into the CAD software business. I remained in the
software business as president of Graphisoft US for an additional 7
years in the US before returning to a conventional practice in a less
conventional place using less conventional methods in 1999.

Today, DNM Architect is a 4 person firm focused on residential
projects and using software tools that I was fortunate to play some role
in forming as well as new tools that are continually evolving and
becoming practical to use.



SOFTWARE Tools
Any explanation of a 3d-based or “integrated” architectural practice is highly conditioned by the actual
software being used by the practitioner. In theory, it should not be this way. A contractor acquires a
common screwdriver to drive a standard screw and a simple hammer to drive a nail, but an architect
cannot acquire and learn new software for every individualized the task within a project. Software is
complex, fast-changing, and expensive, and there is surprisingly little standardization among available
products (or among their customers!).
As a result, architectural firms – and all companies using specialized software – make tough choices
about which tools to invest in, and, to varying degrees, these tools in turn mold the firm. It may be too
much to say, “the tail is wagging the dog,” but there is generally a balance of influence between the the
tool and the tool's owner.
This is a long-winded way of saying that the qualities and limitations of the actual software used by the
architect are relevant to understanding the architect's work, practice, efficiency and outlook. Few
people outside of the architecture world can understand those qualities and limits (and few people
inside as well), but they are very influential nonetheless.
• CAD : ArchiCAD
• ENERGY ANALYSIS: Ecotect, Radiance, CFD
• ENERGY DOCUMENTATION: Energy Pro
• VISUALIZATION: Artlantis Studio
• WEB DESIGN: Adobe Dreamweaver
• COMMUNICATION: Adobe Acrobat


Preface
Architecture is unique as a profession and body of knowledge because only architecture approaches
societal issues as fundamental problems of geometry. While others make law, medicine, music, and
words, we make places. That doesn’t solve every problem, but neither does a new law, policy or drug.
The particular type of three-dimensional knowledge embodied by architects, balancing both humanism
and science, is more important to society and has greater application than merely the design and
documentation of new buildings. If architecture goes away as a profession (and we know from history
that entire bodies of knowledge can disappear) or becomes trivialized until no one appreciates the
difference between a great place to live and a clever teapot, then society will have lost a profound
body of knowledge, a portal to solving some of its deepest problems, and a last vestige of detached
three-dimensional problem solving.
“Longitude” by Dava Sobel is an excellent book that describes the quest for a device to accurately
measure longitude while at sea. Prior to having such a device, sailors never knew precisely where they
were or where they were going. It is stunning to think now that all of the great explorers and
mariners before the late eighteenth century were fundamentally lost and that they even knew they
were lost (how did they spin that to their sponsors?). But, it is even more stunning to think that their
knowledge of their own ignorance did not stop them from setting sail on ever more ambitious
adventures, so great was the potential reward for the shrewd and the lucky.
I hope there is a parallel between architecture's current condition – in fact, it's condition for the past
15 years - and this period a few centuries ago when basically everyone in the world was either lost on
the ocean or stuck on the land. The risks, rewards and rationalizations were all great, and the price of
doing the wrong thing seemed to be exceeded only by the price of doing nothing.
As other mariners before us, without the benefit of a sure architectural longitude, we choose to set
sail towards new architectural practices because we are sure that sitting on the dry land of past
practice while it slowly sinks beneath us is folly. Our premise is that architects should be embracing
and designing(!) new technologies to re-think their fundamental roles in the planning, design,
construction, communication, and maintenance of buildings, but also that this technology is just a
vessel to carry the architect safely from one place to another. While the vessel can be grand and
complex and overwhelming, it is always just a means to another end. For us, that end is building better
and practicing more efficiently and effectively so that we, as architects, can touch more buildings and
play a greater role in planning and building all that is around us.


Preface...
While it is important to appreciate the stakes for architects, a fate of obsolescence is neither inevitable
nor even likely. Every treatise about the profession since Vitruvius has probably stated or implied,
“there are great challenges facing architects today,” and they are all true. Every creative mind knows
that challenge is also opportunity, however. Technology unlocks opportunities even as it pushes
architectural design towards becoming a commodity and empowers competing professionals to
encroach on the architect’s traditional authority. Technology empowers, de-mystifies, popularizes and
transforms. The Internet, World Wide Web, 3D modeling, databases, and many other technologies
available to architects are available to everyone and are transforming society and its expectations of
what constitutes acceptable services from ALL professions. Architects must find their place in this new
world because the old world is gone, but their holistic three-dimensional thinking and problem solving
skills are just as valuable.
I don't take the approach of passively analyzing architectural practice; I prefer to assert a position and
recommend a course of actions rather than shallowly survey all options. Sigfried Gideon said in Space,
Time and Architecture: “Only when one is permeated by the spirit of his own time is he prepared to
detect those tracts of the past which previous generations have overlooked.” Experiences with specific
software and companies inevitably shapes anyone's expertise and color his or her output, but they are
prerequisite to speaking with authority and imagining the future.
Technology lets us express architecture differently and express different architecture. We can build
walls on a computer rather than draft lines, simulate buildings over time instead of documenting
construction sets, shop for building products rather than edit specification templates, and lead the
building process from early design through the building’s entire life cycle. Our clients expect and
welcome this new expression and level of service. And, from our new expression we can re-define a
new profession.

David Marlatt, AIA
San Francisco, CA
July 2008


DESIGN Process
The best practice in the world will not make a difference if it
does not yield architecture.
You are
Fundamentally, no matter what technology anyone uses, the here
creative process does not change, nor should it. Creativity is
an iterative progression of discovery and design is its product.
This is true for architecture, music, painting and writing this
paragraph.

When we think about integration and technology, therefore,
we are also trying to integrate new technology with very old
and humanistic ideas about how thought turns into tangible
work. This kind of integration is more important than the
typical data integration of the architect's bits with the
consultant's bytes.


DESIGN Process
Technology and a 3D-based design practice do not increase
creativity, but they do accelerate the process. This
You are
acceleration helps us look at more options and design here
iterations in a shorter time span so that – hopefully - we can
make better choices by having greater choice. Making the best
design decisions transcends technology, however, and still
requires traditional architectural core values of holistic
thinking, building knowledge and balanced judgment.
As in all creative fields, software can accelerate the design
process, but not determine the right outcome. Without
experienced architectural training, this acceleration means
that really bad decisions can be made and built really, really
fast.


DESIGN Practice ... theory
In 1995, while working at Graphisoft (developers of ArchiCAD), I published an
article entitled, “New Business in the Information Age,” that speculated on the
impact of a 3D based design process on architectural practice. The article
began:

“Architectural software has evolved from an "automator" of two-dimensional drafting
to a three-dimensional simulator of building. Architect using this new breed of CAD
software are quickly becoming the creators and caretakers of virtual buildings, and as
a consequence seeing their roles in the building process continue after the occupancy Traditional
permit is issued. As a result of this ability to construct a “virtual building” on a Practice
desktop computer - to simulate the building's behavior both before it is built and
throughout its life cycle - fundamental changes are taking place in the architect's
design process, fee structure, and relationship with the client, contractor and the
community. In addition to transforming the architect's own practice, ownership of the
3D computer model carries important competitive advantages in procuring all future
work associated with the same building.”

To help illustrate this transformation, the bar chart above shows the four
traditional stages of architectural design practice that has evolved since the mid SCHEMATIC DESIGN DEV'T CD CA
19th century and is still reflected in the classic AIA contract for design services.

The staff time of an architectural practice that drafts on paper (if any remain)
or uses 2D drafting software (still the most prevalent), follows the bar chart
pretty closely. This is unsurprising, since the bar chart and the AIA contracts
both evolved as reflections of current practice.


The article further stated, “architects have been using their computers for the
past 25 years to automate drafting, which is a logical first step to introduce new
technology in any profession. But, architects in the next 20 years will simulate
buildings. This nuance presents the profession of architecture with its most
incredible opportunity to define itself since architects stopped cutting cathedral
stones 400 years ago and started drafting.”

Integrated 3D CAD software (such as Graphisoft's ArchiCAD or
Autodesk's Revit) introduce both opportunity and challenge into the
traditional design practice bar chart. They impose additional effort early in
3D Based Traditional
the process to develop 3D models and add design detail that paper
Practice Practice
sketches don't normally require. Architects are challenged to figure out
how to finance or get paid for this extra effort.

But, these efforts should more than pay off with reduced cost to produce
CDs as well as greater accuracy and, hopefully, better architecture because
more fee is reserved for the fun and creative part of the process.

Looking back on my 8 years of practice (that's 54 dog years for the
software industry) I see some interesting trends in how my own firm really
operates using an intensely 3D-modeling based process.
SCHEMATIC DESIGN DEV'T CD CA


We still identify four basic boxes of activities, but their relative proportions
have changed.

In reality, we begin all projects with A LOT of analysis. We built 3D as-built
models of terrain and existing buildings, we download GIS data, perform
sun studies, research products, and more.

Next, the old line between schematic and Design Development is
effectively gone in our firm. We might “declare” a schematic design phase
complete if called for by our contract, but this is not an internal milestone
marked by a change from one media or file to another. There is continuum
of design from analysis to abstract to specific and detailed.

CD's are still a distinct effort because this is represents paper output
required for permits and constructions. This is an arcane reality that we
will have to live with for many more years, but clearly the effort to produce
these documents is drastically reduced because of both the added
ANALYSIS DESIGN DOCUMENT MANY THINGS
specificity of the 3D model and the thinking and problem solving required
by our integrated 3D design process.

Lastly, the phase we used to call contract administration still includes that ,
but we find ourselves to do more because we master the 3D model,
including renderings for sales purposes, design changes, millwork, etc...


DESIGN Practice ... reality
If we overlay our advancing design loops on the theoretical practice curve,
naturally, the true complexity of being a practicing architect begins to
reveal itself...

ANALYSIS DESIGN DOCUMENT MANY THINGS



WHAT IS “ Integrated”?

DATA

•3D Model •Finished •Specs
•CD's Rendering •T24 Docs
•Visualization •Energy •Admin. docs
•Schedules Analysis
•Other
Analysis

KNOWLEDGE

ALL PROJECT INFORMATION



SOME Projects
Seven projects will illustrate some of the ways that our practice really practices integrated design.

Private School Remodel
San Francisco Bay House
Oakland House
Sonoma House
Hillsborough House
TCI Lane Ranch Community
River Valley Ranch House



RAPID Remodel
LYCÉE FRANÇAIS LA PÉROUSE
DNM was the design architect and project
manager for this school remodel. The
building is a 1928 registered city landmark
in San Francisco and former home of the
Conservatory of Music. We had to get
through Conditional Use Permits, Change
of Occupancy, Landmark review and the
fire department in a very short time. The
budget was typically tight. There were no
capital campaign or major donors to draw
from. Moreover, because the school was
growing so fast, it was already occupying
part of the building with 6 elementary
school classes while the project was going
on.
Because the school was growing and depending
on the additional space for the upcoming
school year, missing the deadline was
NOT an option.
Conversion of 44,000sf landmark to a middle/high
school for 250+ étudiants for the Lyçée
Français La Pérouse
…in under eight months
18 months from acquisition to occupancy
…on a tight budget
No capital campaign
…with children still inside
Opened six 3rd - 5th grade classes for
© 2009 DNM Architect • REV: 06/26/09 2006/2007 year 14


IN THE Beginning...
3D As-built model is foundation for
EVERYTHING.
Four decades of drawings + field measurements
Almost before the school even closed on the sale
of the building, we started a large effort to
collect and digitize four decades of
drawings, make field measurements and
build a robust 3D as-built model.
This model unified all of the drawings sets into
one place and served for both space
analysis and as a communication tool for
both parents and teachers.



FIRST Schematics
3D views + linked schedules to track design vs. the
program.
We developed the first schemes immediately through modeling and were
able to simultaneously show our ideas in 3D and track them against
a very precise design program.



ENVELOPE Analysis

GOAL: Meet LEED Criteria
TOOLS: ArchiCAD + Energy Pro
The project was registered for LEED certification with the intention for
LEED Gold. Budget and time constraints prevented going forward
with LEED certification, but our analysis of the building envelope
using Energy Pro concluded that the envelope would have passed this
initial criteria.



ACCESS TO VIEW Analysis

GOAL: Meet LEED criteria
TOOLS: ArchiCAD, Ecotect
Another analysis for LEED using ArchiCAD and Ecotect showed that the
building would meet the 90% threshold for view access.



LIGHTING Analysis
GOAL: Size and locate fixtures
TOOLS: ArchiCAD, Ecotect, Radiance
The electrical subcontract was design/build so DNM was effectively
the lighting designer for the project. Ecotect and Radiance were
used in the major spaces to analyze the natural light coming into
the space and to assure that artificial light would be correctly
located.



LIGHTING Analysis
GOAL: Size and locate fixtures
TOOLS: ArchiCAD, Ecotect, Radiance
The lighting analysis illustrated the areas in the library that needed artificial
light and provided the verification that the specified fixtures would
provide even light throughout.



RESOURCE Center
• Maintain project web site as a repository of all
relevant information
• Dominant formats: PDF & JPEG
• Nearly instant behavior change across team
• Information integration through the Internet
While not directly a “green” feature, integration is critical across both the
model and the team. DNM creates and maintains a project web site
for every project from small remodels to large school projects.
The web site is a repository for all of the information needed by the entire
project team, and all of the information is typically provided in Jpeg
and PDF formats, the lowest common denominator formats viewable
by anyone with a computer.
DNM does not share its BIM model with consultants, primarily because no
one has ever expressed interest. DNM and its consultants regularly
share DWG and PDF files, however, which serve as underlays for
each others files.
The obstacles to sharing BIM files are not primarily technical, but cultural
and practical. Like DNM, all of its consultants want to completely
master all of the information for which they are responsible, and this
mastery comes primarily through authoring one's own files.



THE Results
• Project web site is
repository of all relevant
information
• Dominant formats: PDF &
JPEG
• Nearly instant behavior
change across team

Thanks to Turner Construction Co., the project opened on time and on
budget on September 4, 2007. All of the occupants, teachers, students and
parents, remain very happy with the result. This harmony is remarkable for
any academic institution, and even more so for a French academic
institution.



THE Results

Meeting the deadline and budget are partial causes for this satisfaction, but
the very early and persistent 3D visualization can also be credited
because it helped the staff “visit” their new school long before it was
complete. Because 3D images are a common language, everyone felt
that they participated in the design of their department and felt
additional ownership of the design when it finally opened.


MODEL Lives

On
Use model for many purposes
– Fundraising
– Furniture layout and design
– Future theatre renovation
– Ongoing remodels and F.M.

The 3D model lives on as a tool for fund raising projects, regular
remodeling, furniture and millwork design and a planned theater
renovation. The initial investment in the robust 3D model has
completely paid off and will produce benefits for years to come.



SOME Experiences
Five projects will illustrate some of the ways that our practice really practices
integrated design.
• LFLP Private School Remodel
• Walsh Residence Custom House
• Tree Farm Solar Access Study
• TCI Ranch Conceptual Modeling
• River Valley Ranch Spec. House



SONOMA Home
WALSH RESIDENCE

New single level home + 2nd dwelling unit
…great EAST facing views
– Neighbors to north and south
…on a tight budget
– Comparable with purchase price of existing homes
…with no air conditioning (!)
– Incorporates ventilation and cool plenum strategies

This house should begin construction in August 2008.



SONOMA Home
The three keys to the design were
- controlling the East facing glass because capturing the view to the
town of Sonoma was – understandably - a non-negotiable
requirement from the client.
- providing enough cross ventilation and other cooling strategies to
preclude the need for air conditioning in this hot arid environment.
- integrating ample solar panels for both electricity generation and hot
water production into the architecture.



SONOMA Home
GOAL: Provide cross ventilation
with fewest dead spots
TOOLS: ArchiCAD, WinAir,
Ecotect



SONOMA Home
In addition to using cross ventilation strategies, the house sits on an
insulated plenum using insulated concrete forms, or ICFs, with
floor registers that can be adjusted to draw relatively cooler
air through the plenum and into the house. The air is
exhausted through operable clerestory windows above the
living room.



SONOMA Home
It was obvious that the south facing unobstructed roofs would be the
best place for solar collectors, but these analyses helped
determine the size of the solar array and the budget. The
roofs will hold both photo-voltaic and hot water collectors.



SONOMA Home
GOAL: Get it built!
TOOLS:ArchiCAD &
Artlantis Studio



HILLSBOROUGH Home
This “virtual” house in Hillsborough, CA, is designed for a real family on a real piece of land for a real
budget. The house should become real itself sometime in 2008, but its long birthing process
from a mere gleam in its owners’ eyes to a fundamental part of their lives and portfolio, tells a
story of the power of residential architecture – the perfect cocktail of self indulgent physical
comfort, sensible long term investment, and immortality - to drive otherwise reasonable people
to overcome unreasonable physical, emotional, financial and bureaucratic obstacles to build.

Architecture’s seductive power is so pervasive it is banal, as more than one million new homes are
built each year in the US and countless more are renovated or redecorated. Whether large,
small or in motion from one to the other, every architectural voyage begins with an itch and
piece of a dream. The persistent client will not stop at the builder’s pre-built home or the
realtor’s fixer-upper, but will land at the door step or the inbox of an architect. The architect’s
ultimate mission is to translate the client's dreams into functioning and elegant shape. “Functioning and
elegant” are very broadly defined, however, to include obvious items like the arrangement of rooms and
“prettiness,” to more elusive concepts such as functioning within the local legal framework through codes
and regulations, and elegantly engaging physical properties like gravity (really important for
architecture!), sun angles, and views.



HILLSBOROUGH Home
This particular house will be embedded in a north facing steep slope with views towards the San
Francisco Bay. Its long shape respects the existing site contours and its low, broad, roof
respects the height limits established by the town. Its major views are towards the north, but it
also looks south to capture the sun’s heat passively through protected glass and provide ample
cross ventilation. In response to the inherent expense of working on a steep slope and the
town’s restrictions, the house will be partially pre-constructed in a factory with structural
insulated panels (SIPS) that will be placed with a light crane in a faction of the time required for
so-called conventional framing. The SIPS panels also save energy, use fewer materials and waste,
and create a more tightly sealed and precisely built house. A lap pool on the south side of the
house integrates with the interior space and extends the house’s living room into the south
sunken garden.

Consistent with his or her training, clients often abstractly convey their needs as problems of finance,
schedule, process, lifestyle, and fulfillment. Architecture approaches all challenges, however, as
physical problems of space, light and order. Although an architectural solution is not ultimately
the best answer to every problem, an architectural approach can cast any problem in its unique
three-dimensional light and provoke many alternative responses. Because the common
denominator of all problems, be they financial, schedule, legal or physical, is some kind of
building part, seemingly disparate problems can be integrated into single clear solutions that
convey lasting meaning on many levels – precisely because they solve multiple problems
simultaneously.



HILLSBOROUGH Home

More than the evident concrete nature of … well, concrete, architecture’s durability as an art in our
culture and its capacity to seduce, inspire and obsess, comes from the never-sated satisfaction
of drawing multiple meaning from a single shape. Buildings are perpetually re-written books.
Architecture can simultaneously be equal parts of the past, the present and an aspiration of the
future. A single building can silently evoke the glory of war, the bankruptcy of a society, the
simple need for shelter, and the standard by which we measure and define ourselves, personally
and collectively. At the personal level of the home, such as this home in Hillsborough, it can
trace the arc of a successful family and leave a legacy for others to draw their own meanings …
and hire their own architects.



SOME Experiences
• LFLP Private School Remodel
• Walsh Residence Custom House
• Tree Farm Solar Access Study
• TCI Ranch Conceptual Modeling
• River Valley Ranch Spec. House



CONCEPT Development
89 home community in Colorado
on the former
TCI Lane Ranch.
… Net Zero development
– Photo Voltaic “solar farm”
– Active and passive strategies

… Wetland preservation
– 28 acre conservation easement
– Minimal footprint

… “It's all about the land...”



CONCEPT Development
Trees | Water | Earth | Sky



CONCEPT Development
Low site impact
Diverse community & architecture



CONCEPT Development



CONCEPT Development
Fit models to site



CONCEPT Development
Develop green strategies and
features.
Anticipate off-site fabrication



PROTO Spec
Whole house exhaust
Prototype spec. home in Colorado's
River Valley Ranch
Vertical thermal
community. mass Controlled
Sun Box to re-circulate air and natural light
protect collectors... 2K PV
system & 350 gallon HW
system... Passive heating & Shared light &
cross ventilation
cooling... Calculated glazing,
overhangs and mass... Cross Air filtering
venting and whole house plants (IAQ)
Harvested
exhaust … Modular wood
Construction... Adheres to
strict green product spec...
Radiant heated floor + mass
Reduces waste



PROTO Spec
Existing community with strict
theme-based design standards
Outstanding South-facing view
towards Mt. Sopris



PROTO Spec
Everything is counted



PROTO Spec
Details linked to, and stored
with, CAD model


New Expression, New Profession: An Architect's Journey with Software Tools

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