Architecture As A Spectator Sport - The 3D CADD
Design Shootout 1997
Ever wonder what it would be like to have an audience of hundreds of your
colleagues looking over your shoulder as you work watching every mousestroke
you do, with a running commentator in the background, and even cheering
as you pop up a perspective of a particularly nice alternate solution ?
In November, at a major premier event being held the first day of Build
Boston, about sixty architects are going to find out what that experience
is like. The AIA Computer Aided Practice, and the BSA have the privilege
of being sponsors of a repeat of last year's immensely successful Designers
3D CADD Shootout, and this year promises to be even more spectacular than
last.
You may wonder how our usually rather subdued architectural profession could
really hold an audiences interest. However, with the right formula, other
activities which were formerly referred to as "as interesting as watching
grass grow", such as golf, yacht racing, and even engineering have
all become exciting televised events (remember those MIT competitions where
the students build robots to collect tennis balls ?). The key here for architecture
is in forcing a design challenge with an incredible number of requirements
to be done in a ridiculously small amount of time (remember the ARE ?),
with design requirements changing every few minutes so the audience can
see the competitors solve their way out of one problem after another. The
other key to making this an interesting event to be a spectator at, is that
the designs schemes are all required to be shown in 3D perspectives, and
have walk through animations, in addition to all the plans, sections, and
elevations -- all this possible only recently with the best of the virtual
reality architectural CADD systems that our profession has just begun to
use.
Now there have been shootouts for CAD systems in the past, ostensibly demonstrations
by computer vendors each replicating the same 2D drawing and counting the
time or the keystrokes to determine the winners, but these drafting exercises
did not reflect a large part of what architects do. The difference with
the Design Shootout is that emphasis on 3D design by Teams of architects
who are advocates of their particular architectural CADD system. In fact,
to make sure there was a clear break and avoid those "canned demos"
and possible misrepresentation, in the first Design Shootout the software
companies weren't even allowed to participate, as we wanted to see real
architects putting their various CADD programs through their paces.
Some companies now show extraordinarily complex designed buildings, such
as Corbu's Ronchamps, as evidence of how far the modeling capabilities have
come with their CADD software. They all seem to claim how easy to use their
software is, and how there are numerous auto-roof design, auto-stair design,
auto-space planning, and so on, to help us design. Most of the new generation
of architectural CADD design software is oriented towards a new paradigm
- that of developing a comprehensive 3D CADD model which becomes the source
for all the plans, sections, elevations, and details, all in an automatically
coordinated way (rather than merely 2D drafting each drawing on screen as
many CADD offices do now), and, as a side benefit, there are 3D perspectives
and walkthroughs possible. This new paradigm of the comprehensive 3D CADD
model heralds the beginning of several new automatic abilities, such as
automatic cost analysis, energy analysis, space planning, facilities management,
structural analysis, and even building code checking, and, as such, could
possibly mean a major change for our architectural profession.
If architectural firms are being asked to change a mode of working that
has proved successful for hundreds of years - that of designers sketching
and redlining, and drafters producing drawings - to a very different one,
where designers dynamically build in a sort of virtual reality with continual
feedback on design issues and where the production drawings are created
automatically - then a paradigm change that severe needs to really prove
itself first. We really didn't encounter this issue before, since the initial
uses of CADD in our offices were really only electronic drafting in the
old paradigm.
Thus, there is a need for us all to see, side by side, a comparison of these
powerful design systems that could overturn our profession, and to see some
colleagues really put them through their paces and find out how easy it
really is to do real design on computer. Sure, some of what we may see are
the abilities of one designer over another, but that only adds to the fun.
In the World Trade Center Amphitheater, some twelve Teams of architects,
each representing one of the premier 3D architectural CADD systems, will
compete while an audience watches as an enormous projection screen switches
from Team to Team. Each Team has two architects on stage working with networked
systems (so we can see how well they can collaborate) with a third architect
whose job is only to speak to the audience to tell us what is going on.
They have four hours to complete an unknown design project and to produce
floor plans, sections, elevations, 3D details, 12 perspectives, 2 high quality
renderings, at least one animation walk-through, a VRML virtual reality
model ready for the Web, and more. Additionally, at certain intervals design
criteria changes are announced that we want to see how they accommodate.
Each Team then needs to give a 5 to 10 minute presentation on their design.
Despite the demanding requirements and the absurdly short time, almost all
of the eight Teams that competed in 1996 finished the project, in fact one
Team finished early (MiniCAD), another produced two animations not just
one (ArchiCAD), and yet another produced eight photorealistic renderings
not just two (Arris). The enthralled spectators came from 11 countries and
35 states, and the results have been lauded in several architectural magazines.
So far, there have been Teams proposed representing ArchT, AutoArchitect,
ArchiCAD Teamwork, AllPlan, Architrion, DataCAD, MiniCAD, Pro-Reflex, TriForma,
Arris (last year's overall winner), and possibly Speedikon, AP Design, and
ChiefArchitect.
During the event spectators will also see detailed information about each
of the architectural CADD programs, interviews with the developers of the
software, get advice on hardware, operating systems, management, tips and
tricks, user groups, Web sites, and learn more in a single exciting day
than is possible anywhere else.
The Designers 3D CADD Shootout for Architectural CADD Systems will be Tuesday
November 18, from 9a to 3p at Build Boston. Reserve your spectator tickets
with the BSA early, as seating is limited.
Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
May 27, 1997