The AIA National Convention, and the Concept of Proto-Building

Launching the AECbytes publication schedule for this month is a Viewpoint article by Stephen C. Wright, Design Principal of the architecture and planning firm, Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company. Four years ago, the firm created a strategic technology committee to see what leading firms were doing to improve project delivery. This was born from a high degree of frustration with the technology it had at that time, from CAD to communications, which seemed inefficient at a time when clients were demanding more in less time. In this article, Wright, who chaired the firm’s strategic technology committee, reflects on the changes that have restored the firm’s operational excellence.

We then turn to Boston where a series of conferences is being held in conjuction with the AIA National Convention and Expo. In addition to the main convention, there is the AIA TAP conference as well as the DMVC (Design Modeling and Visualization Conference), which this year featured a number of presentations related to BIM by leading firms such as Gensler, WATG, and SOM. We will look at the highlights of the AIA National Convention this month, while a detailed overview of the AIA TAP and DMVC conferences will be presented next month.

The AECbytes Building the Future series returns this month with a look at a new concept, Proto-Building, as coined by John Tobin, an architect and Principal at EYP Architecture & Engineering who spearheads the BIM implementation for EYP’s five A/E offices. In his article entitled "Proto-Building: To BIM is to Build," he suggests that even though many designers continue to use BIM to produce drawings, we would be better served by looking beyond using BIM merely as a more powerful representation tool, and instead to treat the models we create as proto-buildings, as in the word "prototype." He also presents the current state and the likely future trajectory of BIM by looking at it as three different generations, which he calls BIM 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. I found it a fascinating read.

And finally, we have the Tips and Tricks series for this month which includes a look at using Autodesk SketchBook Pro for design brainstorming, as well as a tutorial on ArchiCAD office standards and templates.

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > May 2008