The dispersed architecture office
It seems like every project in the office has some form of delay, major issue, or an “oh #@!?!” moment. That said, the current covid 19 situation is a new one.
For now, I’m going to set aside the much more important health, safety, and financial impacts of covid 19 and burrow down into thoughts on the specific impacts to an architecture office
“It’s Good This Didn’t Happen 20 Years Ago…”
When I was first interning at an architecture office, AutoCad R14 was THE pinnacle of software (please note this was seventeen years before “AutoCad 2014”) . 3d modeling was a novelty that someone did in their spare time to show off the cool flower vases they could render. And the paper. Oh the paper. There were drawing sets, presentation boards, product catalogs, code books, zoning books, project binders, standard details, material libraries, and on and on. We are far from having paperless offices, but sending everyone to work remotely makes me realize that this would have been virtually impossible a couple of decades ago.
Between email, digital calendars, online project management software, and storing data in the cloud it is possible with (relatively) short notice to have everyone work 30 miles apart from each other. There have been snags, server issues, and a general gnashing of teeth. What there hasn’t been is a complete disruption of service, which is in itself kind of amazing.
“It’s not the same…”
Of course not. It’s been exactly one day of having the office split apart, and it feels different. To find out what your colleagues are up to, you have to send them a chat or an email instead of just popping your head up and shouting across the room. Granted, the chats and emails happened when we were all together in the same place, but we at least had the option of shouting.
I’d like to think we’ll find a balance of interaction and collaboration, but there might be no substitute for being in a room with someone to brainstorm, draw, and share ideas.
“It’s better…”
I’m not sure about this one. I’ve only worked in open offices where everyone interacted with everyone else, for better or worse. Being split up forces better project management and goal-setting. It makes everyone set tasks and deadlines rather than fussing around on different things (although I’m of the opinion that some great things come from fussing around).
Working from home also lets people manage themselves. It might get old (give it a few weeks), but the ability to sleep in an extra hour rather than commute to the office. is a nice perk. There are also environmental considerations—fewer drivers = fewer cars = fewer emissions. On the scale we are seeing now, it might have some impact if we turn it into a habit moving forward.
“I don’t like being reliant on software…”
This one is inevitable. To link everyone together requires software: slack, google drive, remote desktop, goto meeting, zoom, jira, confluence. The list is long. If the software doesn’t work, then you’re dead in the water.
It is trite, but it is true “paper can’t crash on you.”
“The dog ate my homework…”
For every project, builders have used a slew of different excuses as to why schedules are delayed, products are unavailable, or things in general aren’t getting done. I’ve heard “…it’s the hurricane…it’s NAFTA…it’s because of the drought.” Pick the crisis of the day.
It’s tough to argue with “It’s the global pandemic.” That one feels real.
Wash your hands and stay home.
That’s it for now. Sorry for a lack of images. Pictures always make things better.
Architectural Drawings and Shading
No. This is not the most exciting topic, but drawing graphics seems to be something we are constantly discussing, tweaking, or questioning.
Personally, I have two competing feelings about drawing graphics:
Everyone to use the graphics that I want, without question, without exception.
I constantly feel like other people’s graphics are better than mine.
It’s a problem.
But not insurmountable. I’d rather be tweaking and tinkering than sitting stagnant.
Specifically, we’ve started using much more shading on the drawings in our office. It lends a graphic clarity to the drawings that lets clients, builders, and consultants “get” what the drawing is showing much more easily. It also lets us thin down our lineweights for cut items, allowing for more detail—with the shading in place, we’re not relying as heavily on the line weights to distinguish between items that are/aren’t cut in views.
That said, there is a lingering architecture-school voice that says “your lineweights should be good enough. Don’t use shading.” It’s a quiet voice, but it is definitely there.
Our evolving shading regimen beaks down like this:
Walls/items cut in plan views get shaded a dark gray
Casework/cabinets seen in plan view get shaded a lighter gray (I’ve found this is useful when showing a builder an initial set of drawings for pricing. It helps eliminate the "I assumed that was furniture” problem without the need for specific casework tags & details.
Anything in a floor or ceiling plan that is special gets a hatch to make it explicit. Special flooring, expensive ceiling material, custom construction of any sort. This also works on elevation views for things like glass and wallcovering.
We use Revit in the office for our construction documents. For the most part, it lets us standardize the graphics for things like shading, hatching, and lineweights. However, we’ve had to come to terms with the fact that, on occasion, we need to draft in a filled region or two so that things look correct.
The Shed
We love sheds. There's something simple, straightforward, and complete about them. This one by Hufft Projects has the added benefit of translucent end walls.
Rendering Workflow (pros and cons)
We tend to do all of our visualizations and rendering work in-house. It would be nice to hire an outside firm every time, but schedule requirements and financial requirements tend to dictate otherwise. Autodesk has a "nifty" way to link a Revit model to a 3dsMax model and automatically update the changes to the model as they are made.
This is good because:
- No need to worry if the Revit modeling is "done" or "current" because it auto-updates without new modeling in Max. There have been numerous times where we've re-modeled something in 3dsMax just to match changes we've made in Revit.
- The Revit lights, while probably not totally accurate, render up pretty nicely in Max. I'm sure that by using ALL of the lights modeled in the project it's really increasing render time, but it's nice not to have to trick the model into being well lit, or explain to clients that "well, that's not really what the lights will look like...." when they ask.
This is bad because:
- The linked model isn't exactly the most user friendly. Geometry is pretty much non-editable
- The materials and mapping seem to come in as a hot mess. Significant work is required in Max to get everything looking correct/good.
Ultimately, the goal would be to have the project designed and completed, and THEN export it into Max for tweaking, geometry adjustments, etc. Unfortunately, that is not the world that we work in.
A Manifesto For Growth -- Bruce Mau
I saw this years (12?) ago and it's stuck with me ever since. I try to keep a copy of it on the wall nearby. It's especially good for the moments when I'm stuck, frustrated, or questioning why I just didn't become a banker. Or a barber.
To be honest, some of the points don't make much sense until you've messed them up. It's hard to realize that Organization=Liberty (point 30 on the list) until you've found yourself mired in "artistic" dis-organization for a few days.
Architects are not graphic designers. Maybe more graphic designers should be architects (?)