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Googles BIM-busting App for Design and Construction | BIM + Integrated Design

http://bimandintegrateddesign.com/2014/10/24/googles-bim-busting-app-for-design-and-construction/[27/10/2014 10:01:20]

OCTOBER 24, 2014 7:20 AM Jump to Comments

Googles BIM-busting App forDesign and Construction

By Randy Deutsch AIA LEED AP

Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of Github, believes there will only be

two types of jobs in the future: people who code computers, and people

who get bossed around by computers.

In the future theres potentially two types of jobs: where you tell a

machine what to do, programming a computer, or a machine is going to

tell you what to do, says Preston-Werner.

Youre either the one that creates the automation or youre getting

automated.

Remember the Google[x] to revolutionize the construction industry

headlines from this time last year?

Google technology could halve construction costs

Googles secret development unit has developed a technology that could

earn the company $120 billion a year, and,

Is Google planning a BIM-busting app for construction?

Googles secret is secret no more

About these ads



Flux, a 25 person, 2 year old company, the first and so far only

startup to spin off of the semi-secret Google[x] research moonshot lab

and incubator at Google dedicated to projects such as the driverless car

and Google glass, has set out to automate the AEC industry.

Its about time we take notice and sides.

Google[x] is the companys main initiative to diversify its sources of

income.

With the global construction market estimated at $5 trillion a year, why

not enter our turf?

First, a little background.

The Google X engineers initially called the development of the invention

Genie (after the genie in Aladdin in 1001 Nights). Genie, the

development team told Googles management, was a platform with

online-based planning applications to help architects and engineers in the

design process, especially for skyscrapers and large buildings. The

platform includes planning tools of expert architects and engineers and

advance analytics and simulation tools. Genie standardizes and automates

the design and construction processes with unlimited design options,

enabling an architect to preserve the buildings uniqueness in the urban

environment.

In the report, the Google X team estimated that Genie could save 30-50%

in prevailing construction costs and shorten the time from the start of

planning to market by 30-60%. The Genie team estimated that the

platform had the potential of generating $120 billion a year for Google,

and so Flux was born.

Former Gehry Partners architect, Michelle Kaufmann, co-founded Flux

with ex-Google software engineers Nick Chim (who is also CEO), Augusto

Roman and Jen Carlile.

Flux says they are in business to address urban population growth.



In short: were going to increase our urban population in the next 35 years

by 3.3B people which nearly doubles our urban population from right

now and, depending on the size of the building, will require between 6.6

million and 33 million new apartment buildings by 2050 to house them

all.

And so the need to see buildings not as one-offs, built from scratch, but

from seeds.

Buildings as Mother Nature would want them to be

From a talk Jen Carlile, Co-Founder of Flux, gave in October 2014 at

KeenCon,

Using Data to Improve the Built Environment:

Today we build individual buildings as though Mother Nature built each

one from scratch, rather from seeds.

Flux asks: What if we were to build buildings from seeds? Seeds that took

on different forms and characteristics depending upon where they were

planted?

The thinking goes, if we designed this way, we could leverage data and

design and build buildings by the thousands in the time it currently takes

to design one.



Tool #1: Coded within the building app are all the rules that the building

needs to grow or auto-generate: the structural system, HVAC, faade, etc.

It knows, for example, that it needs external sunscreens on the west

elevation to reduce late afternoon heat gain. These rules are all encoded

into the building seed. (See the video within the video that starts at 8:30.)

They use the analogy of the Monterey Cypress tree, which takes on a

different shape based on where it is planted, the prevailing winds and

conditions of its location and site.

In the same way that if you plant three separate Monterey Cypress seeds

in three separate locations youll get three separate trees; if you place

three separate building seeds in three separate locations youll get three

separate buildings.

In other words, the building takes on different forms based on the

different sites it is placed on.

The software designs all of the bathrooms, fire stairs, ducts. Because all

of the rules are encoded within the building seed, you can make changes

to the building. When you do that, the building regrows.

The seeds of change

To address the urban population crisis, says Jen Carlile, we need to stop

designing individual buildings and start designing building seeds.

The time it takes to design and build needs to dramatically decrease.



Tool #2: Another tool Flux built helps with organizing data, making it

more actionable and more universally accessible. Think of it as a

feasibility study algorithm that, once you identify a site or sites,

instantaneously assesses entitlements, massing, building program,

building performance, leasable area and overall project budget.

Simon Rees, Associate Principal / Structural Group Leader at Arup in Los

Angeles, in a talk he gave in late October 2014 about a data-driven,

integrated project named P12 that involved input from ARUP, Flux,

Gensler, Cupertino Electric, Turner Construction, among others, calls this

Wrangling Geometry from the data.

Embracing the full complexity of the design and construction process,

grounded in real estate data, P12s goal was to reduce the design and

construction of a large-scaled building to a 12 month cycle: 3 months for

design, one for permitting, and 8 for construction.

They use the example of zoning codes that dictate what can be built on a

site.



The tool pulls in data from neighboring lots, buildings, vegetation. It

looks at overlay zones, view corridors. Then it looks at the building code,

generating the buildable envelope for a site.

Using downtown Austin, TX as an example, Fluxs software Metro

purports to provide a better way to visualize Austins development code by

aggregating multiple data sources in one place: data from cities, tax

assessors, and third-party sources, so you quickly understand the

parameters for a land parcel;

helping developers and land owners to visualize their parcels by

situating proposed projects into the surrounding landscape;

showing only the development codes that are applicable, including

conditional overlays and uses; providing a quick assessment of

project potential. If and when you are ready to go deeper, says the

website, theyll provide helpful reference links to deeds, entitlement

history, and permitting history.

taking a snapshot of the project and share with anyone, getting

stakeholders aligned around a common vision

rendering zoning incentive and building usage impacts on the parcel

and massing.

They make the process transparent so you can see where all of the data is

coming from. So up on you monitor, as part of the tool, side by side with

the building massing is the building or zoning code and all of the rules



that can be derived from it.

As Simon Rees put it, browser-based exploration democratizes access to

otherwise industry-specific information such as zoning codes and

building models.

Calling BF Skinner

After using the tool for a while, says Carlile, you can develop an intuition

as to why the buildings are shaped the way they are. What we often think

of as artistic license is really just the manifestation of a rule set. This

represents one of the exciting ways that the data feedback loop can inform

and over time, improve ones intuition.

In the spirit of openly sharing technology in the software industry, making

the design and construction process not only more transparent but more

efficient, and reduce the time it takes to design and build buildings, Flux

asks: What if there was a standard library where people could build upon

the work of others, as opposed to solving the same problems over and

over again?

We already have that technology: its called the human mind and memory.

I think the population growth storyline and Mother Nature metaphor

dont mask the underlying opportunity to best greedy developers at their

own game by charging for this software as a service (SaaS.)

i.e. Free test-drive on 10 parcels $100 per additional parcel

(introductory price.)

33 million buildings will be needed by 2050. Thats 33 million rules-

based, design-by-constraints, deterministic, GMO seeds.

Constructors will be needed who know how to componentize,



commoditize, and put the buildings together quickly.

The technology raises questions such as: Should humans be performing

modeling tasks that a computer can perform?

I did feasibility studies for building developers most of my career and on

most days I felt like I had the best, most creative job in the world.

Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding is that code searches arent

drudgery that needs to be performed by computers. While the most

cursory first looks can be made by computers, any building designer

knows that interpreting the code whether zoning or building can be

every bit as creative a task as designing the building itself. I have myself

doubled the size of the allowable square footage of a project without

seeking a variance based on nothing more than creative interpretation of

the code. A computer can read a code, but it cant read between the lines

of a code book: only humans can.

The tools appear to be quite sophisticated. But a structural- nor software-

engineer shouldnt be touting the upside of these services or technologies.

In the two presentations I have seen on the software, each look at a

comprehensive, integrated system from their own narrow perspectives.

Flux needs someone as a spokesperson who sees the big picture. Someone

who orchestrates large teams and knows the complete assemblage of

building design and construction not just from their silo, domain or

point of view.

Something Jen said in the Q & A after her talk in particular hits home:

I think of it like APIs. You can have an API for a structural system. If

you can connect your structural API to your fabrication machine, you no

longer have to have humans involved.

For the foreseeable future, Fluxs Metro and other tools require the input

of designers and other experts in other words, human input. I wonder

how team members such as Arup and Turner Construction would feel

hearing that what they are contributing to may soon put them out of

business?

More on where Flux is headed with all of this here.

Not building in Austins Central Business District? Subscribe to Fluxs

mailing list to find out when they launch in your city.

https://flux.io/metro/

Watch Jen Carlile, Co-Founder of Flux.

Read: Google X spin-out Flux is harnessing data to make designing



buildings better.

Images: Flux

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