Feature
How should AEC data work? If all BIM software were developed fresh today, with modern computer science we would not face the limitations of tools and formats we have inherited. Greg Schleusner, director of design technology at HOK talked with Martyn Day on how we could free data from monolithic BIM silos
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t NXT BLD 2021, we invited with our process. It’s all built for throw- what and who can change what. Greg Schleusner, director of ing over a fence in a very linear, transacToday’s platforms can’t properly audit design technology at global tional process,” explains Schleusner. changes, there’s no global track history of design, architecture, engi- “But, in reality, in design construction who did what. “This approach is a poor neering and planning firm HOK to come you have this overlap, where construc- match for technology, and we should over from New York and give a presenta- tion planning needs to start during never have to rely on these sort of arcane tion on some of his R&D projects design phase and yes, unfortunately the overlays of ‘let’s be friends’ to get a pro( n x t b l d . c o m /v i d e o s /g r e g - s c h l e u s n e r ) . design is going to change. ject to work”, explains Schleusner. Schleusner has been exploring how the “These iterative changes set off a series “There’s this fundamental problem digital tools we use today act as barriers of continuous updates to files. In the way where our data needs to become distribfor collaborative design and pondering if our world works, every one of these uted but not particularly owned. The way something can be done about it updates is a copy and, every time some- it works today just enforces an inefficient In his insightful talk he looked at ineffi- thing changes, we end up with potential- linear process. I’m wondering if we can ciencies in creating 2D representations, ly having to redo our work downstream get the software to work independently of problems with annotation, the massive because you’re not in control of that data. the way people work. amount of data duplication, lack of knowl“Our solution for this technology prob“What we really want is to have a feededge capture and reuse, back loop, which we can’t and the lack of openness. do at all today, because of If you have not seen the all sorts of limitations - the There’s this fundamental problem where our very nature of files, propripresentation, it’s probably data needs to become distributed but not a good idea to watch this etary formats, incompatinow, as the rest of this artible applications, deeply particularly owned. The way it works today cle is a continuation of that siloed data, poor interoperjust enforces an inefficient linear process thought process, based on ability… the list goes on. We Greg Schleusner, HOK Schleusner’s subsequent have to think differently. research. “What’s happening to When most people talk our world is it’s becoming about their frustration with BIM tools, it lem are legal agreements. This is a coun- unbelievably highly packaged, where usually concerns speed, the need for ter productive way to think about how we everything is highly recursively related, workarounds and the cost of ownership. can solve our issues, literally hoping to as the project progresses, each discipline But if we are to seriously address the change the legal system. This leads to dis- requesting changes to the design through problems the industry faces today, we cussions about better contracts, and the the phases. This process is accelerating, have to take a lower-level approach. hope that high-level trust agreements can but our data structures and everything We should not just expect faster evolu- be signed, where you let other firms else are structured to support a linear tion of tools used commonly today but access and edit your data, which only process. There’s still no easy way for a question the very data structures on works in a very small number of cases.” contractor to suggest a change that’s easiwhich they are built. We have plenty of ly adopted by a design team. formats; we also have plenty of incompat- Data distribution “Changes come in many scales. It could ibility, data loss, data overshare, data Schleusner sees all kinds of problems be a material choice or it could be as comwrangling and data in proprietary silos with the technology solutions we have plex as redesigning a whole roof structhat inhibit collaboration. today for collaborative working, defining ture or a façade system. “Our data functionally doesn’t work rules on partitioning, as to who can do “If you look at something as simple as a
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January / February 2022
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03/02/2022 15:00
