NXT BLD 2021
The future has arrived At AEC Magazine we talk with tech developers, IT directors of leading AEC firms, and draw inspiration from our manufacturing-focused sibling DEVELOP3D. All of this helped make NXT BLD 2021 what it was, an event that brought together the true pioneers in our industry to explore the future of AEC
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EC Magazine has been at the forefront of promoting BIM for almost 20 years. It was becoming clear that the amount of development work being put into many leading AEC applications was on the wane, so a few years ago we set an editorial agenda to identify where the next innovations would come from, and examine how the industry would have to adapt — mapping itself from current processes to new digital workflows. NXT BLD is the physical embodiment of our mission to explore new technologies and boldly go where no industry events had gone before! Topics include VR-based design, robotic assembly, offsite construction, 3D printed buildings, digital twins, photogrammetry, robots on construction sites, real-time rendering, collaborative design, knitted buildings, generative design, mixed reality, city modelling and blockchain. Topics and speakers, almost entirely come from the research we do for editorial, or from recommendations from people in practice, who may be part of ongoing R&D, either in-house or with a university. While in the past, technology had tended to be dictated by vendors, we are now seeing a much more hands-on approach to tech stack and workflow development from leading practices, something we covered in our January / February 2021 cover story (tinyurl.com/bespoke-BIM). Now, as the AEC industry moves to complete digitisation, academics, startups and established mature BIM customers have been looking to converge tools and processes, to meet their future needs. At our November event, which is now available to view free on-demand (nxtbld. com/web-stream-2021), we were lucky enough to have a stellar line up of industry heavyweights. This includes speakers from the Foster + Partners Advanced Research and Development (ARD) group, Cobus Bothma, director at KPF, Greg Schleusner, director of design technology 26
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and innovation at HOK, Dr Marzia Bolpagni, head of BIM International at Mace, and Emily Scoones, business and project lead at Ramboll. These practices didn’t present case stories about their use of procured technologies, but showed their in-house developments and shared their goals. This trend can also be seen in previous NXT BLD talks from the likes of Woods Bagot, Facit Homes, Gensler, Skanska,
Watch now on d n a dem
nxtbld.com/web-stream-2021 Herzog & De Meuron, Katerra, Laing O’Rourke, to name but a few (nxtbld.com/videos). Expect more next year and an increase in the amount of AEC firms collaborating together in software development. Automation has always seemed a great fit for construction. Even at our first NXT BLD event we had a prototype robotic assembly system from Arup and the amazing Arthur Mamou Mani. Two years later and NXT BLD 2019 heralded the first appearance in Europe of Boston Dynamics’ SPOT robot, marking its launch into construction (nxtbld.com/ videos/michael-perry). That year we had R&D teams from laser scanning firms flying in with 3D printed mounting plates to try out their laser scanners on the robot, as it was their first opportunity to see SPOT in the ‘flesh’. Foster + Partners also met SPOT for the first time at NXT BLD 2019 and this year the R&D team presented their findings on
the potential of the robot for use on live projects and in the future. Meanwhile, Trimble’s Construction Robotics Lead also talked about the growth in robot adoption on construction sites. As workstation CPU and GPU capabilities forge ahead, the ability to handle more complex geometry, on a city scale, in real time has finally become a reality. This isn’t just helping those involved in arch viz, but also virtual reality and augmented reality. The AEC sector is also taking influence from beyond. This year we took a bit of a gamble asking Aston Martin to present, but it really paid off. Cathal Loughnane did a great job of explaining the Aston Martin design team’s philosophy which applied to everything from cars to residential buildings, to watches. As the AEC industry looks to change its workflow, it can’t remain an echo chamber. So we will continue to bring in speakers from other industries to see what we can learn from their digital design to manufacturing processes. While NXT BLD examines early market trends, it also has the opportunity to follow these developments as they flourish and adapt. But, more importantly, how they are seen through the eyes of technology savvy users and within the context of real projects. For future NXT BLD conferences, expect to hear more on the connection between architectural design and digital construction. This is a huge topic with a long way to run. There will certainly be more AEC firms discussing their own inhouse and collaborative developments, as the call for industry openness and productivity improvements grows - against the background of a seemingly slow-to-react commercial software sector which is focussing on the mass market. In the meantime, all of the presentations from NXT BLD 2021 are now available to view completely free on-demand, so grab a coffee and dive in. You’re welcome. ■ nxtbld.com/web-stream-2021
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30/11/2021 12:07
