The Architect Geek

These last few years have taught me many things about the profession I have dreamed about since the 3rd grade. I have seen more massive changes (or at least, potentially massive) in the last 3 years than all of my previous 11 combined. One thing has stuck out the most in my mind, and that is, what are we turning into? The subtitle of my blog here is "BIM is changing us into something different". I really mean that. I wonder what the future holds for the hold-outs. Can those of us early adopters push hard enough without marginalizing the cause? I recently asked a question of my team to see what they thought. I have since asked the same question to those in my office who would listen.

"Is the future architect a geek?"

Not pictured: Horn-rimmed glasses, vests, or fedoras.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get an answer. It's not so easy to say yet. Will the technology one day become so easy that anyone can and will understand it? AutoCAD has been around for more than 20 years, yet companies still need support. It pains me to hear someone talk about technology like it is a burden. I realize that I may be in the minority here, but the problems posed currently by our industry are most easily solved with technology. Do you want to house your own energy modeling database internally? Can you adequately describe the best solution for your building skin without tangible metrics? Metrics give us something to prop ourselves up against when everyone wants to throw us under the bus. Using scripting languages to better optimize our design, sending a model into the cloud to render or for analysis to free up resources so we can continue to work, or simply bending a particular tool to our will is our future, isn't it?

So I ask again, does understanding those concepts make me a geek? Is the merging of IT and AE such a bad thing? Are we the future for the industry, or are we the back of house sweaty programmer types that keeps everyone's shared parameter files and Revit warnings in order? 

Please make sure you check your worksets! Gah!

Enjoy your weekend.