Archinect - News

Robot "dog" can autonomously document construction progress

2019-11-27T13:00:00-05:00

Construction software company HoloBuilder Inc. has announced a partnership with Boston Dynamics, maker of mobile robots, to develop SpotWalk, which the firm claims is a first-of-its-kind robotic document capture app for construction sites. ...the robot [can] walk around job sites autonomously and capture 360-degree images that record construction progress, thus creating digital, recordable data of the project over time.

According to Construction Dive, Hensel Phelps tested the new technology on a recent project and found its application to be efficient and time-saving. A spokesperson for the contractor said that the robot "removes a time-consuming step while providing accurate construction photos with a high degree of fidelity," reports Construction Dive.

The autonomous nature of this application would allow project teams to document construction progress more frequently, allowing for more consistent documentation and enabling project staff to focus time on other tasks.

How are robots simultaneously reducing construction/design costs while adding new jobs?

2017-05-02T17:03:00-04:00

The future of U.S. homebuilding depends on more people like Cyndicy Yarborough, a 26-year-old former Wal-Mart clerk with no background in construction.

In modular construction plants across the nation, robots are putting together lengths of wall, floor and roof elements in panel form that are then shipped to construction sites to help speed up the onsite erection process. In the factories where this assembly takes place, a new breed of worker is being trained to help oversee and package the output of these robots: think of them as the rapidly-trained yet far cheaper version of foremen to a crew of robot construction workers. This Bloomberg article is unabashedly excited about the new jobs this process is creating, and its potential to reduce construction costs (and potentially streamline the construction document phase for architects) by reducing the amount of labor required to assemble new structures. Unsurprisingly, the new factory positions pay far less than their equivalents in the field, as the article notes:

Labor costs are more favorable for factory construction, according to David Reed, vice president of Champion’s modular ...

Seized “Skopje 2014” documents could lead to criminal investigation

2016-10-20T14:36:00-04:00

Documents that Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, seized on Tuesday with a court order from the Culture Ministry refer to a million-euros-worth tender to build the Museum of VMRO and Macedonian Struggle for Independence...The SJO [...] says it will reveal the start of two new investigations. If one refers to "Skopje 2014", it will be the first-ever serious criminal investigation into this costly project which, according to BIRN’s database, has cost 667 million euros already.

Balkan Insight reports that the hefty €667 million+ price tag (approx. $730 million+) of the grandiose revamp “was mainly due to the signing of 123 contracts with firms and individuals for its construction, many of which were annexes to the original contract.”

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network's database: Skopje 2014 Uncovered.

Previously on Archinect:

Macedonians protest to protect modernism

Macedonian Makeover: Europe's Flailing Capital of Kitsch

Big Risk for Bigger Reward in Small Architecture Firms

2016-04-13T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Are you an architect who always had that special entrepreneurial drive? Were you mentored by another successful architect or by a friend or family member who was successful in their own business endeavor and aspired to be like them? Perhaps you were forced to open your own firm by necessity after getting downsized by a previous employer during the recent recession?

No matter what your background is, you as an entrepreneur and owner of a small firm comprise a strong portion of the architecture industry. According to Kermit Baker, chief economist at The American Institute of Architects, 63 percent of all AIA member-owned architecture firms have five or fewer employees.

Good news, smaller firms have reported a growing share of professional billing. Baker reported that for firms with five or fewer employees, the overall share of professional billing increased from 8 percent in 2005 to 9 percent in 2013. On the other end of the spectrum, fi...

Documents Live On in Paperless Architecture Firms

2016-03-14T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Physical paper may have given way to PDFs. Ink pens may have been replaced by stylus pens. What architecture firms don’t have to worry about being replaced or disappearing, however, are documents.

From initial engagement contracts to drawings, specifications, change orders and RFPs when dealing with governmental agencies, architecture firms face a mountain of documents – and the necessary task of organizing and archiving these documents.

(Or, at least, a firm should have a policy for organizing and archiving.)

Here are three reasons why your firm should draft a recordkeeping policy that everyone can get on board with:

1. Be Prepared to Litigate Lawsuits

A significant amount of time can pass between the time you accept an engagement, complete the project, and finally receive a letter from a client alleging an impropriety. Because a lawsuit can be filed years after a project has been completed, your firm will want to be prepared to defen...

Editor's Picks #395

2014-11-28T13:12:00-05:00

Julia Ingalls reviews, the built work and paper architecture of Jimenez Lai. To wit "regardless of the medium...Understanding the role of storytelling within design is fundamental to all of Lai's work".

jla-x commented "The most interesting drawing that he did was a series of plans of a space ship city...really cool how he treated all surfaces as plan (the drawing was in zero gravity...)...A guy like him would be really great at film...I would love to see his drawings animated into short films". tanya enjoyed reading the article and summed up why "Understanding space from a different viewpoint , experiencing a variety of emotions while inhabiting a space , having the luxury to change the vibe of a specifically designed space, a sense of play within architecture, playing around with the art/part of architecture !"

Paul Keskeys, penned A First-Hand View of Gentrification in San Francisco. Arch2133 wasn’t happy "I really don't understand neutral positions like this and it leaves a bad t...