Archinect - News

Mobile games help employers teach potential recruits about construction safety and building protocols

2019-12-24T09:00:00-05:00

While finding the right employee hires is a key concern for any business, less attention has been paid, until recently, to streamlined training and workforce development initiatives. Yet, with the growing sophistication and proliferation of online training services and mobile apps that can assist with employee development, it's no surprise one company has found a way to help the construction industry with their onboarding processes.

The Pittsburgh-based educational app developer, Simcoach, has created an app that helps potential construction hires with basic safety and equipment usage. Zachary Phillips of ConstructionDive reports, "Mobile games encourage continued usage by promising prizes, levels, and rewards for advancing through challenges. Construction managers are capitalizing on younger generations' interest in these types of games, especially on mobile platforms, to recruit and promote safety through educational construction apps."

Image © Simcoach Games

Games such as Harnes...

As augmented reality further permeates the urban environment, do architects play a role in planning virtual spaces?

2018-10-03T17:59:00-04:00

Over the past couple of decades, artists and designers have developed augmented realities that propose vastly different, and often more radical perspectives of what a digitally enhanced public realm could look like. [...] many actually existing AR projects instead ask critical questions about the implementation of this novel technology and its potential to shift both the everyday experiences and political economies of architecture and cities.

In his latest Failed Architecture piece, Joshua McWhirter offers an insightful history of noteworthy augmented reality-powered works of art, activism, game design, and simulation while also issuing a warning call about the impending privatization and commodification of the virtual public space without much input from architects. "And as this landscape increasingly constitutes a public realm in and of itself," McWhirter writes, "a collection of hybrid real-virtual public spaces, there are even glimmers of direct challenges to its creeping privatization."

Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D launch new iOS 12 features to integrate 3D modeling and sketching for architects

2018-09-26T15:59:00-04:00

With Apple's recent release of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 12, we're now seeing new feature releases in a variety of apps. Two players in the world of architectural software, Morpholio Trace and Shapr3D, today announced a joint effort that promises to further bridge the divide between 3D modeling and sketching on the iPad Pro thanks to Apple’s Drag and Drop and the new universal 3D file type USDZ.

Credit: Jim Keen. Image courtesy of Morpholio.

Dubbed "Drag 'n' Fly", the new iOS 12 feature by Morpholio, a company that we've covered previously on Archinect, enables users to integrate live 3D models in Trace sketches, create infinite views, and draw over automatically generated perspective grids. Shapr3D models can now be exported directly to Trace via the new OBJ export, simplifying the switch between drawing and modeling.

Credit: Jim Keen. Image courtesy of Morpholio.

Morpholio Co-Founder Mark Collins explains the reason behind...

How big tech companies are shaping US city development

2018-06-25T16:05:00-04:00

I’m not saying America’s cities are turning into dystopian technocapitalist hellscapes in which corporations operate every essential service and pull every civic string. But let’s take a tour of recent news from the metropolises.

Farhad Manjoo unpacks the extreme impact big tech companies have on US city construction citing cases from Amazon, Elon Musk's Boring Company, and Bird's electric scooters. Are these innovations simply breaking through the red tape of local government or are they dominating with no input from the public?

UpCodes wants to make building regulations less tedious by becoming the 'spellcheck for buildings'

2018-06-21T14:25:00-04:00

American counties and municipalities alone have nearly 93,000 different building codes. If you are an architect, that can be an overwhelming amount of requirements to navigate, which is why Upcodes has been working on what it describes as a 'spellcheck' for construction.

Started by two brothers—one, an architect and the other, a software engineer—UpCodes uses AI to help the construction industry manage compliance. Currently compatible with Revit (though they are looking to apply it to Sketchup, ARCHICAD, and IFC models in the future), the plug in analyzes BIM data to make sure the project is meeting the necessary standards. It also automatically syncs with the latest updates, ensuring code checks are working with the most current data.

By using Upcodes, the code review process becomes instantaneous, highlighting code errors in realtime. So far, the founders say that on average, the plugin has identified 27 violations per project, most of which have revolved around egress and access...

Bringing Augmented Reality for architects to the small screen: Morpholio launches Trace app for iPhone

2018-02-07T18:24:00-05:00

If you've already liked or used Morpholio's popular Trace app on the iPad Pro, you can now also get excited to put it to work on your small screen: TracePro just launched for iPhone and presents a powerful architectural application of Apple's ARKit augmented reality framework in a pocket-friendly format.

AR drawing

The app positions itself as a helpful tool in the field where critical design decisions have to be made consistently — with the amount of on-site design often outweighing planning in Concept and SD combined.

"Not only do budgets, scope changes and fast track schedules force important design decisions on site," Morpholio explains the need for TracePro, "but unforeseen field conditions, contractor errors and never ending client changes can all keep your team designing and problem solving throughout CA."

Scale photos

Five so-called "CA Super Tools" are the app's key features designed to make architects' lives in the field easier:

AR Drawing on Site: utilizing the iPhone's pow...

The 'Tinder' for apartment swapping launches in the Netherlands

2018-01-23T15:06:00-05:00

Dutch social renters wanting to move to a new apartment can now use an app to swap houses with other renters. One precondition, both renters need to ‘like’ each other’s apartment to get a match. [...] Young renters with small apartments may swap with older residents who live in bigger apartments. In this way, the issue of scheefwonen (skew living — when people live in apartments that do not match their needs and desires) within the Dutch rental sector could be solved.

"After two apartments are matched, the users are introduced to each other, after which they have to find out if their rental agreements are compatible enough for the renters to swap house."

Is that Augmented Reality in your pocket? Morpholio updates their apps to take advantage of Apple's new ARKit

2017-09-19T15:46:00-04:00

Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 11, just released today. One of the biggest updates that should get the attention of architects is ARKit, Apple's new augmented reality framework. ARKit provides the opportunity to for Apple and 3rd party developers to create AR experiences anew, or to enhance existing applications for iPhone and iPad.

Augmented reality is relatively old news, but the fact that this framework is now baked into the most popular mobile device in the world, soon to be married to Apple's latest AR-friendly hardware, is big news. Millions of people around the world will soon have some of the most advanced AR tools in their pockets, regardless if they want it. Businesses and app developers now have the opportunity to show the potential of AR to people without requiring them to purchase expensive new hardware and software.

Morpholio, a company that we've covered previously on Archinect, is dedicated to bringing this new technology to architects and interior des...

Having difficulty navigating those building regulations? There is an App for that!

2017-07-28T19:08:00-04:00

For architects, complying with building codes means navigating labyrinthine layers of regulations that vary between municipalities. Sorting through different codes and keeping track of updates is a daunting task and, in a worst-case scenario, a mistake can cost thousands or even millions of dollars to tear out and fix. Firms that can afford it hire building code consultants, but a startup called UpCodes wants to make code compliance easier for all builders.

Started by two brothers—one, an architect and the other, a software engineer—UpCodes provides an accessible platform for construction codes and works to consolidate building regulations into a single searchable database.

Beyond making codes and regulations easier to navigate, the app simplifies coordination by allowing users to hyperlink to sections of code and create project folders to share with other team members. So far, the start up has amassed building codes for about 40 states, as well as New York City, with regulations for Seattle, Los Angels, and Denver next on the horizon.

Ikea is developing an Augmented Reality app

2017-06-19T20:30:00-04:00

Valdsgaard believes Apple’s know-how and recent progress within AR will be a crucial complement to Ikea’s in-house competencies. Another major benefit of working with Apple is the company’s gigantic ecosystem of users.

Ikea will partner with Apple to co-build an AR-based shopping app that will enable its users to try out virtual furniture at home before making buying decisions. Michael Valdsgaard, Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter Ikea, noted that the app is intended not to replace the company's physical stores but to compliment them.

Upon its launch in the Fall of 2017, the new AR app will have 500-600 products available.

Mark Zuckerberg unveils a home operating AI app called "Jarvis"

2016-12-20T14:05:00-05:00

At last, somebody understands Mark Zuckerberg, and it's an artificial intelligence app that speaks with the wisdom and patience of Morgan Freeman. Partially an internet of things melded with a changeable, celebrity-cameo Siri (Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a brief aural appearance), Zuckerberg's home-running app Jarvis is demonstrated by the inventor himself in the video below.

Facebook in the news:

Virtual Reality: An Architect’s #1 Marketing and Business Development Tool

2016-08-25T15:05:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Yulio.

There’s no denying it: Virtual Reality (VR) creates a buzz. It’s exciting and attention-grabbing. It attracts and then holds. And keeps holding. Wherever you go, a pair of goggles instantly draws a crowd.

For businesses in the Architecture and Interior Design industries, VR technology becomes a fantastic marketing and business development opportunity. Telling – or showing – prospects that you’re using VR is great for sparking conversations and leaving lasting first impressions.

For those interested in or actively experimenting with it VR, here’s a few tips for using this technology as a business development and marketing tool in your business.

1. Give a great first impression

Show, don’t tell. The best way to explain what VR can do is to simply hand your client or prospect a pair of goggles. Pre-load it with a sample space, past projects or perhaps even a 360° ‘before’ photo, and let them imagine the possibilities for themselves.

Make sure you know y...

Yulio offers architects a DIY Virtual Reality platform

2016-07-07T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Yulio.

AN INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUAL REALITY

Though Virtual Reality (VR) is yet to truly break into the mainstream consumer market, it’s an industry growing at breakneck speed.

With Deloitte Global predicting a $1bn year for the VR industry this year, and Digi Capital estimating it to hit $30bn by 2020, it won’t be long before VR is in the hands of millions of consumers worldwide.

Yet though initial traction for the industry has been centered around the gaming and entertainment communities, VR is making serious headway as a tool for health, education, and business.

VIRTUAL REALITY FOR ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN

For an architect or designer, viewing an image of a 3D space is enough to fully visualize the space around them. Yet this is not the case for the clients, who typically lack this ability. Yulio aims to bridge this communication gap through VR technology.

“Virtual Reality technology transforms crucial aspects of the client-engagement experience b...

Splendid 4D Studio Builds Immersive VR Apps for Architects, Real Estate Developers

2016-06-15T19:56:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Splendid 4D Studio.

The team at Splendid 4D Studio is partnering with architects and real estate companies to develop flawless apps for showcasing projects and properties. Leveraging virtual reality integration, Splendid 4D Studio takes presentations to the next level.

Splendid 4D has more than 50 years of combined experience in creating stunning VR content, apps, websites, architectural renderings, and more. Now, the company is helping clients create immersive experiences for their prospective and current customers by constructing fully customized, cutting-edge apps.

These individual apps offer customers and prospects the ability to dive into VR, 360 degree renderings in high resolution. The immersive experience is completely tailored to the specifications of the project, offering a seamless, easy to use, and lifelike experience.

President Zoey Zhao says the key to the success of their apps is the use of a 360 degree camera for on-site shooting. Then...

Is Waze to blame for heavy traffic on L.A. residential side streets?

2015-11-24T15:00:00-05:00

Waze sometimes sends drivers through little-used side streets such as Cody Road [in Sherman Oaks, Calif]...Some people try to beat Waze at its own game by sending misinformation about traffic jams and accidents so it will steer commuters elsewhere. Others log in and leave their devices in their cars, hoping Waze will interpret that as a traffic standstill and suggest alternate routes.

More about Waze on Archinect:

Throwback Throughway: when GPS fails, these gorgeous "mental maps" help you navigate

Waze takes on the ride-sharing market with new carpooling app

Arnold Schwarzenegger voices Waze app

Waze and its new uneasy bedfellows

Are apps the virtual gateway to physical gentrification?

2015-08-05T18:26:00-04:00

Laundromats have recently been closing down in San Francisco, which prompted a Google employee to tweet in response "cost of disruption: washio and others have removed need for laundromat on every block." Who needs laundromats when there's an app for that? Well, people who can't afford to spend $15 a pop on washing their socks, for starters. The tweet prompted a thoughtful article in Tech.Mic, in which the short-term gains of disruptive app inventors are speculatively played out to their potential society-eroding ends, especially in the arenas of transit and health care. In this case, the article points out that the laundry delivery app in question is exactly that: a delivery service that still uses third-party launderers to actually clean the clothes, but charges for the convenience.

Apparently, the San Francisco laundromats are closing mainly because of the usual gentrification pressures in the form of desirable cheap real estate, not necessarily because of apps. However, assuming ...

NCARB's new mobile app lets interns manage IDP hours on the go

2014-01-09T12:34:00-05:00

NCARB continues its ongoing streak of system advances with their new MyIDP mobile app. The app can perhaps be handy for any of you iPhone-using interns working through your experience hours for the Intern Development Program.

MyIDP was designed for interns who have already established an NCARB Record and begun reporting hours. New experience reports still need to be created online, so MyIDP is an extra portable tool to stay constantly updated on hours and overall IDP progress.

Features in the app are: adding/editing hours and viewing all work experience for Settings A and O; submitting experience to supervisors; and as already mentioned, tracking overall progress on the "IDP Progress Dashboard".

MyIDP is available for free download on Apple's App Store for iPhone iOS 7. Android users will have to wait for their version in the meantime -- the NCARB Council plans to develop it in the near future.

Harness Robocop social-networking ability with Highlight app

2013-12-12T15:31:00-05:00

The newest version of [Highlight], available for iPhone and Android, uses every sensor, signal, and stream it can get its hands on to passively figure out what you’re doing, and it intelligently scans users nearby to figure out who you might be interested in. It’s not necessarily about people you know but people you could know. And that makes it both way cooler and way creepier than Facebook could ever dream of being.

Archinect iPhone app updated for iOS 7

2013-11-05T11:21:00-05:00

We've updated the Archinect iPhone app with a subtle user interface refresh for iOS 7 users. We've also made a few other minor style updates and bug fixes.

Left: main "highlights" screen / Right: article screen

As with the previous releases of the Archinect app, we've focused on simplicity, providing you with highlighted content, jobs, and a fully interactive discussion forum.

Left: bottom of article screen / Right: article comments

Engage with other Archinect members by logging in and joining the conversation.

Left: jobs screen / Right: detailed job description screen

Stay up-to-date on the latest job opportunities while you're on the go. Our search function in the Jobs section allows you to quickly narrow down the exhaustive list of jobs to the location or job type that matches your needs.

Left: discussion forum screen / Right: image gallery screen

Since launching our app last year, tens of thousands of people have been using the Archinect app on a daily basis, a...

ARki is "Architectural Visualisation in Augmented Reality"

2013-09-04T19:51:00-04:00

Arki is an Augmented Reality platform for real-time visualisation of architectural models. By incorporating AR technology within the architectural design process, ARki is able to visualise 3d models for both design and presentation purposes, helping to create an immersive visualisation technique with multiple layers of interactivity. ARki can be deployed on any ios/ android device which allows the user to explore 3d data with an added level of navigational freedom.

Bluetooth is coming to your deadbolt

2013-05-30T19:20:00-04:00

The August Smart Lock is the secure, simple, and social way to manage your home’s lock. Now you can control who can enter and who can’t—without the need for keys or codes. And you can do it all from your smartphone or computer.

Key-less entry has been available for cars for ages. It's about time buildings adopt this new technology. Fortunately, this new product is designed by master product designer Yves Behar, of Fuseproject.

Adobe is scratching the surface with new analog tools for digital drawings

2013-05-29T16:18:00-04:00

Our XD team revealed a few projects they're working on at Adobe MAX 2013. The team has been exploring how new form factor displays, new interactions (like touch and gesture), cloud connections and even new hardware might change how you all create and in turn how it might impact what software we need to build.

Why did some Columbia architecture students treat their annual like garbage?

2013-04-16T13:01:00-04:00

Departing with the familiar tradition of producing a hefty physical volume, GSAPP offered its most recent Abstract in the form of an iPad app. In addition to (or on cover-like behalf of) this app, students received an object: It looks like a book, but turns out to be a book-shaped plastic box, and its contents consist of a URL, where the app can be downloaded. This object, as you can see, has not been universally embraced.

SOM and CASE launch AEC-APPS, crowdsourced resource for sharing tech architecture tools

2013-04-15T19:11:00-04:00

AEC-APPS is the first Web-based library of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) applications built by and for digital tool users and toolmakers, who share a common interest in the evolution of innovative technologies. Conceived, designed, and maintained by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and CASE to lead the industry toward a model of collaborative knowledge and technology exchange, AEC-APPS connects tools, from snippets of code to established software platforms, and people, from educators and students to practitioners and hobbyists. Part WikipediaTM, part GitHubTM, AEC-APPS is a not-for-profit online community that fosters knowledge sharing and problem solving across disciplines, software platforms, geographic locations, and experience levels.

“Innovation in digital tools is changing the nature of practice, and it’s being driven by many players in different parts of the AEC industry, but they are not often aware of one another’s efforts,” notes SOM’s Technical Director N...

An App For Architects That Makes Physics Easy

2012-10-15T18:58:00-04:00

After seven years of teaching structures to a mixed group of architecture and structural engineering graduate students at MIT, Paul Kassabian found that many of his future architects took a just-enough-to-get-the-homework-done approach to understanding those fundamental components. So he created an app to help them out.

Should architects design buildings as if they were Web apps?

2012-01-27T15:31:00-05:00

David Galbraith has embarked on a fascinating journey, exploring the notion that the flow of people and their interactions inside buildings, is similar in design to the flow of data and user interaction of Web apps. Could best practices in Web app design be applied to architectural design?

Also, check out Archinect's interview with David Galbraith.

Urban Planning in the iPhone Age

2011-11-03T20:30:57-04:00

... the next wave of mobile applications do more than that—they collect massive amounts of data about how people live, where they travel and what they want to see in their neighborhoods. And they connect all of that with the officials in position to make decisions. Apps, in other words, offer potential solutions for two of the trickiest parts of the urban planner's job: sharing data and engaging citizens.