Archinect - News

Code compliance platform UpCodes launches AI assistant and raises $3.5 million

2023-06-01T12:43:00-04:00

The code compliance platform UpCodes has raised $3.5 million in funding. The San Francisco-based company describes itself as a “platform for architects, engineers, GCs, tradespeople, building owners, and homeowners” to provide a “searchable library of the adapted codes, updates, amendments, and errata across most major US jurisdictions.”

Archinect reported on UpCodes in 2018, where it was being used by firms including Ennead and FXCollaborative as a compatible plug-in for Revit. Today, the platform is used by over 650,000 monthly users, and claims to host over 5 million code sections (updating over 7,000 per month), and 1,700 state and city codes.

In tandem with the latest funding results, the company has unveiled an AI-powered code research assistant named UpCodes Copilot. Utilizing GPT-4, Copilot’s UI will feel familiar to users of ChatGPT. The AI interface can answer user questions about its dataset of over 5 million code sections. In addition to answering the question directly, ...

Three triangle-shaped buildings 'transformed' into tortilla chips as part of new Doritos marketing campaign

2022-08-29T13:29:00-04:00

Apparently, Doritos are everywhere. What you thought was Bjarke Ingels Group’s VIA 57 West is actually a cheesy tortilla chip.

Through a new marketing campaign by Frito-Lay North America titled Triangle Tracker, people can currently utilize Snapchat’s augmented reality software to seek, scan, and convert triangular shapes anywhere, including buildings, into Doritos for the chance to win money and other prizes. The company launched the program by illuminating three triangular-shaped structures in bright orange. Along with the aforementioned BIG building in Manhattan, the upside-down triangle shape at the top of Atlanta’s 101 Marietta Street skyscraper and the Memphis Pyramid were converted into gargantuan chips.

To participate, users need to point their Snapchat AR lens at any triangle in their environment or use TikTok to engage in weekly challenges.

Architects can now add accurate sun positioning in real-time with Morpholio Trace's new 'Shadow Maker' tool

2022-03-22T08:00:00-04:00

Morpholio today launched another powerful tool inside its popular TracePro app that allows architects, designers, and landscape architects to "control the sun." Dubbed "Shadow Maker," the new in-app feature lets users add and adjust solar positioning within a project in real-time, providing an accurate and informative way for shadows to be generated within drawings.

Shadow Maker sun positioning in Morpholio TracePro. Image courtesy of Morpholio.

Since the introduction of their Trace app for the iPad in 2012, Morpholio has been positioning itself as a leader in software applications made for architects by architects. After launching several easy-to-use new tools for designers, their latest feature is "game-changing for designers" according to Toru Hasegawa, Morpholio Co-Founder. "Architects can now instantly overlay their model with accurate, geo-located shadows to set or sample sun patterns and immediately use their impact to draw, sketch or design."

According to Morpholio, Shadow ...

Free 3D planning tool launched to help schools teach architecture

2021-09-30T16:17:00-04:00

Planner 5D, a digital design tool, has created a free educational version to help schools teach architecture and design. The tool, which allows users to generate 3D home designs, is offering its free educational licenses to “encourage students to foster their creativity in a digital realm while learning design principles.” The tool is available to teachers worldwide, who can download up to 100 free educational licenses for use by students.

The initiative has been launched to facilitate the teaching of STEM subjects to school kids, including focuses on art, architecture, engineering, and interior design. The app is centered on “problem based learning”, which invites students to develop computational skills by studying and solving home design challenges using a library of 6000 objects.

“With this free educational version for schools, we not only provide students across the globe with access to the platform but also help teachers to encourage them to foster their creativity while l...

Olafur Eliasson wants to bring nature into quarantined homes with his new AR art app WUNDERKAMMER

2020-05-14T18:50:00-04:00

Genre-spanning artist Olafur Eliasson just released WUNDERKAMMER, his latest augmented reality experience in collaboration with the Acute Art app.

"Now we are spending a lot of time indoors, so I thought, okay, let's make a work of art which takes the outside inside," Eliasson explains in a short video released alongside the WUNDERKAMMER app.

Video courtesy of Olafur Eliasson/Acute Art.

"Even though we can't go as much out as we want to, it's so important to kind of not forget that, once all of this is over, we have to look at our environment, we have to look at what is going on with regards to the things we care about so much."

Image courtesy of Olafur Eliasson/Acute Art.

The Acute Art app is available both on the App Store and on Google Play.

The Berlin Wall made discoverable again via AR, 30 years after its fall

2019-08-27T17:36:00-04:00

The installation is part of a week-long festival running from 4-10 November for the 30th anniversary. It aims to “celebrate the successes of the revolution and to recall the joy at regained freedoms and the risks and pains of social upheaval,” according to a statement from the organisers, Kulturprojekte Berlin.

As the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches this November, various art projects prepare to commemorate the events of the peaceful 1989 revolution throughout the city.

Via large-scale interactive installations, 3D video projections, and an augmented reality app, artists seek to give back relevance and historic significance to places that can easily be overlooked and forgotten.

An AR version of the old Berlin Wall "death strip" fortification overlaid on a Berlin sidewalk via the MauAR app. Image via mauar.berlin.

New app identifies construction design hazards

2019-08-12T14:30:00-04:00

Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland have introduced a multimedia app for architects and designers that identifies construction hazards related to building design elements using video and images.

Led by Professor Billy Hare of Glasgow Caledonian University, the team of researchers tested the application among a pool of 40 designers that included "an even mix of experienced and novice architects and engineers." The team asked the group to review a set of CAD drawings for design-related hazards. Half of the participants used the app and the other half used the internet.

"Those using the app identified 599 hazards, or three to five times more incidences by architect and engineers, respectively, than those using just the internet," writes Kim Slowey of Construction Dive.

Churches with open doors: this app gets you into church, literally

2019-06-12T13:41:00-04:00

Eleven churches and chapels in Piedmont, northwest Italy, that have normally been closed to visitors will now be accessible to anyone downloading the app Chiese a porte aperte (Churches with open doors). [...] It enables the visitor to register and book entry to any of the churches, which is automatic and without charge. A guided tour in Italian, French or English is thrown in as well.

Fresco interiors in one of the participating churches. Image via Fondazione CRT/Facebook

"The buildings have been chosen for their architectural or historic interest and because they are on hiking routes, such as the Via Francigena, in the mountains, or near other notable sites," reports The Art Newspaper.

The app is available for Android and iOS.

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...

Why 'smart homes' aren't really that smart yet

2018-09-14T15:38:00-04:00

Today you can have a fully connected home complete with sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, air quality, energy usage, and more, and check in on almost any appliance from anywhere in the world with just a smartphone. But even with all of the various connected appliances, virtual assistants, and copious sensors that can be installed in a modern smart home, the “smart” side of things is still rather lacking.

The Verge senior editor Dan Seifert asks: Wouldn't it be cool if my home could figure everything out on its own?

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...

KieranTimberlake develops an app to analyze occupant experience in passive architecture

2018-05-08T15:51:00-04:00

Architecture studio KieranTimberlake used passive strategies to cool their new Philadelphia office building and installed 300 sensors to record data on how it was performing. Along with their network of sensors, the firm also developed an app called Roast for their employees to rate how they felt in the building.

The Roast app asks the user, “How are you feeling today?” allowing quick surveys pre-populated questions based on building industry standards.

The app offers an interactive online interface to analyze occupant comfort. Filter results to compare comfort acrosss space over time.

This kind of post-occupancy evaluation focuses not just on the building's stats, but also on how people are experiencing the space. Together with metric data and employe experience feedback, the firm was able to produce an overall better design. The building was awarded the AIA’s new Top Ten Plus Award this month, an annual honor given to a building with outstanding performance data.

Want to work at K...

An augmented reality art exhibit hijacks MoMA's Jackson Pollock gallery

2018-04-27T14:57:00-04:00

NEW YORK’S MUSEUM of Modern Art is under siege. Well, a virtual siege, at least. A group of renegade artists has co-opted the brightly-lit Jackson Pollock gallery on the museum’s fifth floor, turning it into their personal augmented reality playground. [...] those that have downloaded the MoMAR Gallery app on their smartphones, the impressionist's iconic paintings are merely markers—points of reference telling the app where to display the guerilla artists’ works.

MoMAR's augmented reality app and the unauthorized accompanying group show Hello, we're from the internet explore the intersection of private physical space and the public digital realm. "MoMAR is an unauthorized gallery concept aimed at democratizing physical exhibition spaces, museums, and the curation of art within them," the group explains on its website. "MoMAR is non-profit, non-owned, and exists in the absence of any privatized structures."

Get the app on Android or iOS and head to MoMA's Jackson Pollock room on the 5th floor to see Hello, we're from the internet until May 3.

This app tells you how much you're “smoking” in the city air you're breathing

2018-04-27T14:17:00-04:00

Shit, I Smoke! was created by Brazilian-born designer Marcelo Coelho and Paris-born app developer Amaury Martiny in just a week, after they read a study that analyzed air pollution and its equivalent to cigarette smoking. [...] Using the formula in [the study], [the app] uses live pollution data from hundreds of air quality stations in cities around the globe and converts the station’s PM2.5 number into the number of cigarettes being inhaled by a person in real time.

“For both Coelho and Martiny, the app isn’t only a useful tool to inform users about their city’s air quality; it also makes this information more accessible and easier to comprehend.”

You can now play Tetris with Soviet-style housing blocks

2018-04-18T14:13:00-04:00

If you've been around the 'architecture-can-be-fun-too'-focused internet for a while, you may remember Sergej Hein's semi-viral gem of a video, Berlin Block Tetris, which was exactly that: an animated version of the video game classic using building blocks that resembled socialist-era residential high-rises.

Lithuanian designer Lukas Valiauga has now taken the idea to the next, interactive, level and created the mobile app Tower Block Game.

Tower Block Game by Lukas Valiauga

"This game is a playful tribute to a not so playful reality of monotonous and bleak cityscapes built out of same prefabricated concrete blocks," the app description explains. "Very specific for Eastern-Europe but evident everywhere else, too. These relic tower blocks usually mark failed social programmes and neighbourhoods planned as clumsy as some failed building block game… On that note, build and demolish one for yourself!"

Tower Block Game is available for Android from the Google Play store.

Not much of a gam...

Startup pharmacy space in Brooklyn designed by Sergio Mannino Studio

2018-03-27T17:42:00-04:00

Sergio Mannino Studio recently completed a pharmacy retail project in Brooklyn. The space is a flagship for Medly, a healthcare startup offering a more efficient and enjoyable way for the community to order prescription medicine via an app.

Medly pharmacy designed by Sergio Mannino Studio, located in Brooklyn. Image: Sergio Mannino Studio.

Medly's goal for the waiting room was to encourage face-to-face consultations between healthcare professionals and the community rather than long lines to collect medication.

Medly pharmacy designed by Sergio Mannino Studio, located in Brooklyn. Image: Sergio Mannino Studio.

Two large vinyl leather and chrome benches occupy the waiting room, each seating four people.

Medly pharmacy designed by Sergio Mannino Studio, located in Brooklyn. Image: Sergio Mannino Studio.

A corrugated, perforated screen runs along the rear wall to partition off the administration area, where the prescriptions are sorted. In total, the space measures 1,900 square feet.

Med...

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."

Panopticon is the new open-plan

2017-09-29T14:38:00-04:00

Good news! In response to your “concerns” about our current open-plan creative campus, we are pleased to announce our new building: a towering panopticon à la Jeremy Bentham’s eighteenth-century vision of utilitarian corporate efficiency! In our new office, all team members will work in isolated, transparent rooms called “Cells” on the periphery of a circular tower called “Synergon.” At the center of Synergon, management will reside in “Nest,” a glowing, elevated sphere of omniscience.

Alex Baia imagines dystopian panopticon office space for app creators.

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.

Transform your phone into an augmented-reality ruler with the soon-to-be-released app AR Measure

2017-06-29T13:46:00-04:00

If you've ever wanted to measure the dimensions of a window that you can't reach physically, it's largely been a trick of algebra. However, the new AR Measure App, as developed by Laan Labs, promises to make it easy to accurately measure physical objects by simply pointing an iOS device at it. In the demo video, the app is able to instantly render the dimensions of a physical object using the existing sensors of an iPhone or iPad.

"Boat." Image: AR Measure

In a press release, Laan Labs notes that “A lot of the credit here goes to the brilliant engineers at Apple. Our app is built on top of the ARKit Framework that was announced at WWDC 2017. That framework allows us to identify points in space using the iPhones sensors and camera input and then measure the distance between those points.”

"Stool." Image: AR Measure

The demos only show the measurement of height or width of relatively flat objects, as opposed to the surface of a curvy or circular item. In practical terms, this makes th...

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.

Swiping right (or left!) on the architectural future of the city of Santa Monica

2017-01-24T19:54:00-05:00

Combining the swiftness of contemporary dating with the decades-long process of urban planning, the city of Santa Monica has introduced "CitySwipe," an app that allows you to comment on everything from transportation to building design to the availability of fine dining in Santa Monica's downtown.

You don't even have to live in Santa Monica to weigh-in (there's a swipe for that). As civic data gathering goes, it is definitely more fun than the census, and more pictorially honest than most hook-up apps.

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:

A tour of experiential magical realism games from the Triennale Game Collection

2016-08-16T13:11:00-04:00

Among the discoveries in the magical realist-flavored experiential series of smartphone games from the Triennale Game Collection is just how compelling this format is for exploring the nuances of architecture, even if that architecture pushes the limits of physics (and is often heavily layered with surreal color and effects).

"The Worm Room" by Katie Rose Pipkin. Image: Triennale Game Collection.

With visual allusions to everything from Pixar to Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain," the games emphasize the experience (hence, "experiential") over a plot-driven, goal-oriented construct. Nonetheless, each game has its own internal logic and rules, and rewards players with different visual effects and paths the longer they explore each world.

"Neighbor" by by Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy and Ben Babbitt. Image: Triennale Game Collection.

Check out this video, which takes you through a quick tour of the five iOS/Android compatible games:

Kids play with virtual skyscrapers in new app

2016-08-04T19:08:00-04:00

"Spark a blackout, fix a pipe, or clog the toilets. Test your building’s engineering when dinosaurs invade, lightning strikes, or the earth quakes. Find out what keeps skyscrapers standing tall and people happy in them all." So says the description of the newly launched Skyscrapers by Tinybop, a game app for kids that allows users to essentially play in and around skyscrapers, like an urban-planning minded King Kong. Players can construct their own towers and then wreck havoc (or try to maintain order) with their creations. Here are a few screenshots of the game in action:

For more on games (it's Archinect's editorial theme this month):

And here's a video:

Moscow's own version of Pokémon Go will let you "catch" famous figures from Russian history

2016-07-25T13:46:00-04:00

Moscow City Hall has announced the launch of its own version of online game “Pokemon Go.” Russians will be asked to find and "catch" historical figures in the streets of the capital via an app called “Know Moscow.Photo.” [...] people will be able to catch and take a selfie with [...] Yury Gagarin, Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Chaikovsky, [founder of the first Russian university] Mikhail Lomonosov, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and the tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich,” [...]

Morpholio's new "ScalePen" offers a new way to draw on Trace app

2016-03-22T18:44:00-04:00

It is not only a new way of working, it is part of the latest renaissance in drawing; imagining the heart of the designer merged with the brain of a computer.

Morpholio has just released “ScalePen”, a patent-pending tool used to draft on the developer’s popular "Trace" app for the iPad. The company’s co-creator, Anna Kenoff, views ScalePen as an “entirely new opportunity for architectural drawing… Rather than setting or keeping records of your own pen weight, Morpholio makes the software do the work for you.”

With the development of CAD, hand drafting has seemingly become a thing of the past. “Fortunately, creative production is fueled by much more than just efficiency”, says Morpholio, adding that “architects and designers have given new rise to hand drawing and sketching as part of their process - a renaissance no doubt ushered in by the touchscreen and stylus.”

The app offers an assortment of pen sizes that respond as the stylus is moved around, through and into the drawing. The ScalePen feature checks the drawing scale and zoom level continuously to automatically assign a calibrated set of technical pens. Morpholio suggests that it save...

New app monitors the urban environment and its affects on mental wellbeing

2016-03-21T19:20:00-04:00

As the number of people moving to cities continues to rise, with 66% of the global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, it is critical to understand how urban living is affecting us

Living in a concrete jungle has its pros and its cons, but how exactly does urban living affect mental wellbeing? A new cross-disciplinary project intents to find out by using a smartphone app called Urban Mind. The app is designed to monitor various aspects of a metropolitan environment - specifically noise, density, overcrowding, walkability, sociability and street activity. The team is now inviting the general public to download the app on their smartphone and participate in the research for a period of seven days.

“As the number of people moving to cities continues to rise, with 66% of the global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, it is critical to understand how urban living is affecting us” urges representatives.

After downloading and installing the app, participants will be asked to answer questions about their current urban environment and mental wellbeing at random times throughout the day. When answering a set of questions participants also have the option o...