No Longer Just Pretty Pictures, Digital Models Are Becoming Workhorses

Slowly, firms are starting to combine digitalbuilding models with wider-scale geospatial data and other information as they design, analyze, build, and maintain their projects

6/5/2006 By Ted Smalley Bowen

Although global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), 3D modeling, and graphics technologies are standard tools in many design firms, architecture is still executed through a somewhat disjointed progression of 2D and 3D representations of buildings. While this is problem enough for single building projects, the resulting jumble of spatial and graphical information makes it especially hard to grasp the details of larger-scale work that involves campuses, city blocks, and urban development schemes.

	Geospatial data and 3D CAD are helping KPF design London’s tallest building. The firm created this image to study the building’s impact on the neighborhood. Image: Courtesy KPF/Cityscape

But sophisticated design and graphics packages have opened up formal possibilities, while GPS, GIS systems, photogrammetry (measuring objects from photos), and laser range finders have brought greater accuracy to the measurement and representation of buildings, objects, and spaces in 3D. These tools are helping firms get a better grasp on what designs are possible, how they will fit into their neighborhoods, and how to build them. As long-time proponents of building information modeling (BIM) have long pointed out, the potential benefits of designing with a “master” 3D model (or 4D if the element of time is added) span all aspects of design and construction, from project management to maintenance to cost containment and community review. And while no single company provides a “Swiss army knife” tool for 3D design, modeling and project-management applications are becoming more interoperable, and architects are learning how to meld these tools into everyday practice. As a number of firms are finding, such models can improve design, communications, budgeting, and construction.

	KPF created 3D models of Bishopsgate Tower in London for study and design purposes: A view of the tower (above) from the Tate Modern Gallery across the Thames River. Image: Courtesy KPF/Cityscape

Using 3D to stand tall in London

In designing Bishopsgate Tower, which will be London’s tallest building at 1,008 feet high, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has had to be keenly sensitive to the building site’s surroundings. The city has traditionally guarded the view corridors around St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament, and other landmarks, but recent planning decisions have made way for high-rises that some contend will block key sight lines. Because of these concerns, the tower’s design has been thoroughly analyzed and reviewed to determine its visual impact and to otherwise check its compliance with relevant codes and standards. The project was commissioned by the German developer and fund manager DIFA.

On this project and others, KPF has made extensive use of 3D visualization and modeling software along with geospatial data, according to Lars Hesselgren, KPF’s London-based research director. To aid in conducting site studies, KPF worked with a 3D city model of London generated from a traditional map, photogrammetry, laser-point clouds derived from a scanning of site features, and radio triangulation data (which is similar to GPS, but uses radio signals instead of satellite transmissions to gather and transmit information).

	Tthe entry from the adjacent Crosby Square. Image Courtesy: KPF/Cityscape

Although the data collection involves many pieces of software and equipment, the process is far from automated. “The problem is how to convert spatial data into comprehensible models,” he says. “You always need an operator to interpret the data into usable geometry.” KPF uses its 3D models in the production of photographic montages, animations, and fly-throughs, according to Hesselgren. Linked to a parametric model containing more robust design data instead of just geometric information, the 3D model aids real-time design, he adds. Such models are also used to establish a building’s visibility, by placing a light source on a given structure and shining it onto an eye-level ground plane, he said.

In five to ten years, it should be possible for a person wearing specially equipped virtual-reality glasses to view a landscape or cityscape with an overlay of geospatially correct CAD information for projects, according to Hesselgren. “That direct input will bypass a huge amount of the other technology we’ve been talking about,” he says. Like many firms, KPF is aiming to use 3D models for centralized management of building information. “As it is, there’s a huge amount of double handling,” Hesselgren says. “Everyone uses different CAD packages, and communication depends on everyone using the same software.” Since 1995, the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) has been working to establish standards for interfaces between software programs to combat this problem. Its members have hashed out Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) for sharing digital design data and other project information among applications, and vendors like Graphisoft, Autodesk, and Bentley Systems have added support for the IFCs to some of their software. Like any effort to create standards, the gains have been slow in coming, but there’s evidence that their work is making inroads, with the General Services Administration (GSA) soliciting information on the use of IFCs earlier this year, and countries like Norway and Malaysia adopting methods for sharing digital design information based on IFCs.

A research center comes together in virtual and actual space

	For a research and technology center at the University of Washington, M.A. Mortenson is bringing together a 3D building model with scheduling data to create a visual timeline for construction. Image Courtesy: M.A. Mortenson Company

In working with Frank Gehry on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Daniel Libeskind on the expansion of the Denver Art Museum, Seattle-based design and construction firm M.A. Mortenson Company makes extensive use of 3D and 4D design and visualization programs, including Revit, formZ, ArchiCAD, and others. The firm is now handling the design, construction, and maintenance of the University of Washington’s new research and technology building in Seattle. The project provides an opportunity to take advantage of modeling and visualization applications, according to design coordinator Dace Campbell. “Contractually, our partners are vested in making this work,” he says. “Everyone’s building a 3D model—the mechanical subcontractors, electrical and construction workers, the architect, civil and structural engineers, all in their own flavor of CAD. We’re the nondenominational data consolidator.”

Mortenson is using the 3D model and Primavera scheduling software to coordinate the project. “We’re doing visualization over time—kind of a poor man’s animation,” he says. Campbell himself is the human hub for the project, but subcontractors, tradespeople, and clients are using the tools on their own. Working in 3D allows the trades to coordinate their tasks, improve logistics, and increase the use of prefabricated or modular components.

Color-coding the ductwork and other m/e/p systems (above and below) helps designers take note of possible conflicts with other building elements and correct them before mistakes are made in the field.

At the job site, Mortenson is issuing stereoscopic goggles to the builders for viewing models. “We’ve got iron workers looking at details with 3D glasses on. Everything’s dimensionally accurate,” he says. Using GIS data from the university’s survey grid, surveyors are able to translate the model to the building site. “It’s automatically being built just as it’s designed, which greatly reduces error,” he says.

The 3D models also improve m/e/p coordination, making it easier to detect conflicts and therefore save money on costly fixes. So far, the project team has detected about 1,500 conflicts, ranging from those as minor as pipes being aligned too closely to as large as entire m/e/p systems in conflict around stairs, says Campbell.

The firm has a 10-year goal to save 30 percent in labor costs, a major portion of which is expected to come from better design coordination. “The idea is to avoid redoing work,” he says. “Most injuries are related to rework, when things are hurried and less planned.” The technology is also forcing a shift in job skills, requiring people to be able to adapt to new ways of collecting, viewing, and using data. “Whether you can work in 3D or not will be a divider in the industry [in the future],” says Campbell.

Making models work—for both design and practice

City models created in 3D software are also becoming routine components of major design competitions. In preparing their entry for the GSA’s Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse renovation in New York, the Boston firm Goody Clancy was given digital 3D models of several parts of the city, says David de Sola, AIA, an architect at the firm. (The contract for the project ultimately went to Beyer Blinder Belle.) Like KPF, Goody Clancy is also looking to 3D modeling for building information management and cost estimating. “When we model in 3D, we can get volumes and amounts of materials, and we can start on a cost model,” he says. “And when we present it to people to show them what we’ll get, it makes sense to them.”

The firm is looking at WinEstimator, Revit, and e-SPEC as off-the-shelf components of a building information management system, along with some proprietary software for what de Sola calls “the tendons and ligaments” to help the packages work together. Maintaining a central 3D model for each project is attractive, but also raises the question of who hosts it and how to hash out access among project team members. In the meantime, the designers are making extensive use of a simpler 3D package, SketchUp. “It gets you into realistic 3D representation fast. Anyone can understand the drawings, and almost everyone can use it,” he said.

	For a research and technology center at the University of Washington, M.A. Mortenson is bringing together a 3D building model with scheduling data to create a visual timeline for construction.

Many firms are expressing interest in 3D and 4D mapping and modeling for project logistics, according to Paul Seletsky, digital design director for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York and chair of AIA New York City’s technology committee. “You have to be able to look at what’s around a given site, figure out how to stage delivery of materials and equipment, and how that might affect the surroundings,” he says. Although they’re too costly for many firms, immersive displays like those used in the automotive industry will eventually migrate to the AEC community, Seletsky believes.

Goody Clancy’s design for the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in New York was set into a 3D map of the city provided to firms entering the competition. Images: Courtesy Goody Clancy

Over and above the challenge of developing coherent, accurate 3D representations of structures, this work typically falls outside the scope and budget of most projects. “You can’t ask for extra work from designers without giving them more time and money to do it,” says Seth Teller, associate professor of computer science and engineering at MIT, whose office is in Frank Gehry’s Stata Center and who compiled time-lapse sequences of the building’s construction (see images online at monitor.csail.mit.edu/index_flash.html).

Equally important is not losing sight of design fundamentals. “You need to have people who understand the information they’re given,” Seletsky says. “When you look at the scan of a site, can you understand what the site’s about? You need to know things like the location of utilities, underground transport, and nuances in soil conditions. It’s not just about graphic skills.” Painters may paint what they see, but future architects have a lot more on their plates: They will not only design, but they will also model, analyze, annotate, build, and maintain their creations.

Researchers delve into 3D modeling studies Academic powerhouses are turning out some of the leading-edge research in 3D modeling, including large-scale image capture, spatial orientation, visualization, and methods of populating building models with relevant, up-to-date information. At MIT, researchers are mapping and navigating 3D environments at scales from building interiors to city blocks (below). A key element of their work involves building topological models using geospatial coordinates. Position-aware sensors can be installed in a space for environmental monitoring, security, or other purposes, and users can add extra data associated with specific locations in a model, such as contractor instructions or results of occupant surveys. Images: Courtesy MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (left); goody clancy (right) Researchers are capturing most exterior images with GPS instruments, traditional surveying equipment, as well as “dead reckoning” (heading and speed) data. Interiors (and exteriors beyond the reach of GPS) are mapped using MIT’s Cricket Indoor Location System, a radio frequency and ultrasound positioning system accurate to within a couple of inches. “You can get the appearance of a small number of city blocks by collecting data manually and using laser, still images, and video. But the geometry is in appearance only,” says Seth Teller, associate professor of computer science and engineering and lead investigator of MIT’s City Scanning Project. Existing data has to be merged with the mere geometric information of the model, Teller says. Rapid image capture merged with geospatial data is finding a variety of applications in design. Architects and planners have been using the data to conduct solar studies, energy modeling, tax assessment, and emergency services planning. “It’s not only about modeling spaces, but also enriching those models with critical information,” he says. The maps and associated data, stored in a database, are available remotely and on-site through GIS-style maps. A variety of applications that run on handheld devices, for tasks like building inspection, maintenance, and project management, will allow real-time access to data in the field, according to Teller. Users (or robots, eventually) can modify information while on-site. “You can start making useful annotations even without an object model, and that model can come into being as part of the natural process of adding annotation.” Add a projector to the handheld, point it at a wall, and you can “see” hidden structures by displaying details from the model on their corresponding physical locations; or mark construction materials with radio frequency tags, and “you could have an as-built on the fly, as a side benefit,” he says. It’s becoming easier to generate photorealistic GPS-oriented 3D models of city blocks, too. Such mapping is finding its way to the Web through the likes of Google and Amazon, which are beginning to link search results with images of places. Stanford University’s Google-sponsored research involves generating panoramic street-level views from video and laser measurements. The University of California, Berkeley is also working on 3D city modeling, using aerial and ground-level laser scans and photographs. While the speed and accuracy of data-collection tools continue to improve, the challenge is to anchor the swirl of spatial and image data in coherent, consistent frameworks, so that architects, planners, or even consumers can make use of the results.