When computer-aided design (CAD) programs such as AutoCAD were introduced, many architects and designers rushed to adopt the new technology in their workplaces.
But that was in the 1990s.
Since then, technology has not advanced much in their fields. However, proptech companies are now looking to speed up construction times with a new generation of digital tools designed to help builders, architects and designers work more efficiently. However, the level of adoption of the technology varies, experts said.
“In many ways, PassiveLogic was born from the needs of the architectural side,” said Troy Harvey, founder and CEO of PassiveLogic, a Salt Lake City-based network that uses technology to make commercial, industrial buildings and that of many families be more powerful. . “How does an architect’s building plan come true in terms of installation and construction, as well as the operational side? Most of the projects we’ve done so far, which really started on our journey, were architect driven.
“Today, most of the deals we do are about engineering and MEP [mechanical, electrical and plumbing] firms, together with operations and ownership, as a kind of complete group.”
PassiveLogic’s tech stack includes Building Studio, a tool that allows users to design, model a site and simulate it all in one program.
“We’re covering that infrastructure life cycle within one set of different tools,” Harvey said. “Different clients can come to us – whether they’re on the architect side and say, ‘I’ve got a lot of buildings, and I’m working with architects, and it goes back to those architects who work. and it – or will. as architects who need a solution to how their designs really live and not be improved.
“In the middle is an MEP or an energy engineer trying to drive a project to get LEED Platinum certification or something like that, working with architects and property owners.”
Harvey found that proptech innovations are being widely adopted by architects, contractors and employers, but said such digital solutions must be tailored to specific needs.
“So the gap we saw is that on the other end of the market, you have tools like Trimble, which has a tool called SketchUp,” he said. “It was born 20 years ago. It’s quick to sketch out your rough ideas like an architect, but, at the end of the day, it doesn’t know anything about architecture. You have this kind of raw geometry. What you do today as an architect is you sketch out your rough ideas in SketchUp, throw the whole thing away, and go to another tool, like Autodesk’s Revit. [Revit building information modeling software] and you will do the whole thing again from the beginning.
None of those products work consistently from the architect to the construction engineer to the contractor, he concluded. “It’s a big and difficult process.”
Higharc, which describes itself as a “remote growth-first operation,” is focused on creating an efficient, autonomous cloud-based home building platform. Michael Bergin is Higharc’s co-founder and vice president of product.
“We control the details needed to build homes from the client’s interaction, so they can define all the options in their home and see the house transformed like a video game,” said Bergin, who is a professional himself. an architect who worked at Autodesk, there. he headed the automation research group. “We present materials that represent the home the buyer has completed, along with pricing, if the builder has chosen to provide it.”
With digital management and data generation throughout the process, Higharc can reduce a two- to five-week process to a few seconds, Bergin said.
Unlike other proptech companies that treat architecture and design as an individual discipline, Higharc takes a different approach to the residential construction industry.
“We’re focused on home builders in particular,” Bergin said. “There are about a million single-family homes that are built in the United States every year. About half of them are built in the so-called “production community style”, where there is a plot of land that is bought and made into many different houses. All of these homes have options associated with them, and to the extent that we work with architects and designers, they are often installed by home builders or third party architects. which has many options and variations in it. ”
While at Autodesk, Bergin worked on applying artificial intelligence (AI) to architecture. In doing so, he noted the conflict between the use of AI and the basic business model of an architecture firm: “Mostly, it is a fee-based system related to the time it takes and the number of estimates that are made for the development of purpose.”
Bergin said that’s why architects were slow to adopt the new technology. He said: “So if you compress everything that an architect does, which is really important even in the case of a simple house, in a very short time using artificial intelligence, it’s almost against the many influences that exist in the field of design and engineering for business practice today.”
Despite such opposition, Higharc works with architects and designers, Bergin added.
But, typically, because production builders work in large quantities, they need to move very quickly. There is a huge shortfall in the number of homes that can be built in the United States each year against market demand. So they are building more houses, and they still need to build more. Because of that pressure, we have found a very good entry point in the market for using automation technology and artificial intelligence for this industry, because the developers are encouraged to reduce that time, which they call simple circuit. .”
Two other proptech startups in the architecture field are Brivo, a Bethesda, Md.-based cloud software company focused on security architecture and design; and Monograph, a San Francisco-based project management firm, is central to planning for design and engineering firms.
The proptech trend is moving to Spain, where Ana Lozano Portillo is the founder and CEO of Nidas Lab, a startup focused on AI-driven behavior for innovation and creativity.
“We started in April 2023 as a result of developing a very promising product in another company I founded a few years ago, an architectural consulting firm,” said Portillo. “It came about as a result of identifying what we consider to be the main pain in the real estate industry, especially when it comes to the early stages of investing. Nidas was born to help developers, architecture firms and investment funds unlocking the potential of a particular project by creating and improving the design in the first place.”
That includes analyzing the buildable area, urban areas and business mix involved in the project, he said.
“In short, what would it take us as an architecture firm to develop a project traditionally between four weeks to four months with a team of architects, we can do it on time is less than 12 hours with a high rate of operation, including different project types,” said Portillo. “This allows the investor or developer to compare different ideas for different projects of designs and different methods of project testing, even in business.”
Already working with the first paying customers in beta form, Nidas plans to fully launch the “innovative autonomous driver” in the fall, Portillo said. The product can be used in Spain and France – and possibly soon in the US – by real estate developers, architecture firms, investment funds, and builders and contractors.
Like other founders in the architecture and proptech industry, Portillo is struggling with the sluggishness of adoption in his home country.
“In my opinion, the American market has matured and the willingness to use this type of disruptive technology is much higher than the European market, although the big players in Europe are starting to look for new tools that will improve their lives, especially the part of the problem we want to solve,” he said. “The main differences are – you might be surprised by this – the small number of competitors we have around the world. Some of them are based in the US. One is the big competitor, Testfit. And the other one is in Norway, Spacemaker AI.
As startups try to pitch their tents under architecture and architecture, KP Reddy, founder and managing partner of Atlanta-based technology business Shadow Ventures, brings an experienced skepticism to the topic.
Reddy, an engineer who worked with renowned architect Frank Gehry at Gehry Technologies said: “Most of the interactions we see are not pleasant. “It’s mostly about translation. And I’d say the real high-end stuff is a lot of what we’re seeing – AI for architects.
“Well, that said, our general opinion is that the architecture market is a very bad market to start in. They don’t spend money, they want to charge by the hour, and they don’t have innovation. in their business model to think, ‘Oh, instead of charging by the hour, maybe I can do something different.’ It’s almost like, ‘No, that’s how we charged for centuries. We’re going to keep charging the same way.’ But what’s interesting is that we’re seeing a lot of movement from some people using architectural tools to avoid using architecture.”
For real estate developers, the opposition to technology is not about being cheap, but looking for better ways to save time, said Reddy.
“They’re generally not satisfied,” he said of developers who constantly complain about how long development is taking. So what they’re starting to do is use some of these AI-focused tools to do their initial planning.
Reddy points to one of his portfolio companies, Icon, an Austin-based construction technology company that uses 3D robotics and software.
“They’re doing a lot of buildings other than houses these days,” he said.
bedroom or whatever.’ So you see some of those things, but, if you think about it, they’re not aimed at architects. They are aimed at the end consumer and they are aimed at the builder. ”
Making technical tools for an architect may not make sense, he continued.
“What works is to create an AI design tool so that it doesn’t work with the architect, but goes directly to the engineering firm, the construction company, or to the owner. I think it’s really ts “The first widespread use of real industry disruption, as opposed to everyone using AI to do their job faster. And I think that’s what’s interesting.”
Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.
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