geodesign – mammoth // building nothing out of something

geodesign

In an article at Architect, Loud Paper‘s Mimi Zeiger explores the growing entanglement of GIS and BIM applications, and the potential impact of this relationship for architecture:

Loosely defined as the integration of geographic analysis and tools into the design process, the term “geodesign”… as Dangermond [the president of ESRI, makers of ArcGIS] sees it, is shorthand for the complex interrelationship of spatial data and architecture. It is the interface between land use, census blocks, traffic patterns, air quality tables, and any other data set, on the one hand, and the process of building—site planning, conceptual design, programming, and construction drawings—on the other…

Ray and Charles Eames’ 1977 short film for IBM visualizes both macro and micro systems; beginning with a couple on a picnic blanket, the film zooms exponentially outward from a distance of 1 meter to 100 million light years. This is GIS: It offers a grand, global scope. The film then reverses itself and plunges deep into cellular and atomic structures. Here, the parallel is to BIM; programs such as Revit contain the innermost workings of buildings—steel structure down to door handles and screws. “BIM/GIS integration promises the replacement of abstract zoning standards with building … performance that can be tested and modeled for not only the building site, but … the city on the whole,” explains de Monchaux [a professor at the University of California, Berkeley].

3 Responses to “geodesign”

  1. You might want to take a look at Autodesk’s Digital Cities project. There’s not that much about it, because it’s fairly customized and designed for governments.

  2. rob says:

    I’m taking a look, but with great trepidation (given that most of my Autodesk experience is with AutoCAD, which has provoked more curses from me than any other piece of software)…

  3. Well, if it makes you feel better, Autodesk is going to get blindsided by ESRI. The OGC Reference Model is much more extensible than whatever spit-and-glue integration Autodesk offers between the products it has bought up over the past decade.

    AutoCAD is garbage, Autodesk knows it, but they’ll never let the poor old cow go to pasture because it’s just too profitable.