Blog/Spacio/Reusing knowledge and reducing waste with Spacio - the AI design platform for architects.

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Reusing knowledge and reducing waste with Spacio - the AI design platform for architects.

Wasted resources and opportunity.

Every year, the architectural industry wastes countless working hours on solving problems that have already been solved time and time again. They’re constantly re-inventing the wheel so to speak by failing to reuse building information from existing projects, whether from their own practice or the industry at large.

Instead of tapping into the vast knowledge contained within existing projects and practices, hundreds of thousands of modern-day architects continue to rely solely on their personal experience or that of their closest co-workers. This tendency is reinforced by the reliance on BIM-tools that primarily require manual input, and that don’t provide adequate guidance to ensure optimal architectural outcomes.

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Not only does this represent a huge waste of talent and resources for the individual firms, but the failure to properly reuse information is impeding the evolution of the architectural profession by diverting resources from the pursuit of optimal solutions over to repetitive, manual tasks.

These tasks could be more efficiently and effectively solved by computer algorithms, which can complete them at a fraction of the time, and thus at a fraction of the cost.

The end result is that architects are spending their hours clicking the same buttons over and over to solve problems which they, their co-workers, and the industry has most likely solved before. This time spent on repetitive tasks takes away from the architects' ability to communicate with clients, find optimal solutions, and ultimately create better architecture.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Imagine a platform that enables architects to draw upon existing knowledge, building information, floor plans, and architectural expertise to design, iterate, and optimise building performance. Such a platform could allow architects, engineers, property developers, contractors, and the entire AEC industry to shift their entire focus towards creating optimal, energy-efficient, cost-effective, and aesthetically pleasing buildings.

By providing a more efficient way to access and utilise existing knowledge, this platform could help streamline the design process and free up resources to pursue more innovative and impactful solutions. This would not only benefit the architects themselves and their employers, but also their clients, the end-users, and local communities as a whole.

This is the kind of platform we’re building with Spacio. Below you can read about how the solution came to be, and how it’s going to revolutionise the way we design buildings, and thereby the quality of the buildings themselves.

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Why Rethink How We Design Buildings?

Designing buildings has been a fundamental part of human civilisation since the dawn of time. Yearly, we are building around half a million structures in Europe alone, and this trend is set to continue until at least 2050.

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However, there are countless challenges we need to address to make the design process more efficient and effective. Here’s a few:

  • Firstly, we have yet to fully organise ourselves around key principles such as interoperability and standardised data representations, or in other words - digital tools that can communicate their data with each other. This creates communication barriers between softwares and design teams, leading to frequent project delays, high costs, and less performant and aesthetically pleasing buildings.
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  • Secondly, architects and engineers tend to solve the same problems repeatedly, leading to redundancy and inefficiency. While each project is unique, the design process often follows the same patterns, which often results in going two steps forward and one step back. This is in large part due to the increasing complexity of various parameters, as well as regulatory requirements. The buildings themselves are becoming more and more complex, and in turn the work requirement of their designers are become equally complex.
  • Thirdly, building knowledge is rarely documented and shared within an office or the industry. Projects tend to start from a blank canvas, rather than a solid foundation of data-based facts. At the end of a project, architects and engineers own a vast amount of data in various file formats, but have no way to utilise it. As a result, much of the experience gained during a project goes to waste, or is transferred by the design team to their peers at best. The knowledge of the performance parameters of the project is lost.
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Addressing these challenges requires us to rethink the value chain of the design process for architectural projects. By collecting and reusing building information from past experiences, we can make better design decisions. In doing so, we can make the design process more efficient, sustainable, and innovative, leading to better outcomes for everyone involved.

Rethinking the value chain.

Spacio co-founders André Agi, Franz Forsberg, and Stian Haugrim previously worked together in a large Scandinavian architecture firm. There, they led the development and implementation of parametric design to solve interoperability issues and enable iterative design processes.

Their custom workflows allowed them to answer questions such as:

  • What building height is needed to block noise pollution inside a courtyard?
  • What factors contribute to poor wind conditions on a street?
  • Where should windows be placed to optimise views, daylight, thermal comfort, and energy performance?

However, this level of data-driven design was only possible with their custom tools and know-how, which were not widely available in the industry. To address this, they developed a vision for an all-in-one tool to design buildings and answer all design questions.

Their goal became to create a platform for documenting and structuring building-data, and to provide tools for visualising, comparing, and iterating these datasets.

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How can we structure knowledge about buildings?

To structure building-data, we follow a three-step process.

  • First, we represent buildings as data trees. This approach allows us to create a relational data representation of every element in a building, enabling a system where every element is aware of its surroundings and can react to changes from its neighbouring elements.

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  • Next, we document building information by collecting and generating thousands of floor plans. We evaluate each plan using both soft and hard metrics, taking into account architectural qualities and environmental impacts. This comprehensive documentation allows us to build a vast architectural knowledge base.

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  • Finally, we make this knowledge accessible to designers through Spacio. By providing access to this vast knowledge base, Spacio gives designers inspiration, clarity, and confidence in making sensitive judgements. With Spacio, designers can leverage the power of data to create more sustainable, efficient, and beautiful buildings.

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Experience the magic of real-time simulations.

One of the core beliefs we hold is that designers do not fail enough. This is because architects and engineers' decisions are not evaluated enough and their design processes are not truly iterative and based on a circular "try, evaluate, conclude"-approach.

We have always been obsessed with optimisation, and have learned that in order to optimise buildings, we need to answer various design questions repeatedly, every time a variable changes.

Spacio takes this to the next level by using machine-learning to leverage the power of structured data trees. The topological relationship of every building element in Spacio allows us to train various models that can answer complex design questions such as daylight availability in a room, thermal comfort, the building's energy use, wind speeds, and comfort in outdoor spaces within seconds.

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Designers can try, evaluate immediately, refine, understand, and build intuition on how design changes impact the performance of their design. Spacio also includes workflows for sustainable environmental design which accounts for many performance indicators, and thereby ensuring a holistic design approach.

State-of-the-art accuracy.

While getting feedback as fast as possible is beneficial, there is a trade-off as machine learning models are not always suitable for documentation purposes.

To ensure compliance with local regulations and green certifications such as BREEAM, LEED, or WELL, Spacio collaborates with strategic partners that have validated simulation engines. This enables designers to evaluate and document their design decisions without ever leaving the platform. This also ties in with the core idea of Spacio: Access existing information and knowledge without leaving the platform.

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For example, Spacio connects to Nablaflow's API to conduct wind analysis using high-density mesh grids and cloud simulation, with post-processed results seamlessly integrated into the Spacio scene. Alternatively, users can download their data and delve deeper into the intricacies of Computational Fluid Dynamics.

What does all of this mean for you, as an architect?

As an architect, you can let Spacio do the heavy lifting and enable you to make data-driven decisions with confidence that minimise risk and cost in your projects. Simply put, the platform allows you to design and iterate buildings much, much faster than in traditional BIM-tools, and immediately display your project’s performance parameters.

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Feasibility studies

Spacio's generative design algorithms enable you to conduct feasibility studies at city, neighbourhood, or plot scale up to 90 times faster than traditional methods. You can instantly evaluate parameters such as daylight access potential, noise pollution, wind comfort, and thereby shape your projects more confidently.

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Floor plans

Spacio's automated floorplan generation for any volume allows you to focus on sensitivity analysis and environmental design while it does the heavy lifting. You can show your clients optimised sellable square meters, furnishable spaces, views and daylight qualities, thermal comfort, and other aspects that highlight project qualities.

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LCA

With Spacio's integrated Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) assessment, complying with new standards is easy, and you can challenge yourself to greatly decrease reduce your project's carbon emissions. Our research partners develop methodologies and various story-tellings to guide you from research questions to hypothesis, testing, detailing, validating, and more.

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Whether you're starting a project from scratch or importing a model from Rhino3d or BIM Spacio will guide you in creating great projects.

Are you a building engineer or performance analyst?

With Spacio, you can be involved in the building design process early on and work closely with the design team to clarify project ambitions. For instance, you can access the building models, download high-precision Building Energy Models (BEM) or BIM files, and perform additional analyses to optimise building performance.

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With Spacio's advanced IFC file processing, you can easily convert it into smart data trees, upscaling the original format. You’ll be able to connect live to Rhino/Grasshopper and use your parametric facade script to inject solar shades or other features.

Ultimately, you spend less time working with data and more time applying your expertise to optimising building performance.

Human societies will always need architects.

We understand the indispensable role that architects play in shaping our built environment. Therefore, we have tailored Spacio to meet the needs of fellow professionals in the field.

We believe that smart design tools should enhance and amplify a designer's creativity, not replace it. Spacio streamlines data processing and contextualises information, empowering designers to make informed decisions and design with confidence.

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Designing a building requires a lot of considerations. Spacio guides you in creating occupant-centered, sustainable, and environmentally-conscious design. We prioritise creating architecture that is centered around the people who will inhabit and interact with it, while also prioritising eco-responsibility to our planet and future. Spacio’s site-specific approach ensures harmony with the surrounding environment.

As the AEC and Tech industries converge, Spacio is aiming to be at the forefront of driving change. We aim to bridge the gap between technology and architecture, and empower architects and engineers to design and build a better future.

Our feelings are shared by many.

At Spacio, we strive to ensure that our platform meets the needs of the industry by collaborating closely with architect offices, engineering firms, property developers, and municipalities. Through our beta-testing program, these partners provide invaluable feedback, helping us continuously shape and refine Spacio into the ultimate building design platform.

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Our team is also growing, and among others we have new members Niklas Haschke and Sturla Røysland, two industry professionals who have joined us on this exciting journey. Together, we want to move the boundaries of what BIM solutions can do and help improve the industry as a whole.

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