Contract - March 2015 - 30

PHOTOGRAPHY: CARL BOWER

COLUMNIST

Moving Beyond BIM: Why Data is Integral in the Technology Discussion

by Evelyn M. Lee, AIA

Evelyn M. Lee, AIA,
writes a regular column
for Contract on business
practices in design
and professional
development. Lee is
a senior strategist at
MKThink, the ideas
company for the built
environment based in
San Francisco, and holds
graduate degrees in
architecture, public
administration, and
business administration.
Lee has served on the
AIA national board of
directors and, in 2014,
she received the AIA
Young Architects
Award. Her website
is evelynlee.com.
30

Design professionals often like to think
that we are at the leading edge when it
comes to technology. We each have our
own opinions about the aesthetics and
operation system of the latest iPhone,
and the environments we design reflect
a contemporary vision of our forwardthinking clients, integrating the latest
in technology to allow for a global
workforce that telecommutes. However,
when it comes to technology in design
practice, our aversion to risk puts us on
the slow end of the implementation
curve. In this regard, an architecture
and interior design practice is often
considered conservative at best.
The conversation surrounding
technology in practice always seems
to fall into two distinct buckets: (1) the
deployment of technology that increases
efficiencies in work, which is often BIMcentric, and (2) the integration of building
and material technology within our
projects. I suggest that we include a
third area that is of equal if not more
importance: the integration of smart
data, not big data, into practice.
Why smart data? The sheer
amount of data and how we access
data is increasing and changing at
astronomical scales. Physical evidence
is seen in zip disks barely 10 years old
yet hidden in boxes at the backs of
storage closets, and in 1 GB flash drives
carried on key chains that are no more
than decoration now that one can share
and access everything through the

cloud. According to a report released
in 2014 by the International Data
Corporation, the digital universe doubles
in size every two years. Zettabytes will
quickly become a word of the past rather
than the future. The more interesting
statistic relative to the growth of the
digital universe that should be of great
interest to architects and interior
designers is the rapidly increasing
number of inanimate objects in the
physical world. Otherwise known as
the Internet of Things (IoT), the data
available from sensors that are
monitoring individuals and our physical
environment already account for 2
percent of the Digital Universe. It is
estimated that data from IoT devices
will more than quadruple by 2020,
increasing to more than 10 percent
of the world's data.
How is this relevant to the design
process? Consider the success of the
Nest thermostat. What once was a
standalone, programmable object now
contains a data stream that has the
ability to tell designers the average
weekday and weekend schedule of the
inhabitants, understand their level of
comfort as seasons change, and identify
how often they leave for a long weekend
or an extended vacation. Overlay the
data of the Nest with feedback from the
other devices and data streams, such as
a calendar schedule, and designers now
have the ability to monitor physical
space in ways similar to how web

designers track a website's user 
interface experience. Specifically, it
now means that architects and interior
designers have the ability to better
understand clients by more definitively
differentiating between what they tell
us they want versus what they actually
need, and to prioritize design decisions
against specific quantitative metrics.
So what can data do for practice? At a
very high level, the integration of data
analytics and technology into design
practice has the ability to have a
significant impact on client
relationships by better:
* reconciling emotions within the design
decision-making process
* quantifying value of design services
* setting relative benchmarks for
building and organizational performance
* prioritizing design decision relative to
overall client vision, mission, and goals
* increasing the ability to expand offerings
beyond traditional architecture and
interior design services.
Here are two final key thoughts
regarding the implementation of data in
practice: (1) Data is not everything! In no
way does data replace the conversations
and qualitative processes we routinely 
take on with our clients. (2) Data can be
utilized by firms of any size. Data comes in
all forms and sizes and can be managed
with a simple spreadsheet if necessary.
My next article will look at the steps you
can consider taking to implement data
in your practice. c
contractdesign.com

MARCH 2015
http://www.evelynlee.com http://www.contractdesign.com
Contract - March 2015

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