The Red Herring of Architecture

Why do we make 3D models of buildings

I used to work as a computational designer and building information modeling specialist.

What does that mean?

It means I worked on the data inside buildings.

What does THAT mean?

Let me explain. Just like anything, a building is a sequence of parts. Big companies are trying to monitor those parts so that they can use them more efficiently, by being able to document the parts better, make the parts faster, and create feedback loops so that they know which parts are being used most effectively.

Source: Saul-kim-min-kyu

It is believed that the best way to do that is to make a 3d model of every part of a building, so that you can use the parts like lego bricks. And in that lego brick you have information that tells the person that needs to install the brick everything they need to know. This brings us to the red herring in question.

The single source of truth

The digital twin that is supposed to be the end all be all source of all of our information on a project. The issue with the 3d model is that its slow to make, but decisions are made quickly. So, in every step of the design process, each time a decision is made - some intern (me) needed to adjust the 3D model so that everything still aligned. Because there are many things that can go wrong on a construction site if someone doesn’t have the most up to date model with the most up to date changes.

In result, everyone has put an exceptional amount of their eggs into the 3d-model basket. Companies are getting massive amounts of funding to be exceptionally accurate with their 3D models, some are making them easier to use, and others are completely digital, focusing solely on the single source of truth.. the 3D model.

I believe the 3d model is the red herring of the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.

Let me tell you why.

The 3d model that you are creating is an output of 0s and 1s that you have programmed through a multitude of strategies. Some use sketchup to move their cursor from the left to the right of the screen to make a wall, others create a complex algorithm that allows them to blink at a computer screen and a curved shell of a building will appear based on the motion of their eyes.

Not kidding, that exists.

Regardless of how you create a 3d model, you are creating it based on sequence of inputs that you have given to the computer and in returns it models a seemingly 3D shape on a 2D screen (we can talk holograms later). But why do we need this output? Why do we need to see the 3d shape before it exists? That’s so that we can design it. Make decisions about how it sits in space. Have conversations about it. At it’s core it is a visual conversational tool that we use to describe what we are thinking as designers. Some used to do it with a pen, now we do it with a cursor. The output is the same.

That’s not really why people 3d model buildings, though. They model the buildings with as much detail as they can so that they only have to do the work once, because as you model the buildings there are other outputs happening simultaneously that describe to the people on the plot of land how they should put this building together. It’s a visual conversational tool that we give to people so that they know the dimensions, materials, quantities, anything of what they are doing that day. I would argue you don’t need a 3D model for that. You need something that tells you where the decisions are coming from, but you do not need a 3d model to describe that. You need the truth to describe that and that can be described in more ways that one, just like how you can speak to someone today in several different languages.

You need a translator. Not a 3d model.