Probe 10

Probe 9

Probe 8

Probe 7

Probe 7

BIM software has changed the way architects work and it is starting to change the way we learn to design. With BIM software architects can design structures that once were impossible. It allows us to organize different trades together and see the final product well before construction has started. It is a very powerful tool that can do great things in the right hands but hurt those who are not ready for it.

As students of architecture we have a lot on our plates. We spend the first full year of school trying to understand how to make space. Once we start to understand these ideas we quickly have to be able to give meaning to every move we make. Filling up your time in architecture school is not hard and is often done for you. Learning how to use software takes time and learning how to design with it takes even more time.

BIM software was introduced to my class very early in our schooling. At first it took a lot of time to understand how to model objects in the software. When we should have been spending time learning design strategies we were trying to figure out how to change colors on walls. On top of this the professor whose idea it was for us to work in the software didn’t really know how to teach with it. So as a result the work did not come out very well.

Unlike most of the people in my class after that semester where we were asked to design in BIM I kept using it. I learned that the best way for me to use the software was to work in stages. I would start out with simple massing then move to a very basic level of detail. I was always able to find out quickly if the design idea was able to fit within the program of the design. Once the form took shape I could add increasing levels of detail. Having done almost all the design work in one program I was able to show different stages of design from many different views. The software also saved me a lot of time when it came to producing final drawings.

BIM software is not easy for most to learn. It takes time and should be done when the final design isn’t the major goal of the class. That being said, students must learn how to design with the program. It is clear that this software should be introduced when the user already has a good base level of design knowledge and can start to see how to use it to its fullest.

Suggestions for an integration education

What we learn in architecture school has been a topic I have spent much time thinking about and discussing with other students and teachers.  I am the son of a local architect who has also been an architecture professor for many years. Coming into architecture school I had more knowledge of how a firm works than almost any new student coming into the field. After my first few weeks of architecture school I started to ask him and others questions about how it was taught. I knew that the architects in my father’s firm spent most of the day working with software that almost no one at any level used in school. I also knew that they did a whole lot more than just design. So at dinner one night I asked him why architecture programs didn’t teach us how to use more software. He told me that architecture school isn’t long enough to teach you everything you need to know; that they only have you for a short time and in that time they need to teach you as much design as they can.

            The tools we use as architects have also been simple tools. What you make with them can be far from simple. Someone who has never taken a drawing class could pick up a pencil and draw a house in detail. Odds are it will be a very bad-looking house but they are still able to use the pencil. Someone who has never been taught how to use BIM software has no shot at detailing a house in any BIM software. Programs like Revit are so complex they take large amounts of time to learn how to do even basic things. Without someone helping you it can seem impossible.

            How to teach students and architects how to use BIM is a problem that will take time to solve. It takes so much time to learn the software that it leaves little time to learn how to design with it. Many schools and teachers still see that school as a tool like the pencil. Something you use to record your ideas; not help you come up with them.

            Architects need to know everything. We only have a small time in school and it is already filled to the limit. Finding a place for more is going to be hard but if we don’t find a place for new classes we will be letting the students down.

Probe 6