How COVID-19 helped us let go of the past
The practice of Architecture has been altered, maybe even for the better, by the Covid Pandemic. Since about 1995 we have been inching our way towards efficient use of internet platforms, virtual meetings, broadly available survey data and tele-working. That’s right 25 years of clinging on to the previous 150 years of traditional means and methods. Well that all ended in the Spring of 2020. If you aren’t cloud based, home office equipped, camera ready and a search engine data mining extraordinaire, you are done…at least as an Architecture Firm.
Don’t get me wrong, the traditional practitioner was romantic, charismatic and a real Renaissance Man. Sensitive enough to pencil-sketch a lakeside chalet surrounded by tall trees and flocks of waterfowl, yet rugged enough to climb through a dangerous construction site and go toe to toe with the tradesmen. You can make the case that from the 14th Century until the 1980’s (700 Years), the practice of Architecture was mostly static. Extensive travel, exhausting meeting schedules, reams and reams of paper, snail mail, couriers, film photos, pencils, ink, paints, markers and little wooden models. They read the periodic trade publications to watch for new trends and had massive libraries of hard to find building material books. Often, the architect had to be on the job site throughout construction due to communication shortcomings. Zoning codes could only be purchased at the city office and aerial information was another trip to the county’s micro-film department.
Everything you just read is gone forever. Not because of Covid 19, but the pandemic severed the last few connective threads between the Old Ways and the 21st Century Practice. This is not a bad thing, everything must evolve. It is scary. What took weeks, is now 30 minutes. The obvious disclaimer, just so you don’t think I am blind, is that the patient, refined and classical sensitivities of the Art of Architecture are still the Architect’s greatest weapon. Running at match speed without some talent on the team is futile. Who wants to hire a well-oiled hyper-efficient machine that pumps out ugly?
Here are the new tools of the trade set, for now, in stone by COVID-19….
- Video conferencing, replacing voice conferencing and in-person meetings
- Working on the Cloud from home with a design and/or production team when necessary
- IP phones powerful enough to be manage remotely, worldwide and integrated with mobile technology – you basically have your extension on you at all times
- Full survey and parcel data with topography, flood plains and aerial imagery free, and on the internet
- Full 3d aerial birds-eye imagery nationwide to view the context of any site, scalable
- Full Street-view imagery nationwide
- All City Zoning codes and Zoning Maps are available online and free
- 3D Computer Modeling on inexpensive platforms delivers photo realistic building illustrations
- 3D modeling/Printing based directly off of the 3d illustrations
- Smart board technology integrated with Videoconferencing allows real time sketching and conversations with teams anywhere in the country
- Moving towards paperless operations where only critical drawings are printed as needed, but redlining now occurs on integrated PDF platforms and the red marked drawings are distributed digitally
The bottom line is that Architecture just went Viral.
Client, Architect, Technical Staff and Project are no longer required to be nearby each other. And secondarily, when they are far apart, no efficiency is lost in the delivery. In fact, the opposite may prove to be true.