AEC-APPS (aec-apps.com) is the first Web-based library of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) applications built by and for digital tool users and toolmakers, who share a common interest in the evolution of innovative technologies. Conceived, designed, and maintained by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (www.som.com) and CASE (www.case-inc.com ) to lead the industry toward a model of collaborative knowledge and technology exchange, AEC-APPS connects tools, from snippets of code to established software platforms, and people, from educators and students to practitioners and hobbyists. Part Wikipedia™, part GitHub™, AEC-APPS is a not-for-profit online community that fosters knowledge sharing and problem solving across disciplines, software platforms, geographic locations, and experience levels.
“Innovation in digital tools is changing the nature of practice, and it’s being driven by many players in different parts of the AEC industry, but they are not often aware of one another’s efforts,” notes SOM’s Technical Director Nicholas Holt. “We saw an opportunity to bridge the awareness gap by creating a new kind of social-media hub for the building industry, where tool users and toolmakers could share ideas on equal footing, from students scripting in universities, to entrepreneurial incubators in the basements of Brooklyn, to the developers at Dassault, Bentley, Autodesk, McNeel, and other major contributors.”
“Developers are constantly creating new tools and applications to improve building design, construction and management. The pace at which these tools are released is rapidly increasing and frankly, overwhelming even for the most savvy of tool users,” CASE Partner David Fano observes. “With this wealth of knowledge scattered all over the Internet, AEC-APPS will exist as the primary resource for the AEC industry to not only stay up-to-date with the latest technology but to evolve their own practices as well.”
In the constantly expanding universe of digital tools dominated by established developers, opportunities for sharing practitioner-driven innovation are limited. Populated by a diverse, ‘maker-driven’ user group, AEC-APPS’s crowdsourcing initiative democratizes tool creation and selection, allowing designers to control their own tools and independent toolmakers to compete on a level playing field. Membership is free and open to the public.
AEC-APPS has three primary components: User Community, App Kits, and Apps. AEC-APPS’s registered users are architects, engineers, contractors, allied design professionals, students, academics, researchers, computer scientists, artists, software developers, and enthusiasts. They post, rate, review, describe, and discuss apps to leverage existing tools and collaborate on the creation and sharing of new ones. The community is largely self-regulating so that no one entity, group, or tool is artificially elevated.
Each user has an App Kit that can be browsed by other users and followers in the community, in which they collect and share applications. Apps, which are presented in a democratically crowd-sourced hierarchy, range from commercially marketed programs to user-created scripts, assets, and utilities. This toolbox approach encourages exploration of existing technologies and provides a shared space for development, customization, and creation of new tools.
Following a four-month beta period, AEC-APPS currently hosts more than five hundred users who have posted some eight hundred apps for use in the design, construction, and operation of buildings, from enterprise software to plugins and other tools.
About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban-planning firms in the world, with a 75-year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,600 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award—in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.
About CASE
CASE exists where building and technology intersect. They combine their experiences as architects, engineers, projects managers, software developers and educators with a passion for technology to improve the way buildings are designed, built and operated. CASE is a Building Information Modeling (BIM) and integrated-practice consultancy based in New York City, and provides strategic advising to building design professionals, contractors and owners seeking to supplant traditional project delivery methods through technology-driven process innovation. Recognized as industry-thought leaders on the integration of technology and BIM principles, CASE helps the building industry identify, implement and manage the technologies and business practices that enable more effective coordination, communication and collaboration.
(https://www.som.com/news/som-and-case-launch-aec-industrys-first-crowdsourced-web-based-resource-sharing-innovative)
Related Stories
| Sep 30, 2011
BBS Architects & Engineers completes welcoming center at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery
The new structure serves as the cemetery's focal architectural point and center of operations.
| Sep 30, 2011
Kilbourn joins Perkins Eastman
Kilbourn joins with more than 28 years of design and planning experience for communities, buildings, and interiors in hospitality, retail/mixed-use, corporate office, and healthcare.
| Sep 30, 2011
Design your own floor program
Program allows users to choose from a variety of flooring and line accent colors to create unique floor designs to complement any athletic facility.
| Sep 30, 2011
AAMA offers electronic technical documents with launch of virtual library
This new program offers a system for members to purchase annual licenses in order to offer electronic versions of AAMA publications in an effort to make AAMA’s technical information resources more readily available to their employees.
| Sep 29, 2011
Submit your Great Solutions
Profiles of Great Solutions will appear in December 2011 issue of Building Design+Construction.
| Sep 29, 2011
Busch Engineering, Science and Technology Residence Hall opens to Rutgers students
With a total development cost of $57 million, B.E.S.T. is the first on-campus residence hall constructed by Rutgers since 1994.
| Sep 29, 2011
CEU series examines environmental footprint and performance properties of wood, concrete, and steel
Each course qualifies for one AIA/CES HSW/SD Learning Unit or One GBCI CE Hour.
| Sep 29, 2011
Kohler supports 2011 Solar Decathlon competition teams
Modular Architecture > In a quest to create the ultimate ‘green’ house, 20 collegiate teams compete in Washington D.C. Mall.
| Sep 29, 2011
AIA Dallas names new executive director
AIA Dallas one of only a few chapters in the U.S. to be led by an accomplished architect.
| Sep 29, 2011
Potter honored with SMSP honor
The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) recognized Alfred K. Potter II, FSMPS, senior vice president with Gilbane Building Co., with the 2011 Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award (MAA).
