Lets nuke the computer whiz. . .
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Computers are a necessary evil particularly so in the built environment.
I think people just don’t like computers for the simple reason that as soon as you get on top of a particular programme it becomes obselete and you have to start the learning process all over again.
Many IT professionals also coined it during the 1996-2000 Dotcom bubble and I think a lot of people are still suspicious of them. A lot of the arrogance hasn’t gone away with a lot of IT types.
Any body who calls themselves a whiz at anything should be nuked purely because such claims are by definition anti-social.
Having said all that the end product can be a revelation to planners and observers of the consent process if well executed.
You are talking to someone, who got kicked off a job once, for making chairs in a CAD file red instead of blue. The fact that I changed it in 5 minutes didn’t manage to change their minds. If that action wasn’t a ‘knive in the back’ I don’t know what is. Two months worth of my drawing work in CAD format completely disappeared from the main file server, only a while before that.
Basically the architectural technicians love opportunities to take a good ‘cut’ at young architects and architectural students. In the case of CAD in offices, they are having a field day – the computer presents such an ideal ‘camouflage’ condition to sucessfully mount gorilla-sytle attacks on young architects. Where the boss hasn’t a clue generally speaking what is going on, and only has the word of his/her trusted authority in the matter – his/her architectural technician.
In the matter of supervision, the project architects are now flying completely blind in this situation. Most worrying of all, is the ‘panic reaction’ by architect employers now, to only employ technicians period, because architects aren’t seen to be able to use these machines at all. Making the entry level jobs for a young architect, very difficult to find indeed, by comparison with the said positions for young technicians. If I could choose again, which course to actually do, I know which one I would almost definitely go for.
Originally posted by Diaspora
Is this Nuke Garethace week?Ignore them me thinks.
I don’t even know why you bother clarifying your threads to people.
Life is too short
life is too short. thats why nobody is following all this drivel
i wouldn’t say that sw101. i am actually appaled at the reactions u have been getting brian. i would suggest backing up your drawings on ur hard drive if they do that. thankfully where i am there is only a little jealousy that manifests itself in slagging and derisiory comments but if u give it back then they stop. bloody teckies!!!! 🙂
Quote “life is too short. thats why nobody is following all this drivel”
Never heard the expression ‘consumers vote with their feet”
Now I have visions of a rude individual freaking out because they have been asked to pay 5c too much for a Mars bar
i am actually appaled at the reactions u have been getting brian. i would suggest backing up your drawings on ur hard drive if they do that.
Exactly how many young architects starting off in practice for the first time in their lifes do you think are going to know what a hard drive even is?
I regularly have to show people how to format a floppy disk, find the C: drive in their computer and show they how to save a document. I still think it is a bit beyond the average abilities of young architects out their in practice to prempt such disasters occuring, in the manner you have described.
In the case of files disappearing from the main file server – I had a CDROM backup of all my work in that case. But I didn’t even bother to restore the files to the file server. Because the damage was already done in my opinion – if people want to do things like that at all – why even bother?
The client phoned up asking for a print of the drawings, and the said building was already at foundation DPC level and my architects firm had to just tell the client, ‘we have no drawings’.
Of course, they did suceed in making me look bad in this instance, in the eyes of my particular employer. But then, I believe that everyone in the practice should be playing on the same team at least, otherwise it is hopeless. The client is just paying you to hold very expensive personal arguments, and that is in general the service which clients are receiving in a lot of cases today.
Just said I would include this too:
Another example, and one of the first times way back in 1997 that I ever saw computer visualisation used in architectural practice at all.
A big American Tech company were outsourcing their operations over here to Ireland and were gong to build a brand new state of the art factory space. The architect came up with a design worth 12 million pounds, which had this very nice space frame roof construction. The building was probably big enough to justify the cost of the space frame components etc, but it would have cost only 11 million to build the same building with a standard flat roof construction, using girders etc.
But visually speaking, the space frame just looked awesome, out of this world, by comparison with the flat roof, girder solution. So the architect in a last ditch effort to sell his ‘space frame’ concept to the client went out on a limb and did something almost unprecedented in Ireland here at the time – he paid almost 5,000 pounds I think to commission some digital artist to do a CG render showing the building ‘as it would look’ with the space frame.
None of us had ever seen this technique of representation ever before, and we all ganged around him in the office one day, to see the new CG visualisation when it finally arrived. Anyhow, the excitement was short lived, as the client would not go that extra mile for a space frame, but it might have been worth it, dunno.
Anyhow, it is an interesting early example of the roots of visualisation and its use in the architectural profession – in that case it helped the said architect to really argue his point much better, than he could have done without it.
But thinking back upon this instance now, it is amazing how closely the visualisation and quantity surveyor, cost issues are linked together. Just in the debate I had raging with Nisus and the boys over at CG Architect, about the over designed balconies.
Originally posted by garethace
the whole system right now is really badly organised for the young entry level architects starting with no experience in practice. This has very telling results I find, as later on when those young architects mature, they are not as comfortable with the whole process of working in a design office [remainder of run-on snipped]Oh please. The ‘system’ is designed to administer building contracts. Graduate architects are going to be useless for at least a year where they are not an actual liability. If their feeling are so easily hurt there are other careers.
The one important thing, which did come of the 55 post thread over at CG Architect, in the Finished work forum, was that situations for the architectural profession vary to a high degree in different parts of the world.
You are writing your replies from Canada – I have worked with Architects from Canada over here, in their fifties who were using more computers back in the 1970s, than we are using them now here in Ireland.
Originally posted by garethace
So just bear in mind before jumping to any more conclusions, just how differen the actual situation is here on the ground in Ireland today.You wouldn’t have just jumped to a conclusion yourself now, would you?
I’ve worked on the ground in Ireland (as you put it) as recently as last November, and prior to that for two years from ’99 to 2001.
This unsubstantiated aggrandisement of junior architects still bugs me. The first four years out of college are spent learning exactly how much you *don’t* know. The sooner you accept that and get on with it the sooner you can take on the difficult (and often thankless) business of actually making architecture.
Originally posted by garethace
So just bear in mind before jumping to any more conclusions, just how different the actual situation is here on the ground in Ireland today from yours over in Canada. Why do you think the Presidential candidates work so hard to adjust their speeches for each of the states they campaign in the elections?Not sure where you’re going with this. Last I checked Canada doesn’t have a president, with or without a capital P.
Here in Ireland, which is probably a much smaller place even than Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Kentucky, the Architectural technicians are doing more and more of the duties you described, in terms of contract administration etc, etc, that young architects are doing.
Thanks for reminding me of that. The fact that I’m Irish doesn’t necessarily mean I know how big the country is. How would it compare to Ontario, Manitoba or British Columbia? You know, the *Canadian* provinces?
Originally posted by garethace
I still think, you may not be as familiar with the scene here as you think – where exactly did you work in Ireland, kinds of projects, size of practice etc? Just perhaps to flesh out this debate and little bit more and give an idea where exactly you are ‘coming from’ in the argument.You forgot to ask how much money I was making. I am somewhat reluctant to post my cv online; my credentials shall therefore remain in question.
I do, however, stand by my initial contention.
The Quantity surveyor thing – do you have them in Canada? – that was dragged straight into the 55 post thread at CG Architect – like out of nowhere and reminds me of those times in college doing interactive projects between architects, engineers and surveyors – in a discussion about CG visualisation, of all places!
I can accept that hyperbole has its place, but when it becomes the default mode it can pose a danger to the discourse as a whole. That was kind of my point – the practice of architecture operates under particular constraints regardless of whether you use 3d visualisation or grease pencil. A debate on the former presupposes a firm grasp of the latter.
Quantity Surveyors are a global phenomenon, although they more usually masquerade as ‘Cost Consultants’ over here. The net effect is the same.
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