AEC Innovation: Clark Nexsen & Biomimicry

Recently I caught of glimpse of Clark Nexsen's innovative push to include biomimicry into their firm culture and their design of projects.  The concept is simple--"mimic" nature; its elements and functions into the planning, design, engineering and construction of man-made projects.  All AEC companies should take note: not only in the unique approach but in the differentiation that is supplies this full-service firm--an invaluable asset given enhanced competition during the current economic conditions.

Below is an article submitted by Cindy Allen, a colleague and marketing associate at Clark Nexsen.

"Clark Nexsen recognizes sustainable design isn't just about LEED for buildings. Sustainability and green design must positively impact long-term environmental, economic and social roots. As a multi-discipline architecture, engineering and planning firm, Clark Nexsen offers a holistic, collaborative, solutions-oriented design approach that addresses integral systems, structures and finishes of a project - and environmental, economic and social impacts."

"To elevate our in-house sustainable design capabilities, Clark Nexsen employs one of only 15 Certified Biomimicry Professionals in the world: Lisa Schmidtke, CID, ASID, LEED AP. Lisa uses Biomimicry to help designers develop nature-inspired design solutions."

Nature-Inspired Design Solutions

"Biomimicry is an old practice, a new science, and an emerging discipline that studies and then emulates nature's time-tested natural forms, processes, and systems to create more healthy and sustainable designs. The basic premise of Biomimicry is that, over the last roughly five billion years, nature has already solved many of the challenges humans face."

"These natural inspirations lead to new strategies for achieving environmental goals, building a toolbox of innovative ideas from water use, to waste reduction, to interior materials safe enough to eat. Clark Nexsen uses Biomimicry specifically to measure your current level of sustainability, to improve your current level of sustainability, to help solve sustainability issues, and reach environmental goals that might otherwise seem unachievable."  


Below is the Clark Nexsen video on Biomimicry:

How Augmented Reality Can Change Our Industry

Augmented reality is a really neat concept.  Not only for the AEC industry, but for all methods of how we do business.  Augmented reality is simply put, the integration of real world, real time data into the digital world.  In order to for it to work, you have to have a method of real world perception (eg, a digital camera).  Point your digital camera at something (eg, a building) and the camera recognizes it, then overlays the object with digital information. Georgia Tech and SCAD even teamed up to create a shoot-em-up zombie game using AR.  Pretty cool--skittle bombs.

Here are some ways I can see it working for architects, engineers and construction companies:

• A environmental scientist in the field scans a parcel of land and overlays that with wetland data, gps data and even has the option to pull historical and permit information regarding that specific parcel.
• A mechanical engineer troubleshoots an industrial HVAC system by scanning the building's systems with their smartphone--and is able to make the recommendations necessary to fix the problem on the spot.
• A contractor has the ability to scan an area on a construction site and overlay it with the civil engineers grading plan--or perhaps a landscape architect's planting plan--to ensure the accuracy of the build.
• A marketer goes to a completed building, snaps a photo, and pulls with it data about the building, square-footage, functionality, even project details uploaded from the data of the technical team (eg, LEED certifications, project schedules, team information, construction photos) and downloads immediately into a project sheet for use with the firm's marketing collateral.

These are just some of the ideas on how Augmented Reality might benefit the AEC industry.  But really, there are so many more possibilities.  BIM is the closest thing I've seen to this int he industry, but if there are other uses or ideas I'd love to hear them.