Today’s cities are static things to be interacted with, and that don’t interact back. That’s set to change with the rise of the smart city. Smart cities will be connected, will sense the activity going on within them, and will adapt to meet the needs of their citizens on a day-to-day basis. It’s an important evolution for the places most people call home.
What’s going to transform today’s cities into the smart cities of tomorrow? Some flashy new technology, a bit of hard work, and the skills of CAD professionals trained in modern structural modeling.
Here’s a look at the role architectural technicians will play in delivering smart cities.
First, Architectural Technicians Can Help Us Better Understand the Cities of Today
Building information modeling (BIM) software programs are often used to design new structures, but another important process they’re being used for is creating models of cities that already exist. In Singapore, for instance, the entire city is being modeled in 3D digital space in an effort to help researchers better understand the present needs of the city and its citizens. This provides an important starting point for planning future expansion, as well as the integration of new sensors and infrastructure necessary for eventually creating a smart city.
This approach to planning the future of cities is taking off, with other cities around the world looking at Singapore’s approach as inspiration for their own planning efforts. At the heart of this work, of course, will be professionals with digital architecture training turning the real world into usable, informative models for analysis.
By modeling Singapore, it is hoped that new and better design ideas can be created
Graduates of Architecture Courses Can Also Help Create Brand New Types of Infrastructure
In 2017, Alphabet Inc.’s Sidewalk Labs company announced that it would be taking charge of a smart redesign of a Toronto district. Its vision is for a neighbourhood with fast, free WiFi coverage, autonomous vehicles navigating the streets, and underground freight robots zipping around in tunnels beneath the city.
Graduates of architecture courses can play an instrumental role in helping to model some of these kinds of interesting additions to the inner workings of a city. Tunnels, streets, sensor placement, and many more elements will need to be planned well in advance, with digital modeling presenting a perfect way to examine how they would fit into the built landscape. In establishing detailed models that include variables like cost and materials needed, architectural technicians can help bring exciting new visions of the future to life.
Architectural Technicians Can Help Establish Timelines for Building Smart Cities
Like any other ambitious construction project, the creation of a smart city is something that will need to be completed within a particular time-frame. Depending on the ambition of the project, this might mean finding time to alter the appearance or function of structures, add tracks, tunnels, or other necessary infrastructure, and of course to integrate the sensors and wireless technology that will help make a city smart.
One of the magical elements of BIM is the inclusion of the dimension of time within a model. Architectural modeling professionals can help outline the steps necessary to go from the beginning through to the end of the building process, illustrating the order in which different elements should be added and the amount of time each step should take to finish. This process makes a tremendous difference in achieving an efficient build time for novel projects, and will be an important part of the process of creating smart cities.
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