Leveraging AI to Solve Architecture’s Greatest Challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the architecture industry. In fact, AI in architecture has the potential to solve some of the most pressing problems in the field, from design process optimization to energy efficiency and low carbon construction. In this blog post, we’ll explore how AI can help architects tackle difficult challenges and make their designs more efficient and effective.
Avoiding Schedule Overruns With AI
Construction time overruns are a major issue costing many organizations substantial amounts of money. With tighter budgets, supply chain issues, and fewer resources, the need for construction projects to remain within the timeline and budget is becoming ever more critical.
KPMG’s global consulting data indicates that, from 2012 to 2015, only a fraction of projects managed to stay within their set deadlines and budget constraints. Specifically, only 25% of projects were finished within 10% of their original timeline, and only 31% met their estimated budget.
This is indicative of major issues in the way projects are planned and executed, resulting in decreased efficiency and unnecessary costs. It is essential to streamline project design and construction management processes in order to maximize deadline and budget related efficiency to complete more projects with fewer resources.
AI-based software in planning and construction can offer valuable insights into project completion schedules and budgets, helping to reduce the risk of delays and prevent costly overruns. AI-based scheduling software offers comprehensive tracking and analytics of the process of construction projects that ensure time frames stay on task without sacrificing quality or safety. With the ability to run multiple scenarios utilizing different crews, sequences, material availability, weather, etc. can lead to smarter construction and less risk for all parties. This combination provides a win-win situation for architects, contractors, and owners alike.
Better Material Selection With AI
AI promises to revolutionize the material selection process for architects. With AI, designers have access to powerful tools that allow them to identify the best materials and combinations of materials for any given project.
AI tools can provide in-depth analytics on a wide range of materials and their properties, providing insight into which option will be most suitable for the project at hand. Additionally, coupling real-time data, derived from the physical environment, with machine learning algorithms makes identifying optimal materials even more accurate.
Even more, predictive analytics can enable the prediction of material life expectancy and expected performance within an increasingly challenging world faced with rapid climate change and other issues that threaten to build integrity. It has become clear that leveraging AI for material selection is no longer just a possibility – it is becoming essential for success in architecture today.
Planning Efficient Designs With AI
AI technology has the potential to revolutionize modern architecture and design, allowing architects to create more effective and efficient designs. By leveraging AI algorithms and automation, architects can streamline the design process and anticipate challenges earlier in the process. Through the data entry of the required programming, adjacencies, and workflows, AI systems can study thousands of alternative layouts in minutes that would be impossible to complete using conventional methods. The resultant high-efficiency floor plan can not only save construction cost, but more importantly, make the end user’s operations more efficient over the life of the facility.
AI can also simulate virtual cities that are built to test how a proposed urban plan will work within a given environment. It can help architects improve existing structures by mapping out areas that experience sun exposure, wind patterns, and other external factors based on calculations derived from real-world data.
Additionally, it can provide feedback on the impact of certain design decisions with regard to energy consumption and sustainability. With AI-enabled technologies becoming increasingly pervasive in all industries, there is no doubt that their continued deployment in architectural planning could lead to some truly revolutionary breakthroughs in sustainable urban design and revitalizing our cities for future generations to come.
Reducing Construction Waste With AI
With the emergence of AI technology, architecture is beginning to harness its potential to solve some of the most pressing issues currently facing the profession. One such challenge is that of reducing construction waste.
Construction and demolition activities can have a significant impact on the environment, as evidenced by the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates that these activities generated around 600 million tons of debris in 2018.
To reduce this burden, building contractors, deconstruction companies, and land developers should strive to practice and promote sustainable construction and demolition methods. AI can help to identify and assess materials throughout the design process, resulting in more efficient and sustainable practices that can mitigate the amount of waste created during a project’s completion. The process of AI optimization of the building services systems results in fewer materials required to construct the building and less waste going to the landfill during both construction and deconstruction at the end of life of the facility.
Planning Labor Distribution With AI
Leveraging AI to solve problems in the architecture industry is becoming increasingly important as projects become more and more complex. One of the most time-consuming processes in planning is labor distribution, ensuring enough skilled workers are placed on each task.
By using AI technology with decision optimization algorithms, architects can properly plan efficient labor distribution strategies, with project completion being the primary goal. This will save time and resources while providing clients with optimized workflow and maximum results. Furthermore, advanced analytics offers data-driven intelligence capabilities that allow for a near real-time understanding of how efficiently tasks are proceeding and where changes may be necessary for maximum program execution. Solutions such as these are essential for modern architects looking to provide quality services at scale.
Furthermore, advanced analytics offers data-driven intelligence capabilities that allow for a near real-time understanding of how efficiently tasks are proceeding and where changes may be necessary for maximum program execution. Solutions such as these are essential for modern architects looking to provide quality services at scale.
Lowering Carbon Footprint With AI
As the world continues to tackle environmental and climate issues, many are looking towards modern technologies that could help reduce humanity’s impact on the planet – Artificial Intelligence (AI) being one of them. AI solutions already play a major role in helping architects create complexes and buildings that generate fewer carbon emissions. The building operations and construction industries account for approximately 40% of the total global CO2 emissions.
AI optimization of building control systems is making a significant dent in reducing operational carbon, particularly in large facilities, by utilizing historical data to analyze and adapt to trends in the operation and occupancy of the building to fine tune the control system utilized to manage the operation of central plant and HVAC equipment.
AI assisted design is also having a significant impact on operational carbon output by finding more efficient ways to design and construct buildings. By utilizing AI technology to find the optimum routing and sizing of building systems, operational carbon is being reduced through higher energy efficiency as a result. Not only are the upfront costs saved, but the savings continue over the life of the building.
However, operational carbon emissions are only part of the problem. Carbon emissions, during construction, account for approximately 11% of the total global CO2 emissions. Embodied carbon is the amount of carbon emitted during the construction of the building, from material extraction, mining, fabrication, transportation and construction to end-of-life deconstruction, and disposal. With AI tools, architects can analyze buildings and quickly identify material conserving measures that can be taken to reduce their carbon footprint during construction and beyond.
When creating new architectural projects, AI can aid in planning for more efficient structuring and design techniques that ultimately consume less energy and fewer materials. In total, AI serves as a powerhouse resource for architects to explore untapped solutions for reducing architecture’s carbon emission levels.
How Schnackel Engineers Can Help
As the demand for innovative design solutions increases, so does the need for forward-thinking firms that are willing to embrace new technology and methods. Schnackel Engineers is at the forefront of this movement, utilizing AI-powered technology to solve some of architectures most challenging problems. Schnackel Engineers AI for MEPTM software optimizes the MEP distribution systems design for a 10-30% reduction in material and labor usage during the construction of the project. What’s more sustainable than using less material to build the building?
If your firm is interested in learning more about how AI can be leveraged to create better design solutions, we invite you to contact us today. Our team of experts will be happy to share our knowledge and experience with you.
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