GeoDesign? What about GeoConstruction?

November 2, 2010 By: Eric Gakstatter

There’s a lot of talk these days about geodesign, and rightfully so. It’s just a matter of time before the design process morphs into something like geodesign or something similar. To make sure you and I are on the same page, the Wikipedia entry defines geodesign as “a design and planning method which tightly couples the creation of design proposals with impact simulations informed by geographic contexts.” Whaaaaaat?

If you read the Wikipedia description a bit more, it starts to make more sense. “GeoDesign brings geographic analysis into the design process, where initial design sketches are instantly vetted for suitability against a myriad of database layers describing a variety of physical and social factors for the spatial extent of the project. This on-the-fly suitability analysis provides a framework for design, giving land-use planners, engineers, transportation planners, and others involved with design the tools to leverage geographic information within their design workflows.”

The Cathedral in Cologne, Germany took 632 years to complete. How many architects and "contractors" were involved?

Most people agree that geodesign isn’t a new idea, although it’s being talked about a lot more lately. Esri hosted a GeoDesign Summit earlier this year at its offices in Redlands, California, and it looks like the plan is to have another in a few months (January 6-7, 2011). Although lately Esri has been a major driving force behind the geodesign concept, this isn’t a case of Hallmark creating a holiday to sell more greeting cards.

I don’t see a downside to the geodesign concept, but it’s not necessarily an easy concept to sell. I’ve worked with many architects and I’m astounded at how poor the information is that they have to work with. I’m reviewing a ~150 acre project now where the latest topographic survey is more than 13 years old. Most of the contour lines are at 1-foot intervals, but some are at five-foot intervals. The architect needed higher resolution than five feet so they interpolated. Lastly, do you think the control monuments still exist? I doubt it. It will be interesting to see what happens when the contractors start to move dirt and there are no survey monuments to reference. I can’t say I haven’t seen this happen before; in fact, it’s fairly typical. The architects/contractors seem to make this scenario work and stuff gets built.

One of the roadblocks in the design process is that the architect typically has little budget for paying someone else to collect additional data that would be beneficial. For example, in the case mentioned above, the architect has no budget to update the topographic survey. The property owner tells the architect there’s no budget for more data and to “deal with it.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a non-orthrectified aerial photo from Google Earth rubber-sheeted into CAD. Or, property lines from a county assessor’s office rubber-sheeted into the design drawing for reference. Or, a scanned and digitized topographic survey as the basis of design. Some architects are able to convince the property owner that the additional investment in data will pay for itself over the term of the project, but in most cases the architect doesn’t want to fight the battle and will “deal with it." If you’ve ever experienced a project from design concept through final construction, then you must know that good quality spatial data used at the front end of the project almost always pays for itself, and often several times over.

The good news is that higher quality, free digital spatial data (vector and raster) is becoming more available. Federal, state, and local government entities are (or should if they aren’t) making planimetric data available, if not in vector data format, in high-quality raster imagery. As I’ve quoted from industry experts previously, satellite imagery is going through its most significant advancements ever its past 40 years. You can say the same about GPS/GNSS technology. It’s going to advance much more in the next 10 years than it has in the past 10 years. It’s easy to conclude that the quality and availability of vector and raster data is going to continue to improve significantly.

What does this have to do with the geodesign concept? There are two major components of geodesign: software tools and data. It’s clear that data is already trending in favor of geodesign. And it appears that for the time being, so are software tools.

With those two trending positively towards geodesign, the final hurdle is the toughest.

Adopting the geodesign concept means a fundamental shift in attitude by the planners/designers. Certainly it means that architects, land planners, and civil engineers must expand the scope of their design considerations, adopt new software tools, and familiarize themselves with the vast amount of data available now, data on the horizon and the value it brings.

Geoconstruction?

It’s odd to talk about geodesign with talking about construction in the same way. It’s like a football team practicing but never playing against an opponent.
Planning and designing are preparation activities. Construction is executing the planning and design activities. It’s where the rubber hits the road. Granted, I understand the geodesign isn’t all about building stuff. Sometimes, it’s about master-planning to preserve parts of our environment that nature has built. Even if the goal is preservation, there’s still a phase in the project in which the planning/design must be followed in order to have a successful result.

I suppose we have seen geoconstruction raise its head under different names. Most notably, Trimble and Topcon promote their Connected Site and SiteLINK concepts. But even so, it seems like there’s a wall between geodesign and geoconstruction. The conduit between the two is the architect. The architect is the one with the vision of how the project should appear/function when it’s finished. The architect is there when there’s just raw ground and all the way to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Various contractors (surveyors, engineers, construction contractors) will come and go throughout a project, all with their own interests in mind, but the architect is there for the duration and the result of the project is what defines his or her reputation as a designer.

However, just because an architect buys into and practices the geodesign and geoconstruction concepts, doesn’t automatically make the project a geodesign or geoconstruction project. An important role of the architect, I believe, is that of an owner’s representative in helping find and select qualified contractors who buy into the geodesign/geoconstruction concept and who have the expertise and capabilities to participate. This is not an easy task.

If you’ve ever worked with independent contractors before, you’ll know they have their own processes that they have developed over time and feel are the best and most efficient (at least for them). Some can be downright rebellious and defensive when asked to participate in activities that fall outside of their technology/process comfort zone. But, keep in mind; their interest is largely limited to the scope of services defined in their contract with the owner. Construction superintendents are trained to focus on checking-off line items on their contract. They are trained to manage with tunnel-vision. Anything not on the checklist is a potential change-order with a monetary value attached to it. Many contractors bid low initially and count on this “extra margin” via change-orders.

Whether talking about geodesign or geoconstruction, it’s a paradigm shift in the attitude and processes by all of the parties involved, including the owner, architect, and various contractors.

Lastly, I wanted to share with you a video that will drive this point home. Rest assured that if you’re involved with planning, design and/or construction you will appreciate every bit of the nearly seven minute video. It’s truly fascinating.

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Thanks, and see you next week.

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