AecOp.eu is the frontend for a new project connecting European universities, research labs and professionals involved in the technological shift towards « Open Platforms » in the AEC. A new BIM ecosystem is arising, here's some key points about this ongoing transition and the goals of the project.
Design platforms and BIM Level III
Throughout the last decade the BIM gain a central role in the digital modeling and exchange of information with the advent of international standards (BIM Level II). In this new decade we see a clear and specific network-oriented trend in the evolution of the technology within the construction industry. In a context of an ubiquitous digital network at the core of our information age, new distributed digital design tools are emerging (BIM Level III). This trend shows a subtle shift from traditional desktop “software” towards online and more specialized “applications”. The new approach allows the constitution of complex design pipelines that enables more “intelligent” generative functions and foster the automation of design gestures. Theses productive and algorithmic pipelines can have various applications but are specifically well adapted for « low carbon » design and product life management.
Emerging open source ecosystems within the AEC industry
The « platform » is today a pervasive concept that shows how deeply the « network effect » has transformed the whole economic system. A similar trend exists within the AEC software industry with today a very clear strategic shift towards web technologies. In this context of a rather classical market evolution, a special trend has deeply oriented the industry : the free and open source movement which is, from the beginning, evolving along the Internet. After a long period of heavy pressure from the big tech companies, the free, distributed and open source development model has gain a global reckognition when Microsoft finally embrace the core model and values. In 2018, the acquisition of the Github platform definitively grounded a massive cultural shift from the Redmond company. In the AEC sector, Blender is the open 3D pioneer platform that has now support from some of the biggest digital companies. More recently BlenderBIM offered for the first time an open source BIM authoring tool thanks to a French and Dutch technology stack. More surprisingly, there is a now a very dynamic and growing new generation of open source tools being developed directly from the AEC community with some emblematic projects such as BHoM, Speckle, LadyBug and Compas. (see bimriver.com for more)
Knowledge platforms, distributed research labs
Open source has, from the beginning, strong connectiosn with the academic world. This is why we think that in the context of the « platform shift » a growing AEC open ecosystem, the AEC academic world should help foster these new and important infrastructures. We are a network of developers, researchers and teachers in various European universities with knowledge and interest in construction, architecture, engineering, ecology and systemic design. AEC Open Platforms seeks to be a new actor and contributor that can help to promote and build this new trend with the academic world's support. Let's build, share and teach together the future of open platforms, join us!
