by Terry Beaubois

This is the second in a series of articles about upcoming challenges and advancements in green city architecture, master planning and technology.

The topic of “The Future of Green Building” is continually evolving. Even since I wrote Part 1, there have been new developments to consider and include in Part 2, to bring these important green building issues into everyone’s awareness.

Graphicsoft’s Archicad 23 software allows architects to easily create real-time, photo-realistic renderings of projects, helping them determine designs that work from ones that won’t. Courtesy of Graphicsoft

Project management: From bids to job site

A future development is the coming incorporation of computer gaming technology into serious business tools. Using the actual computer gaming software’s ability to design in 3D is being explored.

One example is the teaming of Graphisoft, the developer of Archicad, with Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine. Epic’s new visualization solution, based on the recently acquired Twinmotion, will incorporate state-of-the-art, real-time rendering technology in coming versions of each of the related software programs.

“The same Unreal Engine that powers the popular video game, Fortnite, has been part of Twinmotion for years,” says Marc Petit, Epic Games’ general manager for Unreal Engine. “We are now very excited to work with Graphisoft to promote the use of real-time visualization solutions to help architects and designers visually communicate.”

I saw this demonstrated at the 2019 AIA Conference on Architecture and was impressed with its potential.