— Laser Scanning

THE BEST TOOL FOR ACQUIRING GEOMETRIC INFORMATION

We are all aware of the ways in which BIM has contributed to architectural design, from improving cooperation between various specialists, to gathering data in a single dynamic and adjustable model, accessible to all, to reducing costs, in-office working time and risks, and the management of quantities and construction schedules…

What we have not yet mentioned are the various data acquisition tools on hand to make BIM more cost-effective.

Written by:

Catarina Borges Carvalho

Luís Santos, Leica Geosystems

BIM IS MORE MAGAZINE

On the assumption that all methods of measuring and gathering geometric information, a rich source of parametric information, are included in the BIM, Laser Scanning proves to be one of the best tools due to its speed, thoroughness and capacity for detail. In other words, it is capable of providing a high level of rich, reliable and precise information in a very short space of time.

However, we must not confuse the two. Laser Scanning is not BIM, but simply a data collection tool which forms part of the BIM process.

“We, the Portuguese, have a very curious way of communicating, which is using acronyms. We use acronyms for everything. And BIM has become one. There are still people who talk about BIM- and use the acronym- without really knowing what it means. Despite what some may think, using a certain software platform to create a model does not make this action in isolation a BIM process. (…) BIM is a whole procedure which makes it possible to recreate a project in the office, with the enormous advantage that all participants in the construction process also create part of the project model. (…) There are various stages to this, not only modelling, budgetary control and decision-making regarding the building elements to be used, but also ensuring that the chosen geometric form is in the correct location, and if it really corresponds to what was planned. (…) As manufacturers of data gathering and management tools and solutions, our main challenge is to ensure that information is made available at different project phases, in any direction (site <-> office), avoiding any losses, maintaining its geometry, quantity and the quality of metadata, which are the most important aspects. Yes, Laser Scanning is a BIM tool, but Laser Scanning is not BIM”, Luís Santos, Leica Geosystems.

I would say that anyone with two or three projects is able to use Laser Scanning. Although each work is a challenge with its own difficulties, it is a technology that is already democratized in order to be used by anyone with field work experience. It does not require expertise.

Luís Santos, Leica Geosystems

BIM work involves various specialisms, all of which intervene in different stages of the project. Laser Scanning can be used at the preliminary phase, during the gathering of the information needed to build the model; in the subsequent phase, to create final as-built plans; or in the various interim construction phases, to produce as-built documentation for a given moment. Records of the construction in progress are only made possible by regular scans, which provide the detailed information required to understand possible changes to the design throughout its construction, and to validate it by overlaying the point cloud onto the original model in order to identify any areas of incongruity.

The preliminary information gathering phase has great benefits, for example in renovation jobs. Just imagine being faced with an existing building in need of restoration. Laser Scanning is particularly important here, as, in a very short space of time, (approximately 2 minutes, depending on factors such as resolution and distance), it can provide information so detailed that it would take days to gather using traditional measuring techniques.

Point cloud registration can be carried out using various techniques, which are chosen according to the type of information available. Among these, we wish to emphasize automatic registration of physical points, superimposing areas (“cloud to cloud”), manual identification of shared points or, more efficiently, automatic registration of clouds using advanced algorithms to recognize shared patterns. This has the great advantage of saving several hours of work. All of these techniques can be used on a single project in order to maximize the results according to the information available for each station.

Once registration is completed, work begins on cleansing the cloud. The criteria for this cleanse depends on the objectives of the job, the priority being to eliminate all information which will not be needed during subsequent stages. For ease of data handling and processing, it is also advisable to divide the final point cloud according to the type of work and the object in question.

The better the planning, and the more effective the surveys, the easier, more thorough and less time-consuming the remaining tasks (importing, registration and cleansing) will be.

Given the way in which equipment has evolved, we can affirm that Laser Scanning is now within the reach of any experienced fieldwork technician in this area. 

— BIM Methodology

BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM) has assumed particular prominence in today’s architectural, engineering and construction landscape. This methodology, its development and implementation processes have garnered considerable interest worldwide, as it represents a genuine paradigm shift.

In the beginning, it was shaped by the pioneering work of a handful of architecture and engineering firms, who introduced new methodologies to support the design and management of their projects, using digitization and information monitoring to improve and optimize processes. Today, however, we are witnessing the expansion and widespread adoption of BIM by various industry players on a global scale.

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The fact that some countries have already made it compulsory to present projects using a BIM model, in addition to the demands of project owners to develop, study, simulate and assess projects using BIM methodologies, has led to a radical transformation of the design, communication and information processes now required in order to produce and deliver an Architectural design, or other plans concerning the construction and subsequent management of a building.

In a way, what we are experiencing is a considerable, almost radical, shift in the focus of the architect’s work. In the past, this centred on the production of a building design, but now, as a result of the new possibilities of digital design, simulation and assessment, it includes management of the latter.

This new perspective, which is also the result of new demands placed on designs and buildings, necessitates a new approach to designing. In this context, there is a need to investigate, research and disseminate the resulting architecture, projects currently in progress, experience gained, and the evolution and implementation of the methodology within different fields of activity.

As an increasingly international methodology, BIM has certain particularities in different countries, and it is important to understand and communicate this knowledge, in order to support the divergent internationalization processes of many Portuguese architecture, engineering and construction firms.

— BIM in architecture

For many architects and professionals working with BIM, these initials represent an “advanced” working method, making it possible to integrate and handle a new set of processes based on the major cultural shift we are currently experiencing in the way we design, build and, above all, inhabit. However, for others, BIM is simply the promise of a considerable improvement in the management of procedures and the exchange of information, geared towards the economic and financial aspects of production and management within the AEC industry.

Clearly, BIM can be understood and used in one or both of these ways. However, it is important to bear in mind (i) that from either of these viewpoints, the need for a new approach and understanding of the design process, supported by digital information and representation, communication and production systems is not going away; (ii) that the phenomenon is international, and therefore the “Pandora’s box” of new and different approaches is open, with BIM, rather than a definitive solution, representing a dynamic starting point for redefining rules, methods, objectives and management and evaluation processes, something which other methodologies have, to date, been unable to do, and, finally, (iii) that it has rapidly become clear that this marks the end of one project cycle and an entirely new approach to the role of the architect as we know it today. We are thus confronted with a change in the professional activity of today’s architect, whose designs no longer focus solely on the construction. All evidence suggests that they are, instead, beginning to incorporate the operation of the building, with a focus on managing the architecture and built spaces produced as a result of designs, and ensuring their future management, evaluation and ongoing capacity for use and adaptation.

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This being the case, the viewpoint which initially associated BIM with the simple ambition to develop more and “better” designs, achieving “better” results, from a point of view more closely aligned with exact sciences than with the arts (of which architecture is one), and focusing on a rigorous but rather unarchitectural concept of systematization and a constant search for objectivity, in order to produce “better” buildings, may be reductive. This view is, in other words, the idea that BIM methodology can be used to optimize, improve profitability, and, to an extent, homogenize architectural output, which has traditionally been varied, with little systematic focus on economic results and more closely associated with phenomenological, social and cultural aspects which support and legitimize its creation as a mirror of civilization- as the will of an epoch translated into space (Mies Van Der Rohe) which many have difficulty understanding:

“Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. He will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. An architect of ability should be able to tell a client what he wants. Most of the time a client never knows what he wants.” (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

The use of BIM in architecture will not be viewed as a tendency towards specialization and the structuration of universal methods in order to create an output which also tends towards the “universality” of modern man, an outdated universal previously held, promoted and implemented in architecture with results which were, at times, rather undignified and unassertive. The thirst for universals and the constant search for an absolute truth and perfect method can sometimes lead to stagnation and an urgent need for reflection within the discipline.

Having been put forward by several authors as the future of architecture, BIM cannot be treated as just another challenge. Its seems impossible to dissociate it from the real world context, these volatile times of constantly shifting social relationships and needs, and the emergence of the concept of happiness which cannot be defined by patterns, norms or stable paradigms.

It is against perpetually turbulent backdrop that humans realize themselves and architecture is constructed, aiming not to establish fixed rules at a given moment, nor to allow itself to be bound by material, technological or philosophical limitations. This is how it was in the past, how it is in the present and how, we believe, it will be in the future, given the intrinsic connection and overlapping of Architecture and Life.

3D project for Abuja office building, Nigeria, 2016

THE POTENTIAL OF INTEGRATION AND TOTALITY

Frank Lloyd Wright put it best when he said, “Architecture is life, or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.” From this point of view, efforts to achieve ideals of specialization are rather unnatural in the process of architectural development, “An expert is a man who has stopped thinking. Why should he think? He is an expert” (Frank Lloyd Wright). It follows that the constant challenge in architecture lies in thinking, in the intelligent search for solutions, and not simply in output and the supporting construction work.

From the technological point of view, setting aside the idea of dangerous specialization intrinsic to any methodology, it is possible to view a strategy based on the methods which BIM promises to bring to Architectural design, as representing an opportunity for new ways of working, to which architects must remain open. The capacity to control temporal phasing and levels of development and to perform digital visualization and simulation trials, as well as the ability to work collaboratively on the design, are among the competitive advantages favouring easy adoption of the methodology in new practices, architectural and design firms.

The capacity to integrate new content, data, information and knowledge into the project design, as well as managing the great and ever increasing need for information through the creation and handling of digital models, in order to construct a virtual representation of the design containing all associated data is, in fact, a driving factor in the acceptance and increased use of BIM in the varied, unique and methodologically non-standardized processes which each architect uses to construct their own Architecture, their unique vision and their place in the World.

COLLABORATIVE WORKING

Meanwhile, this methodology also facilitates and encourages collaborative work on projects, something which architects have always sought to stimulate and establish in one way or another. In light of the increasing level of complexity involved in producing the Design, and the consequent demands on construction, BIM has become a tool for ensuring that design and management processes are able to meet requirements. By providing the increasing number of actors, suppliers and partners involved in the process with easy and secure access to information, we facilitate collaborative working processes, reducing risks and conflicts, in order to objectively improve, if not the quality of Architecture, then the quality and suitability of the working process associated with architectural design, providing conditions in which many formal and procedural aspects of the design can be better controlled.

THE POTENTIAL OF THE DIGITAL MODEL

Therefore, the main reasons for the success of BIM in some architecture practices today can be deemed to reside in its capacity to bring us closer to the dream of total control over a design, and in its ability to preview and simulate construction work virtually. By doing so, we can master many aspects of construction, avoiding or foreseeing the surprises which occur in many of the related tasks, thus minimizing risks and conflicts and making it possible to resolve these before they even arise.

In this particular approach, in which BIM is linked to aspects of the project monitoring process, we can see how a model developed and designed using 3D tools becomes a very powerful instrument, perfectly suited to the three-dimensional and spatial design methods architects use to solve problems- which is the very essence of design. BIM can, therefore, be considered to offer both methodological continuity and an opportunity to improve cost-effectiveness, through the use of a model which enables us to extract various forms of information and data, fundamental to the critical reviews carried out during the design process. It is, therefore, dynamic and rarely understood as a finished product, as there are constant opportunities to improve, increase and facilitate communication between specialists, clients, and contractors, by means of visualization and a dynamic and integrated 3D design.

Furthermore, once the major issue of interoperability, which is still impaired by many software houses in their quest for hegemony, has been resolved, the ability to work in a collaborative environment on a design shared between the different disciplines, is a promising indicator of a new approach, in which information sharing is encouraged and carried out in a new way.

The ease of handling and understanding construction and management systems and processes, made possible by integrated 3D models, encourages the development of BIM projects which include 4D, 5D, 6D and 7D management processes. These give the architect, designing and managing via their model, all sorts of information which goes beyond their usual insight into the design. In light of these new possibilities, extra attention must be paid to guaranteeing not only the traditional authorship of the design drawings and/or model but, more importantly, the management and integrity of data, developing strategies for updating the model (and not only the design), through effective communication and, above all, working to enable ongoing monitoring of the operation and maintenance of the building constructed.

Axonometric view for Abuja office building, Nigeria, 2016

INTEROPERABILITY

In this respect, the establishment of general rules governing the lifespan of a model and the associated data and information (BIM), its use, collection and ownership, in addition to the specifications developed by the Industry Foundation Class (IFC)- connecting software developers to intelligent building standards (BuildingSmart) in order to manage and maintain open building and construction models (OpenBIM) – are all issues which young architects must remember, take on board and participate in, in order to assume an active role in the long process of digitizing design, construction and Architecture, which affects us all.

The idea that it will soon be possible to develop a design using any software and simply choosing a sharing environment or platform, regardless of the program used, is already becoming a reality in the development of models containing highly detailed information, yet which have experienced no information loss or interoperability issues. Here, the application of BIM in design will become increasingly realized.

A WIDER ROLE

Given that a design is not completed when works begin and the architect’s involvement increasingly extends into other areas of work, the development of designs using 3D models makes it possible to follow up and monitor building progress, documenting and recording decisions made and their variants. This facilitates the resolution of problems related to the design, the building and its future usage, maintenance, adaptation and final demolition.

In parallel, the ease of producing, correcting and updating designs thanks to the increasing availability of digital methods, brought about by mobile technology, makes it possible to visualise, include, verify and validate models and alternative solutions closely interlinked with the digital models developed, in which the use of virtual and augmented reality may become a real asset in improving understanding and, above all, increasing the chances of architectural plans being implemented.

Virtual construction of a project before its physical construction, digital trials, and the production and management of data regarding the building lifecycles, made possible by linking digital models to databases containing project information, offer a wide range of advantages and possibilities in terms of Architectural design. These, together with careful planning and the necessary coordination between the various specialisms working on the BIM model, bring a new perspective, and new demands, to the traditional understanding of the way architects will practice in the future.

SIGNS OF A NEW PARADIGM

“Something interesting is happening” – a world of opportunities in which virtual, digital, simulation and immersion combine with the constant integration of information, through the construction of a memory, a process record, an integrated archive, a database- which contains, and offers visualizations of, every aspect of a design. In this environment of constant creation and simulation, all those involved can find, create and read detailed technical information on processes, designs and construction systems. It is fair to say that BIM, while perhaps not be the revolution expected, is increasingly becoming the herald of this ideal of innovation in our approach to designing and building, and will continue to be intelligently applied to architectural practice, without erasing what came before in terms of doing and thinking Architecture.

More than a specialism, BIM’s use in architecture can be understood as an opportunity to improve and develop working processes and tools. Rather than offering or promising an unwanted miracle solution, BIM impacts on processes and alters the mentalities of those involved. For this reason, we ought not to confuse BIM integration with the simple idea of information technology and software, training and instruction, or with the mere replacement of programs which specialize in a single field, rather than the inclusive, all-encompassing perspective integral to architectural practice.

This change to working processes must, necessarily, drive young architects to master new fields, develop new skills and, above all, gain new types of knowledge and, perhaps as a result of this, develop and achieve different perspectives, different forms – different Architectures, emerging from the intersection of new and old approaches to the discipline, through a process which society has validated, and therefore built.

While the current climate proves that it is necessary to understand and promote the need for change, it will remain difficult to put this into practice, and to locate it within the ongoing conflict between the will to build the future and the persistent desire to preserve and respect the past.

Nuno Lacerda Lopes

in BIM IS MORE MAGAZINE #01, 2016, Porto

Something interesting is happening.

— why BIM?

On the subject of Housing, Adolf Loos, Austrian architect considered by many authors to be a fundamental defender of the ideal of modernity, expressed in an architecture free from all excess ornamentation said, “The house is conservative”. According to Loos, housing is intolerant to change and its evolution is slow, and impeded by the constant search for consensus.

In housing, and the way in which we design, build and inhabit it, architecture- as a mirror of the socioeconomic and cultural processes of its specific historical context- has a faithful portrait of the different states of development and the diverse processes of evolution and regression which humankind demands when building its world.

Technological improvements, in their many forms, have, however, brought about significant advances worthy of our consideration, firstly, in construction processes; then in the development of ideas about usage and their integration into these processes; and, more recently, in the process of designing, simulating and assessing planned buildings or spaces.

The use of digital processes to support architectural design has made it possible to develop new approaches, some of which break with conservatism, representing a kind of “revolution”. It is perhaps for this reason that in the early days of their implementation, results were described as a curiosity or an experiment and were, at times and in certain schools, considered not to be truly “architectural”. In other words, they did not result from the canonical process for discovering a form or creating an architectural object by directly applying the Vitruvian triad of Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas.

In a way, this stereotype illustrates how architecture has, at certain times, distanced itself from other disciplines essential to its realization and justification. However, today’s reality has brought about a series of changes which have led us to accept that something interesting is happening to the world in which we live.

Tom Goodwin, strategy, marketing and innovation consultant, goes further when he brings us face to face with this new reality, saying, “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening!”

By situating the world of architecture, engineering and construction against this backdrop of profound change, we must consequently accept that this world is also changing and, most importantly, offering major changes to the way in which we design, build and inhabit new and old architecture: this is the architecture of our times.

It is true that of all their wide-ranging and diverse professional, cultural and civic actions, the architect’s greatest role has been establishing relationships. Pedro Ramalho refers to this state of being within the profession, and to staying relevant and objective as an architect, saying, “Being an architect implies an attitude to life and to society which is, in principal, incompatible with piecemeal or aesthetic analysis, which is either solely technocratic or, conversely, solely theoretical-ideological. (…) Each one of us is an architect in our own way and this architectural being is the result of a personal story, ongoing praxis and a considerable dose of theoretical, ideological, sociological, etc. meditation; it is a culture, with all of the totality that this word implies. To disrupt this totality, analytically shattering the dynamic and indestructible synthesis we represent, is to risk impoverishment, a risk which is, however, made essential by any explanation.” (Pedro Ramalho, 1980).

BIM IS MORE MAGAZINE

3D project for Moinho de Vento dwelling complex, VNGaia, 1994

We can understand the digitization of the design and architectural process as a trend-driven tool for the exchange of information between various partners, authors, designers and producers of the content which shapes and defines the design for construction of a building, piece of infrastructure or urban facility.

Nuno Lacerda Lopes

This, perhaps, explains the difficulty or slowness in adopting new practices and new planning and design methods based on approaches which tend towards compartmentalization, and adhere to strictly technical analysis methods, technocratic by their nature and therefore posing the risk of distancing us from the necessary critical, ideological, sociological and civic analysis of the whole, on which architecture is traditionally founded.

Viewed in this light, the process of digitization of architecture, from design to construction, can lead, (if the world has not already transformed), to alienation and distancing from the necessary all-encompassing viewpoint which the discipline has always championed.

We uphold the longstanding and widely accepted belief that new working tools- the “digital world”, computer graphics, design and representation tools associated with new ways of planning and visualizing- are transforming the construction industry and, necessarily and perhaps as a result of this transformation, the fields of architecture, engineering and management. These industries embarked on an initially slow, but increasingly necessary and now indispensable, adoption of digital representation, communication and calculation methods, and the virtualization of processes, design decisions and implementation schedules.

Quinta de Paramos social housing complex, Espinho, 1995

Paradoxically, despite the countless advantages of digitizing processes- some of which simplify means of communication and clarify project coordination and management- the process of changing mentalities proved to be a slow one, associated, first and foremost, with the realization that digital design processes enabled architects, designers and engineers to work faster and seemingly more efficiently, while potentially saving money.

It is fair to say that architects took some time to accept this revolution initiated by engineers passionate about the new challenges of computing, the development of calculation algorithms and, above all, mental and intellectual openness to increasingly widely accepted automatic calculation programs which were spreading, from one floppy disk to another, and sometimes suffered from a lack of critical analysis in evaluating results, leading to them being followed blindly.

More cautious, and perhaps reactionary, architecture attempted- and still attempts to this day- to maintain as close a link as possible with a traditional design and production process, in which manual drawings, sketches and trial and error representations, at times, represent a particular ideal of production and an adherence to a certain way of designing and doing architecture- belonging to a School.

The time factor therefore became another aspect of this growing disquiet. A working method based on doubt and examination of alternatives seems to be at odds with the pertinence of the decision and the methodological concept that in architecture, the opposite is also true (Távora, 1982). This idea, which highlights an awareness of the changeability of circumstances was, however, something which engineers did not consider acknowledging, let alone understanding.

However, as time went by, the dissemination of new technologies which, little by little, began to appear in the offices of engineers and architects, made the idea of sharing and integration increasingly possible. Even without a framework for ensuring compatibility, the increasing possibility and ease of developing collaborative projects, and the need to coordinate plans in order to keep pace with transformation and change in the labour market, became evident.

Axonometric view for Medical Sciences Building, Universidade do Minho, Braga, 2000

With this in mind, we can understand the digitization of the design and architectural process as a trend-driven tool for the exchange of information between various partners, authors, designers and producers of the content which shapes and defines the design for construction of a building, piece of infrastructure or urban facility.

While the languages used by the various disciplines were structurally different, it was the need for common ground which led to the development of hegemonic positions within the programming houses. These were split between those which adopted processes closely linked to the architectural approach, those which adopted the utilitarian standpoint of the engineers, and others with a distinct, all-encompassing view of the process, calling for innovation and integration of procedures from fields such as the aeronautical and automobile industries, the production of parts and mouldings, as well as the space and military sectors.

Initially, the use of digital project development methods in small and medium practices was, above all, viewed as a means of facilitating the integration of different designs, offering new, easier, and more accessible data sharing, and adding a new unifying element to the design method and process, unaltered by Computer Aided Design, establishing only the need/obligation to define a common language. This led to the standardization and adoption of representation and calculation systems, at times uncritically. The main value of these lay in extending digital design practices to other professionals and facilitating new project analysis, preparation and implementation procedures, thus moving toward the ideal of a shared goal which the virtualization of architecture promised.

However, Portuguese architecture resisted, and continues to resist this change to procedures, developed at times by the “School of Design” embodied by Siza, a methodology essentially based on manual drawing, combined with the sense of synthesis which architecture constantly seeks and which, in Siza’s particular case, is superbly evident in his beautiful sketches, the trademark starting point from which all of his designs develop and transform a concept into unique and unexpected works of architecture.

The increasing attention garnered by his unique body of work which, more than design, is the fruit of his capacity for critical analysis and integrating the context, exceptions and problems arising in each project, may have led to the confusion of a whole generation of architects who took a part as the whole story, slow to take on board, learn and develop new design practices, and afraid of creating new architectural forms. It may be that the fundamentalist views of some of his followers delayed the progress and implementation of digital and virtual planning practices, as evidenced by the fact that these are non-compulsory in academic and university settings, and that their adoption and use in architecture, which had become an untouchable “Sacred Cow”, can bring with it the risk of negative repercussions.

However, not settling on any reductive vision of the process, Siza insists on the need for contrast, comprehensiveness and the need to incorporate into the design and representation process any tool capable of providing clarity or enabling greater mastery of the design, in order to enhance our understanding of architectural phenomena, including scale, light, the environment, construction materials and systems, space and the wide range of fields involved at each stage of the design process, in no particular order and without prior definition or taxonomy. This is, despite it all, made possible by the virtual domain.

“If there were no problems and contradictions to resolve, I would never have another idea”, said Álvaro Siza in a 1989 interview, stating, on the subject of the architect’s specialist knowledge, that the latter, “does not know, and does not need to know, anything at all. We cannot, simultaneously, be specialists in structures, acoustics, energy, construction, history, sociology, in the world of aspects which make up a project. Deep down, we know nothing at all. Now, what we need to know is how to work together with a series of specialists and transform this work into a design, a clear image. (…) the Architect needs oppositions”.

This belief, and the discovery of a new, powerful and effective design and representation process therefore offer a basis for investment and research into the BIM methodology. This desire and pursuit are, as Siza stated, a result of the natural and powerful will to elucidate and master, to understand and look deeper, to experiment and innovate in the key architectural phenomena.

Nuno Lacerda Lopes

in BIM IS MORE MAGAZINE #01, 2016, Porto

If there were no problems and contradictions to resolve, I would never have another idea.

Álvaro Siza, 1989

— BIM IS MORE

BIM IS MORE is a periodic publication that disseminates new ways of designing and building Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) through the use and integration of new digital information and communication technologies. It is especially oriented towards the methodological aspects of the theme of Innovation applied to this sector that integrates the aspects of the art of creating, building and inhabiting spaces in contemporaneity.

The idea of creating a publication on this innovative but essential subject for the future of the sector, making known the results and the application of new ways of designing, building and living, is also the objective of the Research Group of the Centre for Innovation in Architecture and Ways of Living (CIAMH) of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), collaborator of this issue, which has been, since its formation, studying and disseminating information and knowledge on new practices of design, design and construction applied to architecture.

The aim of the journal is to remain open to different and unusual areas of knowledge, not fixing itself in any particular one, despite having in its base the architectural culture as a matrix for its deepening. To that extent, the publication will address some of the most relevant research work and pursue the development of new ways of approaching Architecture, Engineering and Construction, exploring new processes, new work methodologies and therefore new results, both in the field of ideas and achievements.

Each publication will integrate a different theme, presenting a theoretical body with texts by invited authors, projects and works built, interviews and, sometimes, an in-depth case study on the application of the theme in a given company or institution.