The Future of Project Management with Generative Design

Figure 1: Generative design illustrated with a bike frame .

The digital technology has developed exponentially in the past few years and the construction industry has to understand the trends that comes with this development as some of the new technologies have come to disrupt the industry like the case with the transition from CAD to BIM. Some companies have been living after the principle "disrupt or die" in order to follow the demands and the competition from the market however overall, the construction industry is still lagging behind other industries when it comes to adopting new digital technologies . McKinsey&Company has in a great report recently stated that one of the main subjects to focus on is to infuse digital technology and advanced automation.

Generative design is a technology that has the purpose to mimic the natures evolutionary approach to design thus it is a radical new way of doing design propositions compared to the traditional way. Described shortly, the generative design concept is about expressing the design intent and purpose through e.g. planning strategies, formal strategies or building components, then get a computer to automatically explore all the options to improve e.g. materials, accuracy of cost and schedule estimates, manufacturing methods and risks thus streamlining the workflow of design, enabling more structured monitoring of projects and raise the transparency when the schedule is included. This allows the companies to explore a wider range of designs as based on criteria or rules and by this rethinking the design and engineering processes with e.g. a greater focus on constructability and productivity.

This article will mainly focus on the general aspects of generative design and how it possibly will disrupt the project management thus it will not focus on a specific tool, as the technology is progressing extremely rapidly. The potentials and the limitations with the new technology are also discussed with respect to project management.

Design Technology Trends

Digitisation is a broad term that covers a variety of tools and technologies, including BIM (Building Information Modeling), automation, simulation and artificial intelligence and these new techonology trends open up new ways to work and collaborate. The digitalisation provides more productivity, deleveries of better products and of course a change in how people work. According to Winch is BIM a very important development in IT tools in the history of project management as it places the construction project manager as the key person in the project information flows. In the following is BIM, computational design and generative design described shortly.

BIM

For further information, see also BIM-based information flow during construction phase § Application

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is much more than a 3D-model. It is a technology-based collaboration process between technology and humans and also between humans thus it is a workflow and a process for creating and managing information on a construction project i.e. BIM is not a specific software tool but rather a way of working with 3D/4D models.

The BIM model contains a 3D model with information stored inside the objects. The difference between the old CAD systems and the new BIM systems is that the software can recognize objects as being walls, columns ect. and not just lines and this enables the computers to make calculations on the models, thus BIM information can be utilised to design with computational and generative design i.e. getting more and more automation.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is improving the way projects are delivered. It provides a revolutionary platform for “rethinking” how we design, construct, maintain, and operate our built environment. BIM is essentially value creating collaboration through the entire life-cycle of an asset, underpinned by the creation, collation and exchange of shared 3D models and intelligent, structured data attached to them.

BIM offers extensive opportunities to drive a more effective and efficient built environment. BIM as a project management tool provides us with the opportunity to drive efficiency in our project management processes. By seeing the future today, through the effective use of BIM, we can improve the planning and delivery of projects to achieve better outcomes for our clients and the public at large.

"Repeating things for decades doesn’t make them true. I can prove this pretty easily because, for 52 years now, people thought CAD was an acronym for computer-aided design. But it is time to face facts: It really stands for computer-aided documentation. The computer doesn’t aid your design. The design is in your head, and you just use the computer to document it."

Computational Design

Computational design is basically a design process expressed by using parameters and various rules that together define, decode and clarify the relationship between design intent and design output. For instance structural engineers use finite element analysis (FEA) and MEP engineers use computational fluid dynamics (CFD). With BIM models it is possible to make computations like these directly from the models if the information is sufficient.

Table 1: Explaining the B, I and M

B (Building)	I (Information)	M (Modeling)
The act Occupation of constructing Process	Datamanagement Consistency Analysis	Express and handle complex shapes Autogeneration of geometric shapes Rule based design

Table 1 shows some examples of how each letter in BIM can be interpreted when talking about computational design and generative design.

Generative Design

Figure 2: Computational & Generative design

Generative Design is a programming-based approach where design intent and design purpose expressed, then a computer explores all the options of a solution to find the best solutions. It allows to explore a wider range of design options as in the time a person can create one idea, a computer can generate thousands, along with the data to prove which designs that perform best based on the values and criterias that has been chosen.

Generative Design is about determining the values for a project, and the software will then create high-performing design options based on those criterias thus the software explores conflicting design constraints so the project team can focus on innovating instead. A design can be called generative when it is based on rules and criterias and these set of rules should fulfill the design and the tool should come with multiple design solutions.

A lot of time spent on projects today is in the detailed design and with generative design it becomes more a competition of how fast you can do the detailed design rather than a heavy task. If the times used on detailed design can be half this time then the companies will have a huge competitive advantage. Humans will be less in the business of forming or 3D modelling and more in the business of really understanding what are the requirements of the design are thus understanding and managing the goals of the project in order to provide solutions that meet the clients and stakeholders expectations. Better design coordination leading to better project documentation reducing inefficiencies and non-value adding tasks and creates synergies between the project plan, design strategy and BIM strategy as illustrated in figure 4.

Figure 3: Generative design illustrated on a floor plan

Application

Autodesk as a frontrunner in the Construction Industry

The founding principal of the Autodesk Studio "The Living", David Benjamin has stated following about generative design:

"Generative design allows us to go beyond some of our typical human linear thinking, our typical rules of thumb – it basically allows us to discover new possibilities"

In 1915, biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson said, “The form of an object is a diagram of its forces.”

I think that’s actually kind of beautiful, and 100 years later, Autodesk is adopting his concept quite literally with Dreamcatcher, the company’s research project that lets designers describe the forces that act on an object and then lets computers go off and make it. These forces can be structural loads or even manufacturing methods.

Autodesk is a frontrunner in adapting generative design to the construction industry and has recently announced the newest BIM software called Project Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher is a generative design system that enables designers to craft a definition of their design problem through goals and constraints. This information is used to synthesize alternative design solutions that meet the objectives. Designers are able to explore many alternative approaches and select design solutions for that fit their needs. The workflow is that the goals and constraints are iterated and adjusted to generate new results. The process generates thousands of options to choose from and each can be evaluated based on the goals.

Generative Design in Project Management

Figure 4: Generative design as part of the project management .

Today the construction industry is met with new requirements from the clients and this often happens when the client strives for innovation. With generative design the client, contractor, manufacturer and the stakeholders can be included in an integrated process as illustrated on Figure 4.

In reality, it's not about bits and bites, but about getting a better dialogue with the client, because with the digital tools it is possible to visualise and simulate solutions so that the client can see the solution before even getting started constructing the building. However digitization is not a solution in itself, but rather a supportive tool that will give clients an experience that they are invited in thus gaining a strong knowledge of many of the things they want, but can not always formulate.

In the future, consultants will spend much more time working with customers on the creative part of the project development. Automation can not compete with the professionalism that engineers, architects and other professionals in the consulting industry contribute with. Engineers should therefore not worry, although increased automation will remove traditional computing tasks.

How will Generative Design affect the Project Management?

As both BIM and project management centre around the themes of “collaboration”, “coordination”, “communication”, “exchange”, and “collation”, there is a significant overlap between the two, thus with more projects and organizations beginning to use BIM in meaningful ways, the role and responsibilities of a project manager are changing.

Generative design may sound simple however the challenge is to define rules that make senses resulting in solutions that can be useful. The design process is neither linear or rational in the construction industry as parties tries to work together, where people will sit with each of their speciality, thus the work flow today is that a design is done, then a better understanding of the problem is achieved and then this process is repeated to iterate to the best solution.

The goals, rules and criterias should somehow be defined through from a value perspective view. Value is not just cost and it's hard to understand the true meaning of value. Is is even possible to argue that something is more valueable than another thing or should the value be based on a group consent instead. All this depends on the context and the value should be based on a valid information in order to be durable.

The next thing is what is relevant. Is the client aware of what is possible as the framing and priority of design elements are different from the client to the stateholder. Generative design reframes the problem and makes it possible to consider other design solutions.

When talking about project management it is often that in the beginnig the decisions are very important and later it becomes less important. Generative design lets the client take part in the design thus resulting in a more robust design i.e. it supports decision making in the early design stages. This means that generative design is somehow a part of the value management as it makes it possible to explore priorities early in the project.

The time used on detailed design becomes significantly shorter in the future with generative design as it is already defined what to do through the goals and criterias, so it's only the features that need to be addressed. The first stages become more creative and here the dialogue with the client and the stakeholders will be significantly bigger. When you start up on detailed design and already have determined what to do,

shared ownership of project goals

This process may enable you to find something interesting, helping you redefine the problem so you can repeat the loop, but, ultimately, you’re going to select one of the computer’s designs to fabricate.

Managing Disruption

Autodesk University Explainers - Managing Disruption with Bill Allen

With advancements in generative design, software algorithms, and robotic construction, our current processes are going to be changing quite a bit. We will see more and more done by computers and machines than we have ever seen. Rather than Building Information Modeling (BIM), we are going to see Building Information Optimization. In contrast, rather than manually drawing walls, doors, and columns for what we think is a good design, we will feed the computer "rules" instructing it to give us a building’s optimal footprint, structural load capacity, and thermal performance. Things that took months will be done in a day. What does this mean for you? How do you play a part in this changing process?

There are two sides of these new disruptive technologies. One might say that the creative process, insight and wisdom is reserved for the engineers or designers and a computer should not take over this work. Another might say that the new technologies should be embraced so the computer could make the simple drawing and form creation thus instead focusing on and understanding the the real goals and constraints around the problem. A lot of the constraints does not lie as explicit knowledge thus it is important to figure out what the rules should be. However when the rules and goals have been identified, then the solutions should be picked and this can be difficult with thousands of solutions. The computers today have the processor force sort these solution by e.g. within the 10% best solutions and this is what the user then sees. Then it is up to the user to pick the solution that delivers the most important criteria.

The built environment sector is striving to be a highly efficient, quality-centred, socially responsible and buoyant industry capable of successfully delivering the requirements of current and future generations. Using BIM as a tool, project managers can play a strategic role in this transformation, but it would be naïve to assume that BIM alone (if at all) can make such sweeping changes. But it is clear that BIM, along with other complementary technologies and paradigms, can provide the necessary impetus. Therefore it is key that the project manager has a clear understanding of these technologies and paradigms and how they interlink to the project management domain.

BIM becomes a vehicle for exploring the adoption of other emerging technologies and paradigms, project managers will have to assist organizations and project teams in this journey.

Project managers need to understand the ‘big picture’ for the changes induced by BIM that are happening in the built environment sector. This will help individuals and organisations better understand emerging technologies and paradigms on the horizon and have the potential to disrupt the “business-as-usual” posturing in the industry. Project managers on the basis of this understanding can provide strategic advice to the organisations they work with or represent.

Limitations of disruptive technologies

There's a risk that designers will feel threatened by removing a large part of the creative process from their work and questions will arise around the eventual limits of automation. Some of the questions could be if human skills, such as empathy, communication, personal service, problemsolving, and strategic decision-making would become even more valuable. As a natural result of the automation of tasks, companies will have to implement the new work flows that follows this new way of working thus provide training to prepare the employees for this work environment thus implementation is a huge limitation of new techonologies.

It is difficult to define what can be done and what can not be done. About 50 years ago it was absurd if you were asked if you would know the exact location of 6 billion people, but today everyone walks around with a mobile phone with a GPS so it's possible to say where the 6 billion people are without asking each and every one. The same principle applies with generative design as with more and more computing power it is possible to calculate 10,000 possible solutions. The processor power is not the challenge anymore but it is rather a question of how well the construction industry is willing to implement and embrace it. The next step in the digitalisation is to apply artificial intelligense which will soon be a game changer in the IT tools for design.

Annotated Bibliography

Further Reading

Author	Title	Date	Language	Category	Brief description	Link	Visited
Jonny Williamson	How does generative design unlock engineering innovation?	2017	English	Webpage	Comes in a later version	https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/how-does-generative-design-unlock-engineering-innovation/	11-06-2017
Autodesk	The Future of Making Things: Generative Design	2017	English	Webpage	Comes in a later version	http://www.kb-eye.com/video/autodesk-cto-jeff-kowalski-discusses-possibilities-future-generative-design/	12-06-2017
Bill Allen	Moving to Building Information Optimization	2017	English	Webpage	Comes in a later version	https://www.evolvebim.com/single-post/2017/04/13/Moving-to-Building-Information-Optimization-with-Bill-Allen	17-06-2017
Bill Allen	Implications for Rule-Based Modeling	2017	English	Webpage	Comes in a later version	https://www.evolvebim.com/single-post/2017/04/13/Implications-for-Rule-Based-Modeling	17-06-2017
Rafael Sacks, Paul Teicholz, Chuck Eastman & Kathleen Liston	BIM Handbook - A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contractors	2011	English	Book	Comes in a later version

Videos

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