The Technology Tax Nobody Can Agree On
📰 I asked nine AEC tech companies if their software actually frees architects to design, or just moves the tax to a different line item. The answers surprised me.
Revit
The Sawtooth Chart Was Never the Enemy
📰 The sawtooth was never the enemy. Phil Read makes the case that the jagged stopping points everyone spent twenty years trying to smooth away were where judgment got applied, and asks what replaces them now.
238: Half Your Day Isn't Design
A conversation with industry leaders about how BIM 2.0 tools consume half of architects’ day, the hidden “technology tax,” and strategies to reclaim design time and control software costs.
237: 'The Interns Will Have Interns', with Phil Read
A conversation with Phil Read about treating AI as an intern, preserving human judgment through sawtooth decision points, and the need to teach delegation early in architectural practice.
Define Your Value Before Someone Else Does
📰 In this edition, explore how AI might reclaim architecture’s purpose by capturing process over paperwork, redefining value before owners dictate it, and building tools that empower every skill level.
232: 'Bringing Joy Back to Architecture', with Tatjana Dzambazova
A conversation with Tatjana Dzambazova about how AI can restore joy to architecture by shifting focus from speed to process, capturing design reasoning, and redefining architects’ value beyond mere cost and efficiency.
The Real Origins of Computational Design in Architecture
📰 Neil Katz FAIA traces computational design in architecture from geometry and early programming to BIM and AI, revealing how mindset shifts matter more than tools. This newsletter edition is a rare breakdown of his first-hand account of how design automation actually evolved inside practice.