What do you tell firms that question the cost-to-benefit analysis of change?ĭon’t get me wrong. There’s no doubt that architecture and design firms are often over-extended in terms of time and resources. I’d like all design pros to know that there are better tools out there, and they WILL save you time, money and effort! Many firms rely on Word or Excel or PowerPoint to perform this gargantuan task of organization and collaboration, but these programs are inadequate, to say the least. When these disparate elements fail to mesh, things can come to a grinding halt, or worse, implode and destruct in a cacophonous grind.

Or perhaps a clockwork is a better metaphor: an unfathomably complex machine with thousands upon thousands of moving parts, each of differing dimensions and varied functions. Jacob Slevin: The specification process for both architectural and interior design projects is a veritable beast. Paul Petrunia: So what kind of value does specification software offer a design firm? To try to get some insight into the value specification software can offer a firm, and what options are out there, I reached out to my good friend (and, full disclosure, founder of Designer Pages) Jacob Slevin. There are several different platforms available to designers these days that help streamline the process of specification. Designers can connect with representatives, negotiate quotes, and coordinate delivery faster than ever. Rather than wading through an office's library of quickly-outdated catalogs, designers these days can search ever-expanding and constantly-updated resources with ease, identifying products from around the world to use in new architecture projects. Not only do we have a vast amount of information at our disposal, but that information can be accessed quickly, then managed and organized clearly and efficiently.įor an architecture practice, technology has particularly affected the way designers can specify products and materials. Clearly, this has had a profound impact on the way we work. Remember when we had to look up a business in the yellow pages? Or when we had to go to the library to learn about a topic of interest? Technological advances, particularly the internet, have drastically changed the way we perform such tasks.

Best programs for architecture design