At AEC Magazine’s NXT BLD and NXT DEV events in London on 25-26 June you’ll not only see what the future holds for AEC technology but you can have a say in how it unfolds.
You’ve mastered the first generation of BIM tools, now it’s time to push the boundaries with new model-based processes to drive better productivity and higher quality outcomes.
Join us on 25 June for NXT BLD and 26 June for NXT DEV at the iconic Queen Elizabeth II Centre. Let’s get inspired, let’s challenge the status quo, and let’s help bring forward the next frontier of AEC technologies and workflows that promise to revolutionise how we design and build our world.
What’s in store at NXT BLD 2024?
NXT BLD this year covers a broad range of technology areas including automation, generative design, data, openness, XR, GeoBIM, expert systems, design to fabrication, architectural meta-worlds, workstation technology and of course AI and machine learning.
There is a chasm between digital design and fabrication, which is holding back the adoption of modern methods of construction. Several speakers will address the issue from different angles.
Dale Sinclair from WSP is connecting architecture to fabrication. Antoine Morizot of Bouygues Construction has a system that can automate BIM models to BoMs, drawings and cost. Intel’s Jeremy Tully will explain how modular construction is used to rapidly deploy Intel’s next generation of semiconductor fabs. Marty Rozmanith of Skema will look at technologies which can automate architectural BIM to output designs at Level 400.
As the industry moves from BIM 1.0 to BIM 2.0, there is a danger of unleashing another Tower of Babel on the industry with next gen software. The industry is fed up of proprietary lock-ins and data wrangling. So how can this be avoided? Thankfully there is a lot of talk about ‘openness’ and adoption of standards between both new and old software houses.
Greg Schleusner of HOK will demonstrate new interoperability software currently in development. Autodesk’s Virginia Senf and Sasha Crotty will be laying bare the company’s next generation data strategy. Bentley Systems CTO Julien Moutte will be talking about Bentley’s decision to opensource its data schema. Antonio González Viegas wants to level the BIM playing field with a new open-source BIM modeller.
As the BIM 2.0 story develops, it’s becoming clear that not only will there be new design software to work alongside, or replace existing tools, but there will be new expert systems and applications which will crush existing workflows at multiple points and connect design to fabrication. Openness now seems like a base requirement, rather than an afterthought.
We also take a voyage into the fantastical, with Chantal Matar, an architect and artist who uses cutting edge technology for generative design. Working with AI tools like midjourney, and neural networks with NERFs, she explores future cities and new possibilities. Her inspirational work has been driven by technology but still retains beautiful organic, kinetic forms that look sculpted and other-worldly.
NXT BLD 2024 speaker highlights
Patrik Schumacher
Partner
Zaha Hadid Architects
With the advent of 3D modelling, architects have moved beyond designing physical buildings and now create swathes of valuable digital assets in high definition USD. Treasury is a new registry and data vault, for designed spatial assets, which can be licensed for use in areas such as film and virtual meta worlds. It is co-founded by Zaha Hadid Architects, Spaceform (backed by BIG) and Heatherwicks.
At NXT BLD, Patrik Schumacher and Shajay Bhooshan of Zaha Hadid Architects, together with John Manoochehri of Treasury will discuss the benefits of expanding into the new digital frontier of meta and highlight Treasury’s benefits to creators and builders.
Dale Sinclair
Head of innovation
WSP
While at AECOM, as director of innovation, Sinclair pioneered the move to architects using MCAD tools such as Autodesk Inventor, alongside traditional BIM with Revit, to better communicate with fabricators and to model at 1:1 levels of detail. Now at WSP, he has substantially matured that approach and developed and deployed applications within new workflows, to bring a manufacturing mindset into the early design phase of process, optimising the building design, management and computational delivery of varied, large-scale projects.
Chantal Matar
Studio Chantal Matar
Generative architect, Matar has been on the leading edge of both design and design technology. Having worked at Zaha Hadid Architects and Atelier Des Architectes Associés, she has applied art and mixed-media skills to many projects. Matar will explain her methodology and show the results of blending architectural knowledge with cutting-edge digital processes, such
as photogrammetry and NeRFS.
Virginia Senf & Sasha Crotty
AEC design data team lead
Autodesk
The industry is moving away from files and monolithic desktop applications to centralised cloud-databases to aid collaboration and create BIM 2.0 workflows. As the market leader in BIM 1.0, Autodesk will give us a glimpse of the database strategies it will deploy to connect the file-based world with the database-centric universe.
Antoine Morizot
Technical solution architect
Bouygues Construction (Bryck)
Bouygues Construction has been working closely with Dassault Systèmes on an automated expert system which takes in BIM models, rationalises them to components which best optimise Bouygues’ fabrication facilities, creates Level 400 fabrication models, BoMs, drawings and delivers cost estimates in minutes. The system, called Bryck, has impressed the company so much that it’s just signed up for seven more years of development.
Sean Young
Nvidia
It feels like the use of AI is about to explode across all areas of AEC. Young will explore Al solutions for conceptual design, design compliance, and construction, covering everything from Al training, fine tuning, RAG, inference, generative Al, data science, and NeRF into the use of a digital twin for aggregating Al data, training synthetic data, and simulating projects before deployment in the real world.
Bruce Bell
Founder
Facit Homes
With modular fabrication factories shutting quicker than we can think of a witty metaphor, construction’s chances of delivering on the country’s housing needs look bleak. Bell has a successful business building one off homes, fabricating on site. He has been exploring how to scale this up to estates and more.
Greg Schleusner
Principal/Director of Design Technology
HOK
With the industry trapped in data silos, Schelusner is passionate about the need to lift valuable design data to an open database, outside of any single vendor’s control. The aim is to provide a common framework for open collaboration with granular access. Working with BuildingSmart, IDC (Innovation Design Consortium) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Large Firm Round Table (LFRT) group, Schleusner will demonstrate the prototype software. Schelusner’s previous NXT BLD talks can be viewed at www.nxtbld.com
Julien Moutte
CTO
Bentley Systems
With Bentley Systems already having made its next generation file format open source, Moutte will address the Future AEC Specification that launched at NXT DEV last year and expand the concept of open schemas into the infrastructure world. Other topics addressed will include AI and its application areas, as well as autodrawings and digital twins.
Jeremy Tully
Senior director of digital transformation for the fab construction enterprise
Intel Corporation
In a highly competitive tech sector with huge and growing demand, and with global politics forcing some silicon firms to rethink where they build next, Tully will explain how the compressed and complex construction roadmap has forced Intel to look for ways to improve productivity and drive efficiency with so many mega projects underway simultaneously. The company has sought to modularise, use digital twins and apply AI to its construction execution.
Clifton Harness
CEO
Testfit
Testfit is a very fast simultaneous solver for conceptual complex sites. The tool is for property developers but also has useful time saving features for architects. Harness was a practicing architect when he decided to automate his most boring tasks. He has sharp opinions on why architects need to adopt automation tools to be prepared for what’s coming next.
Andreea Ion Cojocaru
CEO and co-founder
Numena
The AEC XR market has moved beyond the hype and there are now multiple professional grade applications and headsets which are being used by leading firms in all stages of the design process. Ion Cojocaru from award winning developer, Numena, returns to NXT BLD to display new creative design tools which enable architectural design in VR and on-site AR experiences.
Mike Leach
Lenovo
With such a dramatic shift across the AEC industry in the use of real-time visualisation, traditional 3D CAD, high-performance computing, and generative AI, there is no one cap fits all when it comes to workstations. Trying to balance IT power increases, tighter deadlines and overall budget cuts means investing in the right technology, for the right users, at the right time has never been more important. Learn how to best to equip your organisation for success, from getting started, to hybrid working, generative AI, and larger global deployments.
Antonio Gonzalez Viegas
CEO
That Open Company
The need to innovate in BIM tools has been apparent for some time. While there is a new batch in development, Viagas, the genius behind IFC.JS, has started ‘That Open Company’, which is working on delivering a free, open (IFC-based), collaborative, cloud-based BIM tool for the industry to utilise in any way it deems fit.
Marc Goldman
Director – AEC Industry Solutions
Esri
The convergence between BIM, GIS, laser scanning, photogrammetry and the metaverse continues. Now AI developments are coming to market to process captured ‘dumb data’ and intelligent GIS tools. Goldman will highlight this year’s converging technologies, offering benefits to all stakeholders in the built environment.
Adam Ward
CTO
Spacegroup
Ward will demonstrate an online design to fabrication platform, built for Travis Perkings, and Tophat Homes. This innovative platform empowers property developers to design and configure multiple houses directly in a web browser. Users can place these houses on sites and, within minutes, generate comprehensive construction drawings, schedules, and detailed Bills of Materials (BOMs) that include costs and product codes, dynamically sourced from the Travis Perkins merchant database. Ward will show the platform has beeen taken one step further for TopHat homes by not only automating the construction information, but by also controlling the KUKA robotics that drive the factory without any human intervention.
NXT BLD
Tuesday 25 June 2024
Queen Elizabeth II Centre
Westminster, London
8:30am – Conference starts
5:30pm – Networking drinks reception
7:00pm – Conference ends
Ticket includes full access to the dual stream conference and exhibition, plus coffee, pastries, quality lunch, and drinks at the networking reception.
NXT DEV
Wednesday 26 June 2024
Queen Elizabeth II Centre
Westminster, London
8:30am – Conference starts
5:30pm – Conference ends
Ticket includes full access to the dual stream conference and exhibition, plus coffee, pastries, and quality lunch.
