AESTHETICS IS THE KILLER APP
In TSOS, I talk about the many ways in which information technology has become aesthetic technology. One example I mention is Frank Gehry's adaptation of CATIA software, originally designed for the aerospace industry. In the current BusinessWeek (an unusually strong issue), Chris Palmeri expands and updates the story:
That's where the 74-year-old architect's new business, Gehry Technologies, comes in. The enterprise, which launches this month, builds on his firm's 13 years of experience with CATIA, a design software originally developed for the aerospace industry by Dassault Systemes of France. Years ago (but not long enough ago to have been of full use in designing the Disney Hall), James Glymph, a senior partner at Gehry's firm, was looking for a way to help contractors better understand the demands of Gehry's increasingly complicated designs. He chanced upon an aerospace engineer who recommended the CATIA software; the computer programmers on Gehry's 130-person staff have since modified it for architectural work. Now the software brings Gehry's curvy roofs and walls to life in three dimensions: After he designs his buildings, still using just cardboard, wood, and paper, a specially developed tool traces his models and translates them into 3-D images.
Perhaps more crucially for other architects, the software can also be used by contractors to produce exact measurements of the steel, wood, and other materials needed in a project. By linking dozens of such suppliers on a single software platform, the construction of complex buildings becomes vastly more efficient. "They have reconceived the process of construction," says William Mitchell, a longtime Gehry collaborator and dean of the school of architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which hired Gehry to design a computer center that is now under construction. Gehry Technologies was formed to provide training to architects who buy the software and related programs, and the firm will work with IBM to market CATIA. "We couldn't do what we do without it," says the architect, who doesn't actually use a computer himself.
While he's at it, Gehry would also like to see more cooperation between architects and contractors. In many cases, architects hand over designs to builders, who often prefer to have as little contact as possible with them thereafter. Some contracts even prohibit architects from going to construction sites. This, they say, is the best way to prevent the architects from trying to make expensive changes, the cost of which is borne by the construction company. Gehry, however, works with the builders and contractors to cement, so to speak, the design and budget early on. "We spend a lot more time with the subcontractors so when we get to the final drawings, we solve most of the technical problems," Gehry says. "You know where you are going before you start construction, so you minimize the surprise from the owner's standpoint. You get all the bad news up front."
Aesthetics is already a major source of demand for IT, and that demand will only grow--good news for computer and chip makers who need reasons to entice people to buy more-powerful machines.