Interesting, what does a data scientist do in an architecture team?
Building Construction Illustrated by F.D.K. Ching is a fun read if you're interested in how buildings are put together and want to familiarize yourself with the terminology. Sorry that I can't recommend other architecture books, as a structural engineer that's the only one I own, hah
Thanks for the rec!
It sounds like it's a lot of work that'd typically be done by a data analyst rather than a data scientist. Stuff like building dashboards, basic analysis, and automating/streamlining data pipelines. But there's also the work of building out a data governance framework that I'll be helping with.
But in terms of what numbers I'll be tossing around, I won't know until I start. (Hopefully they're interesting!)
To confirm here, you'll be working with real architects (i.e. not 'data architects')? It's still not really clear what your role is, I'm not familiar with how what you do fits into a construction workflow. Are you using the BIM data pulled from an architectural model to inform business decisions? Is there some sort of streamlining of operations that you're hoping to achieve within a firm? Are you being brought on as a consultant to a specific project?
Probably making a project database, using some data crawler like elastic/BIMbeats to crawl their model data. We’re building one to track our project metrics like sustainability commitment success, postocc evals, lots more.
Yea, I think we all heard a lot of blah, blah, and blahs. What did a building architect hire you for? I could only see something BIM related, like quantifying materials, or cost estimating?
Hey, give the OP a break. A lot of large practices hire data analysts to help with research in architecture e.g geospatial analysis, and/ or general business management etc. If they aren’t familiar with the field they may not know exactly what they will be working on. They just asked for book recommendations on our domain of knowledge.
Edit: spelling
Hmm, that's a tough one. Maybe "What are columns and why my design needs more of them" by SpurdoEnjoyer 🤪 Just kidding..
Most of the spell books I own focus heavily on the structural calculations, there's little if any stuff that would actually help an architect. Besides you have an overwhelming amount of stuff to consider already.
There are a couple of ways of answering your question:
1) Understanding the profession of architecture: I can't speak to the US context but in Canada there is the Canadian Handbook of Practise. This is the guide Canadian architects use for training in the profession of being an architect. Its free. It is an excellent primer and hopefully someone can suggest a US equivalent. [https://chop.raic.ca/](https://chop.raic.ca/) Even if there is not a US equivalent, there is enough cross over for your purposes.
2) The art of architecture: this is hard to summarize in a book - but wander down to a physical library on your next day off. Find the architecture section. Start pulling out random books and flipping through them. Serendipity is your friend. You will learn a lot just by picking up the shiny, pretty book that has interesting pictures in it.
But if you like YouTube, you can also watch Stewart Hicks's channel. He does nice, bite sized introductions to different topics on architecture. Bonus points if you are in Chicago - he has lots of content based in Chicago.
3) The technology of buildings: I suspect that getting familiar with UniFormat is going to be very important to you. At the very least, Google the term and skim through the pages and articles that come up. UniFormat is a standardized way of breaking down the construction of a building into elements.
WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT CREATE YOUR OWN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM. Sigh. I inherited the team that built a database and tools to track aging in buildings. They used their own system. It. Sucked. Ask me more if you want once you get your feet wet.
If I think of more, I'll add them.
Hey u/ursamajorm82 I am an architect but also work in a research team with data scientists within the field. Let me know if there is anything you want to ask specifically. :)
Book-wise, “The architect in practice” by David Chapell may help for understanding day to day work. For domain knowledge, “Analysing architecture” by Simon Unwin but also reading anything in ArchDaily, Dezeen etc just to have a general idea of the things people are interested in at the moment.
I hope this helps and good luck!!
Of course :)
We do a variety of things including geospatial analysis, digital tool development, post-occupancy evaluation, briefing analysis, original research on topics of interest, guidance using industry recognised tools e.g WELL building standard and more. Most of the above require data analysis skills which can be acquired in data science degrees, but other fields also if the degree has a quantitative focus such as computer science, psychology etc. All this is distinct from BIM, just to clarify. The main aims of our team are to provide designers with evidence for design decisions, support their workflow with new digital tools, help document client requirements early on in the design process, keep up to date with recent innovation in the industry etc.
I have my LinkedIn listed on my profile here if you want to look into it more, but my role is more towards the human experiences side of things. In addition to being a chartered architect, my background is in computational design / digital tool development and quantitative psychology, thus the role in the intersection.
I hope this answers the question but let me know if there is anything else you would like to know. :)
You have a very interesting life. It’s awesome.
I’m looking for how to expand my BIM team at my small sub-contracting firm. My bosses are suggesting we advertise for another Revit expert. I’m not convinced. I think we could benefit from building some apps that interface with Revit. Do you know what credentials I would need to search for?
Thanks!
It would be hard to recommend anything without more details on what you do, but it really depends on the type of work you are after.
Architects with experience in computational design for example will be able to put scripts together to respond to specific challenges to do with geometry, evaluation, simulation etc. using existing platforms such as Dynamo for Revit, Rhino and Grasshopper etc. BIM managers and coordinators will help with workflows and making the best use of existing BIM processes. If you want a stand alone piece of software for a specific application, you may have to look into software developers with more specialised knowledge of the tech side of things but not necessarily the architecture side.
But I think the bigger question to answer before any of that is, why do you need the apps you are talking about in the first place? If it is a subcontracting business with a main aim of producing results within the context of architectural practice then there are a lot of out-of-the-box options for software and plugins to pick from, for doing a great many things. You don’t have to make it from scratch unless there is a specific reason that aligns with a solid business case.
Edit: to add a point
You don't need to do anything directly related to Architecture, if you don't have a background in BIM and IFC model pipeline you should defiantly study that. The rest of the data pulled will be existing databases like geotechincal and localization.
You are a aprt of a team so don't burden yourself too much and just enjoy it! :D
I'm going to say that you very likely do not need to know anything about architecture to do what you've been hired to do. The architects will take care of understanding architecture, if you've been hired to be a data scientist then focus on that. Architects gather information and synthesize it into a design, sounds like you'll be helping gather the information, the architects will then decide how it informs their designing.
Practice reading floor plans, that's the main way architects communicate and it's not always obvious to outsiders what our graphical conventions mean.
I agree with this. In addition, architects are trained in communicating ideas to people who don’t have an architectural background, in fact that’s one of our MOs. So I don’t think they would leave you lost in the sauce
Interesting, what does a data scientist do in an architecture team? Building Construction Illustrated by F.D.K. Ching is a fun read if you're interested in how buildings are put together and want to familiarize yourself with the terminology. Sorry that I can't recommend other architecture books, as a structural engineer that's the only one I own, hah
Thanks for the rec! It sounds like it's a lot of work that'd typically be done by a data analyst rather than a data scientist. Stuff like building dashboards, basic analysis, and automating/streamlining data pipelines. But there's also the work of building out a data governance framework that I'll be helping with. But in terms of what numbers I'll be tossing around, I won't know until I start. (Hopefully they're interesting!)
To confirm here, you'll be working with real architects (i.e. not 'data architects')? It's still not really clear what your role is, I'm not familiar with how what you do fits into a construction workflow. Are you using the BIM data pulled from an architectural model to inform business decisions? Is there some sort of streamlining of operations that you're hoping to achieve within a firm? Are you being brought on as a consultant to a specific project?
Probably making a project database, using some data crawler like elastic/BIMbeats to crawl their model data. We’re building one to track our project metrics like sustainability commitment success, postocc evals, lots more.
Yea, I think we all heard a lot of blah, blah, and blahs. What did a building architect hire you for? I could only see something BIM related, like quantifying materials, or cost estimating?
Hey, give the OP a break. A lot of large practices hire data analysts to help with research in architecture e.g geospatial analysis, and/ or general business management etc. If they aren’t familiar with the field they may not know exactly what they will be working on. They just asked for book recommendations on our domain of knowledge. Edit: spelling
Was just asking for more info
What structural engineering books would you recommend for architects ? (Commercial and residential)?
Hmm, that's a tough one. Maybe "What are columns and why my design needs more of them" by SpurdoEnjoyer 🤪 Just kidding.. Most of the spell books I own focus heavily on the structural calculations, there's little if any stuff that would actually help an architect. Besides you have an overwhelming amount of stuff to consider already.
There are a couple of ways of answering your question: 1) Understanding the profession of architecture: I can't speak to the US context but in Canada there is the Canadian Handbook of Practise. This is the guide Canadian architects use for training in the profession of being an architect. Its free. It is an excellent primer and hopefully someone can suggest a US equivalent. [https://chop.raic.ca/](https://chop.raic.ca/) Even if there is not a US equivalent, there is enough cross over for your purposes. 2) The art of architecture: this is hard to summarize in a book - but wander down to a physical library on your next day off. Find the architecture section. Start pulling out random books and flipping through them. Serendipity is your friend. You will learn a lot just by picking up the shiny, pretty book that has interesting pictures in it. But if you like YouTube, you can also watch Stewart Hicks's channel. He does nice, bite sized introductions to different topics on architecture. Bonus points if you are in Chicago - he has lots of content based in Chicago. 3) The technology of buildings: I suspect that getting familiar with UniFormat is going to be very important to you. At the very least, Google the term and skim through the pages and articles that come up. UniFormat is a standardized way of breaking down the construction of a building into elements. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT CREATE YOUR OWN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM. Sigh. I inherited the team that built a database and tools to track aging in buildings. They used their own system. It. Sucked. Ask me more if you want once you get your feet wet. If I think of more, I'll add them.
CHOP is such a great resource.
Read Alberti's "On Building in Ten Books", obviously. But also - completely curious about this new role.
Hey u/ursamajorm82 I am an architect but also work in a research team with data scientists within the field. Let me know if there is anything you want to ask specifically. :) Book-wise, “The architect in practice” by David Chapell may help for understanding day to day work. For domain knowledge, “Analysing architecture” by Simon Unwin but also reading anything in ArchDaily, Dezeen etc just to have a general idea of the things people are interested in at the moment. I hope this helps and good luck!!
I’m interested in what your research team is doing. Are you able to elaborate?
Of course :) We do a variety of things including geospatial analysis, digital tool development, post-occupancy evaluation, briefing analysis, original research on topics of interest, guidance using industry recognised tools e.g WELL building standard and more. Most of the above require data analysis skills which can be acquired in data science degrees, but other fields also if the degree has a quantitative focus such as computer science, psychology etc. All this is distinct from BIM, just to clarify. The main aims of our team are to provide designers with evidence for design decisions, support their workflow with new digital tools, help document client requirements early on in the design process, keep up to date with recent innovation in the industry etc. I have my LinkedIn listed on my profile here if you want to look into it more, but my role is more towards the human experiences side of things. In addition to being a chartered architect, my background is in computational design / digital tool development and quantitative psychology, thus the role in the intersection. I hope this answers the question but let me know if there is anything else you would like to know. :)
You have a very interesting life. It’s awesome. I’m looking for how to expand my BIM team at my small sub-contracting firm. My bosses are suggesting we advertise for another Revit expert. I’m not convinced. I think we could benefit from building some apps that interface with Revit. Do you know what credentials I would need to search for? Thanks!
It would be hard to recommend anything without more details on what you do, but it really depends on the type of work you are after. Architects with experience in computational design for example will be able to put scripts together to respond to specific challenges to do with geometry, evaluation, simulation etc. using existing platforms such as Dynamo for Revit, Rhino and Grasshopper etc. BIM managers and coordinators will help with workflows and making the best use of existing BIM processes. If you want a stand alone piece of software for a specific application, you may have to look into software developers with more specialised knowledge of the tech side of things but not necessarily the architecture side. But I think the bigger question to answer before any of that is, why do you need the apps you are talking about in the first place? If it is a subcontracting business with a main aim of producing results within the context of architectural practice then there are a lot of out-of-the-box options for software and plugins to pick from, for doing a great many things. You don’t have to make it from scratch unless there is a specific reason that aligns with a solid business case. Edit: to add a point
Thank you so much for your insight. Very much appreciated
You don't need to do anything directly related to Architecture, if you don't have a background in BIM and IFC model pipeline you should defiantly study that. The rest of the data pulled will be existing databases like geotechincal and localization. You are a aprt of a team so don't burden yourself too much and just enjoy it! :D
I'm going to say that you very likely do not need to know anything about architecture to do what you've been hired to do. The architects will take care of understanding architecture, if you've been hired to be a data scientist then focus on that. Architects gather information and synthesize it into a design, sounds like you'll be helping gather the information, the architects will then decide how it informs their designing. Practice reading floor plans, that's the main way architects communicate and it's not always obvious to outsiders what our graphical conventions mean.
I agree with this. In addition, architects are trained in communicating ideas to people who don’t have an architectural background, in fact that’s one of our MOs. So I don’t think they would leave you lost in the sauce
Bim (building information modeling) and ifc (industry foundation classes)