How the nation's architects are using AI, robotic parking and new skylights

Architect Tarrah Beebe traveled to her industry's biggest trade show in the vacation spot of San Diego this past week, only to lock herself away for a full-day symposium on artificial intelligence. She says it paid off.

Beebe thinks AI can help her Los Angeles-based firm, KFA, catalog data from all 60 employees in a format everyone can access. That way, KFA won’t lose what its architects have accumulated when they leave the firm or retire.

“I think AI can help leverage the collective knowledge of the firm,” Beebe told CoStar News at this year’s American Institute of Architects conference.

About 5,000 architects and design professionals, as well as engineers, general contractors and developers, descended on the seaside city for four days of seminars, building tours and speeches from industry leaders at the AIA conference.

The AIA, based in Washington, D.C., warned those who flocked to the vacation spot of San Diego that things could get pretty wonky, saying in a statement: “Attendees will dive into the topics shaping the profession's future — from net zero energy and adaptive reuse in revitalizing downtowns to the growing role of AI and the push to design healthier buildings that strengthen communities.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated part of each year’s AIA conference is the Expo floor, where about 600 companies pitch their wares to architects and other industry players. The roster of Expo presenters includes providers of seemingly every possible type of building material or component imaginable.

From RCP Block & Brick in Lemon Grove, California, showing off its hardscape and masonry supplies to Englewood, Colorado-based Bobrick's changing tables for use in restrooms, the products on display ran the gamut of construction.

One design technique becoming more common is an emphasis on natural light. Several companies on the AIA Expo floor focused on products that can help architects infuse more daylight into the buildings they design.

Solatube International, based in Vista, California, makes an acrylic skylight that filters natural light through an enclosure that’s similar to a prism. The light then flows through an aluminum tube to what looks like a normal lighting fixture in the ceiling. Solatube owns more than 60 patents on its tubular daylight device, which it sells through its SolaMaster and SkyVault product lines.

“It allows architects to get natural daylight further into the interior of the building, as opposed to windows, which only bring light to a seven or eight-foot space adjacent to a window,” Solatube President Francisco Lopez said.

An additional benefit of the tubular daylight device is that it requires only a small opening in a roof, as compared to a traditional skylight. The smaller opening means less heat is brought into a building’s interior, improving energy efficiency.

Solatube’s products have been installed in high-rise residential towers, offices, factories, schools, automobile and train tunnels and many more property types, Lopez said. One of Solatube’s latest projects was at Terminal 4 at Los Angeles International Airport.

Natural light is “absolutely critical for humans’ well-being,” KFA’s Beebe said. Her design portfolio includes work on offices, residential, hospitality and educational facilities and she said she tries to create designs to provide as much daylight as possible to interior spaces.

“For every room, we are thinking about the value and the quality of light that is going to come into the space,” Beebe said.

Among window makers, Beebe said she typically uses products made by Marvin Windows & Doors, VPI Quality Windows and Andersen Windows and Doors.

Several other vendors on the AIA Expo floor feature innovative window products.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Kingspan Light & Air, for example, makes fiberglass-reinforced polymer walls that are translucent to allow light to flow to interior spaces. Solar Gard, based in San Diego, makes window films that obviate the need for blinds or shades.

Andersen, based in Bayport, Minnesota, makes two types of so-called smart windows. One of Andersen’s products, called SmartSun Glass, filters out 95% of ultraviolet rays, provides insulation for improved energy efficiency and doesn’t require blinds or shades to block bright sunlight.

Parking has emerged as an area of innovation for architectural products, too. Volley Automation, based in Denver, sells a robotic parking system where drivers pull into a garage and a robot-controlled elevator lifts the vehicle to its designated parking slot.

The system reduces the amount of space needed for a parking garage, allowing garages to be constructed in spaces that are constrained for space. Torxun, based in Tracy, California, developed a new type of parking-garage gate to replace traditional metal roll-up doors.

Architects who want to explore the possibilities of artificial intelligence also have plenty of places to look on the Expo floor. Spacial AI developed an AI-enabled software platform that allows architects, engineers and general contractors to collaborate earlier on projects.

The AI component of Spacial helps users identify and correct potential problems, shortening the time it takes for the production of documents that must be filed with local building permitting agencies.

Maor Greenberg, co-founder and CEO of Palo Alto, California-based Spacial, stressed that his company does not want to replace architects. Instead, Spacial’s AI platform can help architects better interpret and implement complex plans devised by the engineering firms who are their partners on major projects.

“Our main goal is to shorten the amount of time to get a project permitted and under construction,” Greenberg said. “That’s the best way to make projects more affordable.”