Tips For Cutting Modeling Costs

All but the most exclusive architecture firms work on a tight business model. In fact, the AIA reports that the average profit margin hovers around 6-13% per design project for a firm. We haven’t run into any architect that will argue the power of architectural models to help a client understand a design concept. But justifying this cost from the firm’s profitability can be tough with a client.

Occasionally we run across a firm that knows the power of a having a model at the table but it curious on what can be done to lower the investment. Here are a couple tips to consider when building a model using 3d printing:

1. Scale: This one seems pretty obvious but plays a big part in cost. A model built at 1/8″ = 1′ versus 1/16″ = 1′ is obviously twice the size. This is twice the raw materials and a larger base. Evaluate exactly what you’re trying to communicate. Is it how the structure sits on the topography? Maybe a smaller scale can accomplish this. If you’re going for showing how the building materials have reclaimed lumber and beautiful timbered entry-ways, then a bigger scale will get the job done.If you’re on a tight budget, think about doing a hybrid model - This entails a complete model with the site and the building done at a small scale and smaller sectional models are built individually at a larger scale to show specific features of interest. You save on the overall model cost and still communicate with your audience both the site’s look and feel and the specifics of the building’s design.
2. 3D CAD File Preparation: This is possibly the biggest opportunity to save. Clients can’t make up their mind and change drawings over and over and over…grrr. Architects then have to scramble to make deadlines and this means a model gets changed over and over and over. If timelines are managed and locked down, the CAD technician can have the drawings finalized and ready to go and avoid the change order fees. Given a bit of time the model can be constructed to save on raw materials and thus further drive down the cost.Here’s an example:
   
   This architecture firm saved tremendously on their modeling costs by hollowing out the model underneath the topography. An added benefit? This monster is much easier to move around too.
3. Recycle: Almost every commercial design project today is sold through renderings. More and more residential projects are going this route as well. So, why not repurpose all that 3d design work and simply build a model. Having multiple tools for explaining a vision gives firms a definite edge when pitching in a competition. It’s easy to print in 3d right out of popular programs like 3d Studio Max.

The options for integrating 3d architecture models in an affordable way into the design conversation is possible. Nobody needs to hire/abuse a student intern in a back room to build models out of cardboard and Tacky glue. Those days are gone forever (although it was one helluva a good initiation ritual!). Instead, a firm can cut back on its coffee and Mountain Dew budget and spend that money on tools that will move the process forward.

My first job out of school I worked for Simms Fishing Products here in Bozeman, Montana. Fly-fishing ranks up there with golf for leisure pursuits and after the movie A River Runs Through It came out in 1994, the sport was all the rage.Simms was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the late 80’s and relocated to Bozeman in the early 90’s. Founded by John Simms and later purchased by KC Walsh, the company had developed a niche of building world class gear required to go out and wade in frigid streams. In fact, the company partnered with W.L. Gore and developed breathable “waders” or pants to wear in the water. You could fish all day and never get hot and sweaty. Big break through.

Here’s the kicker though, these pants, jackets, shirts, etc, are expensive. Very expensive but the quality is unsurpassed. If you buy a Simms piece of gear, it’s going to last for a long, long time. So if you average that cost out over a few years, the value starts to make sense. Plus, pulling a pair of G4 Waders on at the boat ramp is the big kid equivalent of showing up to the first day of basketball practice in the new Air Jordans…probably not going to make you a better ball player but your friends are sure jealous. (Now that’s the mark of a powerful brand when you can make your friends jealous.)

What I learned while at the company was we didn’t take shortcuts. We built the best products so everything from the binders at a sales meeting to the company van is going to live and breathe the brand. And that brand is first-class. Letterhead, business cards, trade show booth, everything was tightly integrated and reinforced the message that we were serious about making the best tools in the world for fly fishing. Sure a few crusty people at trade shows would bitch about the price tag but the brand evangelists shouted them down usually.

Since starting Sweet Onion Creations I’ve thought often how fortunate I was to work for such a company straight out of school. It’s easy to make mediocre products and have to compete on price because the quality isn’t there. Throw in competition from China or India and you’re really giving yourself a mountain to climb. It’s also tempting to cut corners when you’re getting started because the cash isn’t there and it’s a gamble to shoot for the top. Top tier brands don’t compromise and it’s one thing to read a case study in B-School but quite another to execute on those philosophies.

There is no substitute for the sense of pride in making a product that stands up to such standards. Exhausting? Absolutely. Risky? No. It’s the best decision you can make if you’re a manufacturer. Thanks Simms for teaching me that one straight out of the gate.

The highlight of my year so far was getting the chance to spend some time recently with a professor from Stanford’s design school who was here in Bozeman for vacation. He has the enviable position of working with the best and the brightest in a multi-disciplinary course that tackles design problems for some of this planet’s poorest citizens and gets further built upon with a program called KickStart.

Summary: The course takes some really sharp students, throws a complicated problem at them, and the world gets changed through innovative designs and entrepreneurial know-how.

I asked him what his one-piece of advice is for students when they delve into design problems.

His response?

Prototype. Prototype today. Prototype often. As soon as you can, get it in a 3-D model and start finding the flaws in your design and having conversations.

Now these tools don’t have to be expensive…simple cardboard and Scotch tape works. (Check out the documentary: “Sketches of Frank Gehry” and watch the part where he builds a model…it’s hilarious and yet awe-inspiring to watch him crinkle a piece of paper just right and achieve his vision.)

I think the cross-over for architecture is using a laser-cutter. If you’re old school and doing it in 2-D, it’s a piece of cake to export a DXF or DWG file and crank out terraced topography or walls. The accuracy is amazing. Plus, it’s a really cheap way to build a model from a raw material perspective. *If you’re working in 3-D BIM, this might not be the best solution. Kinda like buying a car and then riding a horse to work.

However, the trade off is time and quality. It takes time to punch out each wall and assemble it to make a space. But the quality of the conversation that takes place with a client is measurably better. Imagine what it can do for you word-of-mouth for your firm as well.

Letting a client touch, feel, and take apart your designs with their hands is an experience not too many firms are providing these days. The tools are here to make rapid-prototyping a viable option and give you a competitive advantage.