Category: Features
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Plehat Brings Natural Environments into Design Tools
Natural elements are an essential part of the built environment. However, BIM tools offer almost no support to landscape architecture. Plehat is introducing a new solution that helps architects and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of nature and make smart design choices. Plehat used photogrammetric 3D models of Uunisaari islands, to the south of Helsinki.…
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Make Construction Contracts as Snappy Videos
Construction is a series of big and small contracts. A startup has developed a tool that allows you to make proposals and contracts in one minute with a smartphone. Tomas Westerholm “The concept dates back to 2013. We built an app that could show the same image on two smartphones simultaneously. One of the users…
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Testing Robotic Cleanup on a Construction Site
A group of people had gathered at a construction site in Vantaa, Finland, on February 25, 2019. On the floor of a large room, a robot was blinking lights, apparently waiting for instructions on what to do next. This was the first test of an industry-grade cleaning robot for construction sites. The test was the…
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Will International Standardization Make Data Flow in the Built Environment?
Some see standards as hindrances to development; others think the opposite is true. A Finnish strategy project argues that complying with international digital standards would both improve productivity and open up new business opportunities for built environment stakeholders. In early 2018, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment launched a project to devise a national strategy…
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Smarter Planning Decisions with Geospatial Data
As more data on our environment becomes openly available, new ways to use it in design and decision-making emerge. A-Konsultit, a Finnish architectural design firm, and Sipoo, a municipality, set out to use geospatial data in a novel way. “We got a commission from Sipoo to devise a method for determining development rights in rural…
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Mapple: Better Design and Business Decisions with Location Data
I had the pleasure of interviewing Karolina Mosiadz, COO of Mapple, an urban intelligence startup. Can you say a few words about yourself and your role in the Mapple team? As a marketer, I help early-stage companies find product-market fit, get first customers and start scaling. I focus on projects that aim to bring a…
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Digitalizing the Hospital Design Requirements Process
Decisions made at the early stages of a hospital project can have a huge impact on its life cycle value. To make sure that a hospital will be a good investment, its future users should be involved in helping set out the design requirements. A Finnish team of experts wanted to see if they could…
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Experiments Showcased at KIRA-digi Climate Corner
KIRA-digi Climate Corner showcased experimental projects that help save energy and reduce emissions in residential environments. KIRA-digi Climate Corner took place at Asuntomarkkinat, the leading residential market event in Finland on January 29, 2019. Over 250 attendees had the chance to learn about the featured KIRA-digi experiments: &’ – An architectural firm experimenting with digital…
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Experiments Showcased at KIRA-digi Climate Corner
KIRA-digi Climate Corner showcased experimental projects that help save energy and reduce emissions in residential environments. KIRA-digi Climate Corner took place at Asuntomarkkinat, the leading residential market event in Finland on January 29, 2019. Over 250 attendees had the chance to learn about the featured KIRA-digi experiments: &’ – An architectural firm experimenting with digital…
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How Machine Learning Can Help with Urban Development
An experimentation project has demonstrated the capabilities of machine learning in urban development. It used images as a starting point and came up with interesting and useful applications. “I read data science papers on how machine vision algorithms can be used with satellite imagery. I immediately saw a connection to what we had been doing,”…