Today's architects may no longer be seen creating their designs manually using pen and paper. Computers have changed all that.

It is no longer uncommon to find architects facing computer monitors doing their creations with a click of the mouse.

For a long time, architects have prided themselves in their knowledge of the AutoCad program, which cuts weeks of work down to a matter of hours.

Now, there's a program that's further changing the workplace. Enter the ArchiCad.

It's not quite a new program, though. The ArchiCad has been an industry leader for the past several years, and is used in 55 countries and translated in 32 languages, explained Rex Maximilian, a Hawaii-based architect.

Maximilian, who also teaches ArchiCad all over the United States, and in some other countries, was in Dumaguete last week to teach ArchiCad to some architects of the Entheos IT company, and future architecture students of Foundation University, in Dumaguete City.

Maximilian was invited by Victor Vicente "Dean" Sinco, president of Entheos IT, and Foundation University's vice president for finance. Maximilian and Sinco had worked together in Hawaii from 1992 until Sinco moved to the Philippines in 1998 to help run their school.

"The traditional Computer Aided Design software was two-dimensional, consisting of lines, and no intelligent information. With this three-dimension software using the Building Information Model technology, an architect only needs to make one 3D model. Any changes you make on one part of the model, say a window, will automatically update all the other plans with that window in mind," Maximilian said.

This ArchiCad program also gives the architect information about the building's life cycle, cost, heating, or airconditioning requirements.

Despite the wide usage of ArchiCad in advanced countries, particularly in Europe, this program, which initially started as a Macintosh software, has not yet been used extensively in this predominantly Windows-based country. ArchiCad launched its Windows version only a few years ago.

Foundation University expects to have an edge in its architecture program, which they will revive in June, because they will use this software from day one. "Most colleges in the US are now making the transition from two-dimension to the BIM technology. But FU is starting from the foundation of this new technology," Maximilian said.

Students who will enroll in June in the architecture program under the School of Industrial Engineering and Technology of Foundation University will be required to have a computer. The students and the school will stand to benefit from the package of Archicad which will give 50 licenses for only $150 for the student version of the program, in contrast to the $4,000 required for the professional version.

For Sinco, the revival of their architecture school, and the introduction of ArchiCad should have been done many years ago. "Bringing in new programs now is not so much to improve the school, but to fill a niche, because the only architectural program in the region doesn't really quite fit the bill in terms of international competitiveness."

Sinco, who has been using this program since 1992, noted there are a number of talented architects in the Philippines who could do well in the international arena if they were given the opportunity to take on projects which are outsourced by architectural firms in advanced countries.

And taking on outsourced architectural designs is what Sinco is preparing his company, the Entheos IT, for. "We're expecting more jobs to come in from the US, and that could greatly help the economies of the two countries." The City of Dumaguete is also expected to benefit from this development, especially after Mayor Agustin Perdices tapped Foundation University to act as the City's planning commission.

"Another feature of this software is that this allows the users to share their designs. So if we will design, say, a government complex, the students will be able to work on the different buildings at once that they could join together later. The other programs don't allow you to do that," Sinco said.

So if the ArchiCad-literate architectural students from Foundation University help the City in making its development plans, would we see a different Dumaguete in the next few years? Let's wait and see.*AP

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