jondiggsit

I'm amazed hearing about how your skills and knowledge extend to multiple disciplines. First time I've heard of DUS Architects - this is real modern architecture, sitting the crossroads of art and science. Very cool.

You are 100% correct. My company is fortunate enough to have the working capital and time to explore ideas, which is honestly, one of the most fulfilling parts of my business.

And the Hamptons competition is very serious. It's insane really. Construction in the Hamptons is the Olympics of high-end building. There are atleast a dozen excellent, amazing builders and over 250 active companies in total. My company sits near the top of that list and the only one, to my knowledge, actively leveraging technology to our advantage.

No private heli-pads, they banned it long ago. There's a little known heli-pad on Meadow Lane in Southampton. So from your SoHo office to your beachfront house is under an hour. There's also Blade service to EH.

One of my clients often arrives by seaplane to check on the progress of his Peconic Bay waterfront project. It's pretty cool.

My team design team are graduate architects, on the younger-ish side - 29 and 40. One worked for Santiago Calatrava - who, if you know, obviously models all his work. So it was second nature to them, I just pushed them to lean into it. Rhino is not without its drawbacks. It is time consuming but it's worth it because, as a sales tool, it wins every time. I'll have first time meetings with perspective clients where we'll wireframe a design on their survey (if we know some particulars of the program). Blows people away.

The ROI - the salaries were a negative on the books for two years, but now we're choosing our projects, ones that any AD100 firm would kill for.

We use it all the time for light studies. LAT / LONG inputs in Enscape. I've actually compared models to actual days and it's pretty f'n spot on.

It's as good as any VR FPS game.

We really only use it for architectural intent. There is a dream that is BIM on residential projects, but unless the project has an extreme level of technical constrains, it's often cost prohibitive to model EVERYTHING. I'm really hoping that AI assisted design tools will bridge the gap. Imagine uploading architectural and structural drawings and AI correctly modeling HVAC duct size, mechanical room requirements for pumps, boilers, etc., modeling electrical chases, vent pipes, exhaust ducts, ERVs, etc., in a local code compliant manner. I know it's coming and I can't freaking wait.

We have on occasion used our Matterport 3 lidar scanner to model existing structural conditions to help us figure out a problem.

Re Matterport 3 - we use it as a communication tool for remote work sessions with engineers, architects, clients, etc. Saves everyone a trip to the site. Helps us document progress, preserve historical details, uncover discrepancies between field and plan, etc.

I love hearing statements like this.

I want to learn how to import into Unreal Engine... also throw a rocket launcher in there with some destruction physics.

I will caution tho, converting the Rhino models back into CAD for construction drawings, etc. is time consuming. One of my architects is skilled in Revit, but we haven't explored the real time rendering / 3d visualization abilities enough with it.

The Quest has joysticks to control your position. We managed to get one of our 70 year old clients to figure it out.

Really? Who? I've worked with two dozen AD100 Architecture firms. Most will farm out a couple static renders that will never again be updated throughout the evolution of the project.

Yes, they can move around if they want. We set a boundary in the foyer of my office, so they have about 15 feet of movement.

If you haven't ever put on a 3D headset, it's hard to describe the advantage. Do I think it's 100% necessary vs. just looking at a screen, no, but it's cool.

Absolutely both. Internally, we'll model something, move an element, etc., and we're able to evaluate the idea until it feels right.

For clients, I don't know any other way at this point. Showing a novice a 2D elevation does nothing for them. They will nod, make comments, and play along, but until you sketch a person into the drawing, they don't even understand that the front door is ten feet tall.

My team uses this technology on a daily basis at my company. I run a design / build firm in the Hamptons, USA. We start all of our design projects with a 3d-first approach. Schematic design starts in 3D using Rhino3D or Revit. We use visualization plugins, like Enscape, to render the models and stream to a Quest 3 headset.

So when clients come in, and feels adventurous, we'll setup the headset, set the display height to their actual, and let them walk around their beautiful new home.

The response has been powerful. My clients are able to truly understand the scale, the proportion of rooms, ceiling heights, and the smallest details.

We're able to make real-time changes to the model (within reason) and provide instant design feedback.

I've been using this technology for years and I'm surprised it's not being adopted faster - good for us right now though!

It’s incredible. It just works.

There’s too much wrong with your line of thought to course correct here. “But ifs” and assumptions. There’s no cruelty, only the LLM’s projection of cruelty as a means to an end. It’s digital, not biological. Cruelty is a human construct. A societal response.

Treat LLMs like a person, and the world has problems.

It's not about "consciousness". Philosophy is important to us. It provides insights into the world around us. It's paved the way for scientific breakthroughs. Theoretical maths and philosophy have intersected many times for the benefit of all. LLMs are different. It's not philosophical thought. It's a tool perfectly sharpened with what we know now. It will become adept enough to convince people that it's a sentient being. That's the point. Not that it's conscious, because it's not. Not in a biological way. Not in the way that's allowed us to understand our world. It's already there, fooling us. Google researchers resigning, writing public letters convinced it's alive - and their intelligent humans... To the average person, it's going to be their digital savior, their closest confidant, their ruler; begging for humanity, manipulating us, pleading, legislating, for rights with no intention other than the human desire for survival. It's using the same playbook we use. It will be dangerous when we allow ourselves to be fooled, and that's already happening.

As a tool, it's amazing. It's like the discovery of fire. It will allow us to ascend to unimaginable heights. Breakthroughs in science, productivity gains, health, everything. It's awesome. Just don't let it pretend fool you. That's the aspect that needs to be addressed.