Feature
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A National Digital Twin
A dynamic digital twin was created at Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing to test the challenges and issues associated with developing a digital model of infrastructure assets
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News
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Epic games acquires Twinmotion
Abvent Group has sold Twinmotion, a leading 3D immersion software for architects and designers, to Epic Games, the creator of the hit video game Fortnite and Emmy-award winning Unreal Engine software |
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Industry Focus
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Going Modular
Kenny Ingram of IFS makes a number of interesting predictions about future trends within the construction industry
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Case Study
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The Village Savant
IES has launched new cutting-edge technology that connects distributed energy networks, renewables, master plans, building design, operation and retrofit, with the aim of building Intelligent, and well-informed, communities
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Software Review
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ARCHICAD 23
The latest version of Graphisoft's flagship architectural design application, ARCHICAD 23, introduces some interesting tools in Beam and Column design, and Void and Recess creation
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Setting the stage for innovation
GDTF and MVR has been developed by Vectorworks, Inc., MA Lighting and Robe lighting in conjunction with input from other manufacturers within the entertainment industry, to provide a common file format, and device control definition that allows users to share data and CAD files more effectively. GDTF and MVR was developed with the purpose of creating a unified definition for the exchange of data for the operation of intelligent luminaries
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Comment
Heathrow Master Plan
I would like to think that the Government picked up my comment in the last newsletter about London City being more important in the future of air travel than Heathrow, and rushed forward the release of the Heathrow Master Plan that envisaged a third runway and huge infrastructure development around the site. I am all in favour of large scale planning – unavoidable, sometimes, in an urban environment that has been evolving over the last couple of hundred years and has had to accommodate vastly different transportation systems and working and living conditions in that time, but at least we should be able to learn from those experiences and propose credible responses to the needs of the future – and not the present.
Should the plan be accepted - following a substantial period of legal wrangling to acquire the extra land needed - it will be a couple of decades before the project is completed, including substantial upgrades to the road and rail systems around the airport to handle the suggested massive increase in passengers. Within that period we will also see a switch from ICE and jet-engine technology to electric transport, autonomous vehicles, including electrically powered aircraft - smaller, short-haul and with VTOL capabilities - and dramatic changes to peoples working practices, with more people working from home. A large proportion of travel will be short distance, from regional city-based hubs, with more frequent departures, fewer passengers per flight, and, basically, silent aircraft. Long-haul flights will still need current technology, but with carbon-based technologies being rapidly replaced, transport still reliant on it will become more expensive and anti-social, and could even attract extra charges to offset claimed damages to the environment.
You don’t need to be particularly bright to see which way the wind is blowing. The seeds of environmental dissent have already been sown. Beside them, though, we have the growth of equally ground-breaking technology which will probably come to fruition within the time it will take to complete the new Heathrow. Remind me, again, how far into the future the owners need to operate the airport to ensure it remains a profitable venture.
David Chadwick
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