Certainly, for automation, there is more confidence and immediate view about the tangible benefits that it could bring.. ‘Automating out’ routine work can have a significant impact on cost where there is the scale to support the investment.
M: A crit involves the students individually presenting their design work project to a panel of critics.The panel is typically made up of their tutors, visiting tutors from either the same university or another one, external academics, recent graduates and other external people working in or somehow involved in design, architecture or the built environment.
The student pins up all their printed sheets on the wall and is then given a set amount of time to explain their work, the design process, the inspiration and their proposal, which is then followed by feedback by the panel and a critical discussion on how to push the project forward and improve it.. BW: What areas are assessed?.M: The students are primarily assessed on their ability to critically develop a design brief, analyse and propose a solution, which responds to the needs of the users and society.On top of this, it is also important to develop a successful and clear way of explaining and presenting their ideas through a range of media, such as drawings, sketches, models and collages as well as through verbal presentation.. BW: When you participated in crits as a student, what were the benefits of them and how did they help your development as an architect/designer?.
Thinking back, I actually think one incredibly important benefit was learning that sometimes you need to step back from your work in order to take it forwards, not only physically by pinning up your work on the wall and watching it from a distance, but also through bouncing ideas off other people and understanding great design comes out of discussions and talking to others, whether they are your tutors, strangers, friends or family.It is easy, especially as a student only recently starting your journey in architecture, to get stuck by working hard on your own and only relying on yourself in improving your design work.
This is when the crits force you to step out of your own 'bubble' and explain your thought processes and ideas to others.
As a result, you will understand its weaknesses and strengths and gain the insight of your critics from an outside view; things that might be obvious but as you have been too close to your own work, you have failed to see yourself.This would be a positive outcome for construction, ensuring those suppliers who were local to a planned project could respond, reducing travel distance and therefore carbon, risk of delivery delays etc..
This distribution helps manufacturers to maximise their utilisation; downtime on equipment and operatives contributes to overhead, which is amortised across orders, raising prices and lowering productivity.Having easy access to long term pipeline (as advocated in the Construction Playbook) will of course help ensure there is less downtime.
But being able to use down time to manufacture ‘short’ orders or contribute to a larger order (the consistent specifications making products from different suppliers fungible) will also help increase utilisation and productivity, reducing prices;.It creates a more direct link between global organisations such as those listed above, and manufacturers.
(Editor: New Weights)