September 12, 2012
Photo credit: Luther Caverly
A glimpse into history and a promise for the future
Stephen Fai is building potential for his Carleton research lab from the ground up — but not literally. That’s because Fai’s work in Carleton’s Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) centres on the digital construction of past, present and future buildings in Canada.
Fai is director of CIMS, and an associate professor in the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. Since taking the leadership reins of the research lab in 2007, Fai has been instrumental in adapting building information modelling (BIM) software to a variety of projects. The technology takes sophisticated architectural graphics and ties them to a database of critical information, such as material costs and construction schedules.
The design and infrastructure management tool has immediate use for new builds, and when utilized in reconstruction projects, allows architects to view the lifecycle of a structure through time.
“The technology is designed to take manufacturer’s specifications for windows, furnaces, whatever, and plug them into the model,” explains Fai. “This provides for a world of information at your fingertips, and when the right specs are used, gives us a glimpse of what a building would look like at any point in its history.”
This gives us a glimpse of what a building would look like at any point in its history.
The CIMS lab receives much of its technical assistance from Autodesk, an industry leader in 2D and 3D technologies. Ramtin Attar is a Carleton grad and adjunct research professor who now works at Autodesk. He characterises his involvement in CIMS as a great example where industry and academia closely collaborate to address important research issues.
“CIMS’s research is fairly unique in both the scale and complexity of the dataset required to document, represent and analyze the lifecycle of our built environment,” Attar says. “The content-driven approach enables us to test the limits of our existing technologies that in turn will lead to novel ideas for future development.”
Attar cites the Batawa project as a shining example of CIMS’s progressive interdisciplinary innovation. Researchers from the schools of architecture, industrial design and the faculty of public affairs worked together to chronicle the history of the iconic Bata Shoe company town in southeastern Ontario.
“Compiling complex datasets that included original drawings, photos, interviews and infrastructure information from the municipality revealed clear planning strategies and variances,” says Fai. “Modelling the village from 1939 to 2020 gives a sense of how the community grew, and how it’s expected to change going forward.”
Modelling the village from 1939 to 2020 gives a sense of how the community grew, and how it’s expected to change going forward.
The success of the Batawa project hasn’t gone unnoticed in architecture circles, and it even captured the attention of those outside the industry. The First Nations community of Kitigan Zibi, near Maniwaki, Quebec, heard about what digital modelling was doing for Batawa, and thought the application would be an ideal solution to some of their own development issues.
Gilbert Whiteduck, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Chief, has been guiding Fai and his research team. “He has shown us that, historically, infrastructure spending has in large part been controlled by the federal government, with very little long-term planning,” explains Fai. “This has resulted in a fragmented system that is difficult to manage.”
With a goal of developing a tool to better support community growth and economic development, Chief Whiteduck and the Kitigan Zibi Band Council have tasked Fai and his research team (Karen Conty, Steph Bolduc, Bassam Daoud, Richa Chuttani) with mapping out all 18,000 hectares of their land, including 20 lakes, and modelling key buildings, recreational areas, cultural resources and more.
“This is a very forward-thinking community with deep ties to traditional values — it’s a charged environment,” says Fai. “We’re working closely with members of the community to build a tool that will assure that future planning is in their hands.”
Work started in mid-May, with the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg funding half of the project, and the remainder coming from MITACS-Accelerate, a collaborative federal-provincial apprenticeship program. The funding will be used to support a team of six graduate students, who will work with Fai and other CIMS colleagues over the next 16 months.
“It’s very much a pilot project in every sense, and if all goes well, this tool will be offered to other First Nations communities across the country,” says Fai.
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