When the workshop looks better than the showroom (last post on model viewers for a while)

Name an industry where the back-of-house (BOH) gets more attention and is flasher than the front-of-house (FOH)!

BIM part of AEC comes to mind!*

Design normally happens behind ‘closed doors’, even if regular client/consultant meetings are held. In fact, not just behind doors but often in sealed (CAD) boxes, the information accessible to selected few – and sometimes not the most desirable ones (even in design teams).

This back-of-BOH, the workshop where designs are created and documented tends to be technologically advanced with up-to-date software to suit the needs of the information creators and capturers.

The front of house on the other hand is where these designs are viewed by the clients, contractors and other information users. The physical space where the viewing  happen may be attractive but the tools that the viewers/reviewers are awarded tend to be poor.

There may be pretty walk-through-movies and shiny models (scale) part of this experience, still, the toolset the reviewer is given is extremely limited, specially when we compare them to the tools the ones behind the ‘curtains’ use.

Fair enough one might say – many other trades work like this – not many other industries charge their own clients for inferior tools (no, the viewers aren’t free on the end of the day) – while they get smart instruments for the BOH ultimately at their clients’ expense too.

*Actually that needs correcting: it is the building design and documenting stage of AEC.