“Unpacking the Mental Blender”: Erin Rae Hoffer on Knowledge Management.

Our guest blogger today is Erin Rae Hoffer of Autodesk. Erin will be presenting “Unpacking the Mental Blender” at KA Connect 2010 in Chicago on April 8th.

Art and Science

Architects are problem-solvers with an understanding of the way space creates meaning for people and technical expertise in the way that buildings are most effectively assembled. Perhaps like me, you were attracted to the profession so you could excite neurons on both sides of your brain – art and science. But today’s rampant information overload is getting in the way of this multi-disciplinary integration. As architects, we must figure out how to quickly blend huge amounts of information of all kinds to reach the best decisions. Can our brains process all of the important facts rapidly, reach the right insights, produce creative solutions and achieve high aspirations for building performance?

“Think about your most recent design decision…”

To work out the most efficient layouts for spaces in a commercial building – Did you ask your partner whose superior design ensured that the last project came in under budget? Consult a manual of standard practices from your office training programs? Or code an algorithm and translate the output into built form?

To select light fixtures to meet energy and lighting requirements in an historic retrofit – Did you consult the latest journals to see which fixtures had been successfully used in award-winning projects? Consult the specifications for your preferred fixtures online to see if they would meet the requirements?

To push your design to higher levels of LEED certification – Did you post a query to the LinkedIn group for your local LEED AP group?

To win a new project with a new client – Did you research the preferences of the client from her company website?

Your honed communication, negotiation, programming, interpretation, proposal-drafting, and relationship-building skills are all needed. And these skills are maximized when you have access to the most important information.

Frameworks of Knowledge

Since the 70s when gurus like Peter Senge and Peter Drucker studied the way that social groups or organizations learn, the topic of design expertise has been of particular interest. Much design knowledge is explicit, in other words, something that we can document and pass on to others – the specifications for the light fixtures from our earlier examples, say, or the manual of standard procedures for commercial space layouts.

More intriguing aspects are tacit, or inexplicable. The coaching advice of our LEED AP LinkedIn group, might provide insight into the tacit knowledge of sustainable design experts, or the consultation of your design partner on commercial space layouts. Design school curricula are still predominantly based on hours of studio work, where students respond to problems with designs, assess their success through critique, and improve in the ability to design. This is evidence that the tacit knowledge of design process is still at the core of the profession.

Applied Insight

The AEC industry faces incredible competitive pressure. Natural responses to this increased competition are moves toward increasing differentiation, a drive for improved efficiency, a search for a broader set of services, outreach to new clients while project pipelines are slow. But in today’s extreme economy, the old remedies no longer seem to work. At the same time, the converging trends of Building Information Modeling, Collaborative Project Delivery and Sustainable Design point toward new behaviors and competency.

We need to think in new ways about how we develop, represent and archive the knowledge that underlies the best work of our profession. Social media and virtual communities provide platforms for gathering more information, more insight. But without tools to help designers process and access this knowledge, there is a danger that all of this accumulated knowledge will distract, rather than advance our profession.

About the Author

Erin Rae Hoffer is an Architect and Industry Programs Manager with Autodesk Inc, a leading software provider. She fosters the adoption of innovation in design and practice from programming D.O.E solar energy analysis software in the early 80s to development of CAD tools and techniques for architecture and engineering with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and member of the AIA and CSI. Erin received a Master in Architecture from UCLA, an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a registered architect in California and is pursuing a Ph.D at Northeastern.