Building the Architect Map community

When Architect Map was created, I’m not sure we ever really thought that it would be anything more than a fun exercise to map our Twitter friends who are in the industry. Two months on and somehow we find ourselves building something which extends far beyond the confines of a Google map. Through things such as Augmented Reality, and now moving into the world of Podcasts, our little Architect Map project is beginning to generate a number of discussions and thought processes which has been great to witness and be a part of.

Creating a community

So where is this taking us? It is often a question I have thought to myself whilst having to endure another episode of Eastenders with my wife, but together with Su Butcher we seem to organically growing this little project with an aim of building a community for the AEC industry.

This notion of a community is an interesting one. What does it mean? What does it look like? All good questions which we are still to develop and uncover.

Expanding the Vision

However, as I hinted at in my last blog post, my vision for the Architect Map reaches far beyond putting placemarks into a Google Map. How do we now take this ‘thing’ that is gradually being built and make it something that is of use to us all? This is a challenge. However, the building blocks of the vision are now being laid and a number of enhancements to our community have been implemented which I hope everyone associated with Architect Map will use and get excited about.

Getting the basics together

It started to become clear that we needed an identity for Architect Map. Every entity needs an image, something that people can associate with. The starting point of this has been the introduction of a new logo. With the help of @Studio_EM and @JamieStinson, we now have a funky new logo which brings together everything that we are about. We thank both StudioEM and Jamie for donating their time to this, it really is appreciated and further enhances what we are all about – creating a culture of support and knowledge sharing.

Since the logo was launched, we have often been asked about the numbers that can be found in the bottom left. Jamie came up with a great story which was too good to resist. The numbers are the longitude and latitude points of Saqqara, Egypt. This is where the pyramids of King Djoser are, which were built by Imhotep. It is said that Imhotep is the first ever documented architect and engineer in history, so the longitude and latitude marry the themes of maps and architecture together.

The Architect Map movie

Taking the next step in building the ‘image’ of the Architect Map, a cool introductory movie was required. After being introduced to iMovie by my 13 year old Step Son, he showed me how I could go about building a movie. So, Saturday afternoon, much to my wife’s displeasure I set about building something. I’m actually quite proud of the end result as my first attempt, and until something better is created by someone more capable, this one will have to do.
 What do you think? I hope it captures what Architect Map is all about but any feedback welcome as always.

Podcasts

You will have seen in the video above, that this idea of sharing knowledge within our community is something that I am passionate about, and what better way of doing this than have industry show and speak to us visually through simple video media and a well recognised platform…. and so was born the Architect Map podcast. You can find it by simply typing ‘Architect Map’ into the iTunes search. Alternatively, you can just use this link.

I would welcome everyone to have a think about what it is you could share with the rest of the industry. Do you have an experience that you think the rest of the industry would be interested in? What about from a Student angle of how difficult breaking into the industry is? What about your experiences of trying Augmented Reality? What about key principals to be applied when writing a Specification? It really is an open book, and I do hope you engage with this initiative and lets see what we can build together.

Augmented Reality

I recently write a blog post about seeing if we can get members of the Architect map community to use AR. I said I was looking for volunteers to come forward to see what we could do. As I mentioned previously, Dave Cornett of @snowarchitects was the first to come forward, but since then we have had others take a shot at it, and I wanted to take this opportunity to showcase those who have taken up the challenge so far.

We have had FPA Architects (@FPAArchitects) give it a shot. Here is the Trigger image for you to give it a try.

We have also had our first Student give it a go. I really like the possibilities that this techniology gives to young and aspiring members within our community. Check out what Josh Harry Berkovitch, Architect of Design (@AnArchitecture0) has done.

We have of course also built Augmented Reality into the Architect Map logo itself! Take a look at what happens when you view our logo in AR.

The Facebook Page

Lastly, the Architect Map Facebook page was set up. Whilst Twitter has been great for connecting with people quickly, having somewhere to store the information and conversations that are being generated was missing. Facebook has been the answer so far, and with over 130 likes in a short space of time and some good interactions taking place, our Facebook page looks set to grow.

That’s it from me for this episode. Look forward to tweeting with you all soon.