Campbell Yule

Next AEC Tech Stack

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:53:00 +0000

Evan Troxel's Next AEC Tech Stack podcast series — three episodes on BIM 2.0, followed by Agentic AI in September and Data in October. I was part of the BIM 2.0 conversations.

Qonic — From Demo to Workflow

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:35:00 +0000

Qonic's founding assumption — that attacking detailed and developed design from day one was the right foundation — is starting to look well placed. The Components release connects their impressive modelling capability to practical workflows for the first time, and the pattern of what they've built and in what order points toward something more complete than anything else currently being built on IFC.

The Missing Middle

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 02:33:00 +0000

Every BIM 2.0 tool still integrates with Revit, the detailed design phase remains largely unaddressed, and the biggest efficiency gains are in documentation still produced as 2D drawings. These ironies aren't accidental — but one player is making an interesting move on the part that matters most.

The Training Loop

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:21:00 +0000

McKinsey's new AEC AI report lands on the same structural conclusions as the AEC Magazine this month, but buries the most interesting paragraph near the end: AI is breaking the apprenticeship loop that built senior judgment in the first place. Architecture Studio v1.4 shipped the same week with a partial answer.

Not in the Next Release

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 01:42:00 +0000

Following on from If You Have Done It Three Times Martyn Day takes a more in-depth look and builds a framework around ALPA's Architecture Studio.

If You Have Done It Three Times

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:31:00 +0000

A companion to Knowledge in the Room. ALPA released Architecture Studio on GitHub in March — the other approach to the same problem.

The Comfort Conversation

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:22:00 +0000

After HVAC is Heating Up, Davis Muxlow at HVAKR got in touch to explain what problem they actually set out to solve. The comfort question is where it starts, but the more interesting story is why the mechanical engineer is always the last person in the room.

Knowledge in the Room

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:19:00 +0000

Arkyv presented at NXT DEV in May. I didn't catch the session live, but Axel Wohlin has been showing up in my LinkedIn feed more and more, and last week's news moved the product from interesting to worth writing about.

HVAC is Heating Up

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:12:00 +0000

Three MEP pitches at NXT BLD, one $50M Series A a week later, and the category I have argued was opening up most quickly now opening in public.

BIM 2.0's Catch-22

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:20:00 +0000

Michal Gryko, an architect and design technology specialist, posted a reflection on NXT BLD 2026 a week after the event. The whole comment is worth reading.
Michal is asking the question the industry has spent the last two years not answering directly.

Giraffe - The Right Direction?

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 04:11:00 +0000

Following the in-house development thread further. A look at Giraffe - a genuine BIM 2.0 player with a broader commercial frame, and the clearest live example of what AI-as-reusable-office-capability looks like in production. Senior judgement encoded once, then running on its own - instead of walking out at retirement.

The Word "Agent" Is Doing Too Much Work

Tue, 26 May 2026 06:23:00 +0000

A year ago at NXT BLD, the conversation was about AI assisting the architect. This year, it was about agents.

This post is an attempt to separate the things being called agents into the categories they actually belong in - partly to clear the air, and partly because the categories that don't deserve the word turn out to point at where the real value in this cycle is forming.

Branch: The Surprise of NXT BLD

Fri, 22 May 2026 07:27:00 +0000

My background is in architecture, and the BIM 2.0 landscape I have spent most of the last year writing about - Arcol, Snaptrude, Motif, Qonic, Hypar - sits on the architecture side of the design problem. When I watch the new wave of authoring environments, I am watching the architects' end of the building.

Which is why Branch caught me off guard at NXT BLD this year. Lucas Epp's session - Structural Design at the Speed of Thought - was the talk I did not know I needed to see.

NXT BLD 2026: Two Stages, Two Days, One Direction of Travel

Thu, 21 May 2026 07:34:00 +0000

Last week I MC'd the Lenovo Stage on Day 1 - eighteen presentations across the day - and the NVIDIA-sponsored Software Development Stage on Day 2. I also presented What the Prototypes Showed, the working-through of the four agentic BIM prototypes I built earlier this year.

What BIM Wasn't Supposed to Teach

Tue, 12 May 2026 14:18:13 +0000

A response to Lira Nikolovska's "The Good Enough Intelligence" on the Motif blog.

NXT BLD at 10

Wed, 06 May 2026 08:28:00 +0000

I first attended NXT BLD in 2020 — the virtual edition during Covid. Over the years since I've come back as an attendee, a sponsor, an exhibitor, and now as co-host. This year I'm MC for more than 30 sessions across the two days.

The Missing Player

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:11:00 +0000

State of BIM - Epilogue. Reading the a16z / KP Reddy exchange.

What the Prototypes Actually Showed

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:08:00 +0000

This is the follow-up to Testing the Agentic BIM Thesis. Four prototypes, each one testing a proposition from Martyn Day's AEC Magazine article. Here's an account of what building them actually revealed.

Testing the Agentic BIM Thesis

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:20:00 +0000

My last post on BIM 3.0 ended with a set of open questions: whether existing platforms can adapt fast enough, whether new tooling needs to build from a different foundation, and what happens to the incumbents as the production model shifts. I didn't answer them - partly because nobody can, and partly because the ground is still moving. In parallel, Martyn Day published his AEC Magazine cover story - "The Agentic Future of BIM" - and it sharpened those questions considerably.

What BIM 3.0 Might Look Like

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:51:00 +0000

State of BIM 2026 - Part Two: Where it goes from here*

In Part One I wrote about the BIM incumbents - why the stock pullbacks aren't the story, and why the BIM 2.0 execution reality was entirely predictable to anyone who's built in this space. This is the forward-looking half: digital twins, point solutions, and what I think BIM 3.0 actually means.