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Digital
design

We combine the worlds of architecture and software development to create digital design solutions that help solve our clients’ briefing, design and delivery challenges

We’re explorers, constantly seeking new ways to design, communicate and deliver projects, by streamlining processes and developing digital tools, creating new ways of drawing, modelling and designing through coding.

We draw upon our impressive team of in-house experts in sustainability, research, DfMA and BIM, as well as our network of hugely talented external consultants – from web developers to digital engineers – to plan and deliver digital solutions.

So far, we’ve developed software solutions purely for use on our own projects (and become recognised industry leaders in the process). Now, we’re ready to offer this expertise directly to you.

Custom software development

The Briefing Tool, originally developed for the highly technical education sector, enables us to access data on over 150 projects and share it with our clients in a graphic, digestible and filterable way.

The National Galleries of Scotland 

The National Galleries of Scotland estate comprises five Category A listed buildings across three sites in Edinburgh but only about 3% of the Collection is on display in these galleries at any one time, the rest being held in various repositories on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Our work involved the detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of each site and the existing space within each building. Using our in-house briefing tool, we were able to categorise each type of space in every building and analyse them comparatively.

We developed and reviewed a series of options for potential interventions that would allow NGS to generate the greatest value from each building, operationally and commercially, in the context of space that would be freed up with the opening of the Art Works collection facility. We also looked at what spaces were missing yet needed in the respective buildings. Chosen options were worked up into more developed designs and an estates strategy developed and costed.

Design to construction technology solutions

Improving quality while saving time and money is close to the hearts of our contractor and manufacturer clients, and it’s close to ours too. New technologies are creating huge opportunities to influence and shape the fabrication and construction stage of projects.

We used computational tools alongside advanced manufacturing workflows to design and build The Gantry at Here East. Our custom software developed with Wiki House streamlined the process from design model to fabrication, enabling cutting information to be sent directly to the factory.

As experts in project delivery and software development we are uniquely positioned to help optimise your production and fabrication.

Estate data analysis and representation

Our clients want to better understand how their estates are performing. So we are developing evidence-based qualitative and quantitative techniques, using digital technology to help them capture and visualise estates data.

Harwell Campus

Harwell Campus is a scientific research and innovation centre; home to more than 200 organisations and covering some 290 hectares in the heart of Oxfordshire. We teamed up with VU.City to create a hyper-real dynamic digital representation of the physical campus that enables Harwell to better understand, visualise, identify and explain new campus opportunities. The model is accurate to 15cm, rich in layers of campus data and fully interactive, offering an immersive campus experience.

Computational design

We’ve been embedding computational design principles into our design process at Hawkins\Brown for the last seven years; over 50 projects have benefitted so far. From design to post completion we are always seeking out opportunities to use computation to both illuminate design and deliver efficiencies to our clients’ projects.

Cardiff Innovation Campus

Situated within the heart of the Cardiff Innovation Campus is sbarc|spark, a 12,000 sq m building with a variety of workspaces, recreational spaces, laboratories and exhibition areas designed to inspire out of the ordinary thinking.

At its core is the Oculus, a sculptural staircase that ascends through a slanted void and travels the full height of the seven-storey building. Either side of the staircase at ground level are banks of seating, an informal ‘social staircase’ that also doubles up as an auditorium for events. As the staircase rises through the building it forms a ‘spiral of collaboration’ with breakout zones on the landings at each level creating a lively activity zone in the centre of each floorplate.

Oculus Rift Goggle technology was integral to our user engagement during the design process, with users able to ‘fly’ through the building, instead of just reviewing 2D plans. This enabled the internal top view up through the Oculus spaces to be fully understood and developed collaboratively.

Built environment apps

You can now access our growing suite of built environment apps, each one lovingly designed in-house to address a specific project challenge:

  • DynaLauncher – intuitively manage your Dynamo scripts in a web app and launch them from the Revit ribbon
  • HB Toolbar – a suite of custom Revit apps for automating tedious everyday tasks
  • BIMView – a real-time practice-wide model health manager for Revit projects
  • H\B:ERT – rapidly track, analyse, and visualise the embodied and whole life carbon of building components directly from Revit at any time during the design process (add link to separate page to download free version)
  • Briefing Tool – build new project briefs using a database of over 150 projects