IDD or Intergrated Digital Design

I did not invent the name of this blog it came from previous lecturers at Birmingham City University. But over the last two years of my involvement, I have made it my own, steering first and second-year students along the digital path, now encompassing Architecture, from CAD to the ultimate end of the Smart City, Self-driving cars, the future.

For some its a mind-blowing entrance to a University Degree course, for some, it's well an opening to their future. They seem to soak up the knowledge, some are gamers,  they have a mindset that understands the route ahead.

So far for the last 5 weeks, I have introduced the concept of the digital world, but today I introduced all of the past weeks into the start of the world of CAD, the introduction of Data to the 3D model and its use, as part of what's known as BIM.

It's not an easy route, made harder by the fact that the group is made up of Architectural Technologists, Building Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors,  Planners and Construction managers, all of whom have just a little different use and role in the digital plan.

Oh, and did I say the whole class, some 140 students in the first year are flung together within individual groups, they need to work together, exploring the data and sharing it, much like a real-life practice. or project.

Lectures range from introductions to CAD to understanding the effect of the weather on details, and of course, researching the data needed to understand how materials work as a built structure.

Some of my slides are on Scays.co.uk, but I need to pull together in a coherent page, a project to be done.

Today's photo the little blue dot Voyager photo set up by Carl Sagan, a classic. I just purchased a "T" shirt with a little version of the photo.