TRXL

Phil Read joins the podcast to talk about where human judgment belongs in an AI-assisted design process. We explore his case for the infamous sawtooth diagram (the thing BIM was supposed to eliminate) as the place where experience gets injected. We get into AI as an intern rather than an oracle, why firms are using it to study materials and lighting instead of generating building form, and why automated documentation is fast but not yet predictable. We close on AEC Acoustics, the 50-person event Phil runs in North Florida, and why it's built the way it is.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, technology directors, and educators watching entry-level work get absorbed by software. If the reps were how people used to build judgment, the open question is what replaces them, and Phil makes the case that the answer is teaching delegation far earlier than anyone teaches it now.

To learn more about Phil Read, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/237

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership

This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Garrett Reynolds joins the podcast to talk about UpCodes' decade-long fight to keep building codes free and public. We explore the string of lawsuits UpCodes has faced from the International Code Council, ASTM, and other code publishers since 2017, the Supreme Court and circuit court rulings that established no one can own the law, and the Pro Codes Act, the industry-backed legislation now trying to accomplish in Congress what the publishers couldn't win in court.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders and practitioners who rely on adopted codes every day and have never thought much about who controls access to them. Garrett lays out what's actually at stake for firms and their tech stacks if the publishers win, and what a small amount of constituent pressure can do against a well-funded lobbying effort.

To learn more about Garrett Reynolds, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/236

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join us for season 2 of the Confluence podcast where AEC industry software developers take us behind the scenes to show how they make the tools we use use to design the built environment. Find it on YouTube and Spotify.

Learn more at https://confluence.getavail.com/podcast

TRXL+ Membership

This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Marlene Chen and Blair Payson join the podcast to talk about how a firm known for design, not technology, actually puts new tools to work. We explore the office-wide crit they ran to surface friction points across every role and experience level, the shift that took their visualization team from three people to effectively 150, and the messy reality of adoption: rogue folders on personal desktops, a surprise surge in software licenses, and the slow work of change management inside a 300-person practice.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, design technologists, and anyone responsible for getting a growing practice to adopt new tools without flattening its culture. If you've ever wondered how a studio this size balances experimentation against deadlines, and why the people always matter more than the technology, this one will give you plenty to sit with.

To learn more about Marlene Chen and Blair Payson, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/235

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Part3

Part3 is a modern construction administration platform built for architects. Whether your firm runs CA on Procore or email and spreadsheets, Part3 automates submittals and RFIs, delivers field reports from the job site, and protects every decision with a full audit trail. Book a demo at https://part3.io

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Håvard Vasshaug joins the podcast to talk about what happens to building data after the architect hits save, and why so much of it dies inside the authoring tool. We explore why it makes no sense to force construction, cost, and scheduling data into Revit, how live model changes can flow straight to contractors and owners without a BIM license, and why six-week-old information is the reason projects run over time and over budget. Håvard also gets into architects' instinct to guard their files, the industry's decades-long habit of shedding risk instead of getting paid to carry it, and why the firms that self-disrupt end up looking light years ahead.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, BIM managers, and design technologists who are tired of being the bottleneck stuffing metadata into models on someone else's behalf, and who suspect that structured, liberated data is the real groundwork for everything AI is about to ask of the profession.

To learn more about Håvard Vasshaug, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/234

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Episode Sponsors:

Part3

Part3 is a modern construction administration platform built for architects. Whether your firm runs CA on Procore or email and spreadsheets, Part3 automates submittals and RFIs, delivers field reports from the job site, and protects every decision with a full audit trail. Book a demo at https://part3.io

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Mariusz Hermansdorfer joins the podcast to talk about turning an internal tool into a product for the whole profession. We explore how he spun Jifto out of Henning Larsen as the firm's first ever tech spin-off, why letting go of corporate control was the thing that made it possible, and how a Rhino plugin can put wind, stormwater, and microclimate analysis in the hands of architects who never had a specialist team to call.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders and computational designers who are sitting on tools they've built in-house and wondering whether they could, or should, take them to market. If you've ever felt the gap between how designers think and how engineers deliver, or wondered what it really takes to spin a product out of a practice, this one's for you.

To learn more about Mariusz Hermansdorfer, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/233

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Episode Sponsors:

Part3

Part3 is a modern construction administration platform built for architects. Whether your firm runs CA on Procore or email and spreadsheets, Part3 automates submittals and RFIs, delivers field reports from the job site, and protects every decision with a full audit trail. Book a demo at https://part3.io

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Tatjana Dzambazova joins the podcast to talk about why the AEC industry deserves a brand new tool, one built for AI from the ground up instead of bolted onto software designed 25 years ago. We explore the end of what she calls the terror of technological expertise, the difference between hoarding artifacts and capturing the process behind a building, and why she believes AI could bring joy back to architecture rather than grinding it down to cost and speed.

This episode is especially relevant for architects and firm leaders who feel the pull between efficiency and meaning, and who are wrestling with what their value will be in a world where anyone can generate a rendering. Tanja makes the case that if architects don't define what they'll be paid for in the future, owners will define it for them, and she offers a far more hopeful read of this moment than most.

To learn more about Tatjana Dzambazova, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/232

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Part3

Part3 is a modern construction administration platform built for architects. Whether your firm runs CA on Procore or email and spreadsheets, Part3 automates submittals and RFIs, delivers field reports from the job site, and protects every decision with a full audit trail. Book a demo at https://part3.io

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

In this special partner episode, Jack Sadler joins the podcast to talk about the phase of a project where architects quietly lose control: construction administration. We explore why CA became a cost center instead of a profit center, what happens when architects run their work out of someone else's software, and how AI can automate the routing, logging, and paperwork without ever touching the professional judgment that actually matters. Jack makes the case that CA is where design intent gets realized or negotiated away, and that owning the flow of information is how you make sure it's the former.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders, project architects, and anyone who's been handed the CA phase and felt it turn into email triage, spreadsheet chasing, and cover-your-ass paperwork. If you've ever suspected there's a better way to run construction administration, one that makes your firm smarter, more defensible, and maybe even profitable, this conversation will give you a concrete place to start: take back control of what you're already accountable for.

To learn more about Jack Sadler, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/231

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Part3

Part3 is a modern construction administration platform built for architects. Whether your firm runs CA on Procore or email and spreadsheets, Part3 automates submittals and RFIs, delivers field reports from the job site, and protects every decision with a full audit trail. Book a demo at https://part3.io

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Keith Gerchak joins the podcast to talk about the double life he's been living for thirty years: designing spaces for storytelling as the Design Principal at TheatreDNA, and inhabiting those spaces as an actor and filmmaker. We explore what makes performing arts buildings unlike any other building type, the surprising parallels between directing a feature film and managing an architecture project, and how technology — from Revit to AI — can either serve a story or quietly strip it of meaning.

This episode is especially relevant for architects and design technologists who feel the tension between the tools they use every day and the purpose those tools are meant to serve. Keith makes the case quietly and specifically — drawing from three decades of bespoke theater design and a twelve-year independent film that made it into 500 theaters nationwide — that knowing why a building exists, and for whom, is the one thing no technology gets to replace.

To learn more about Keith Gerchak, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/230

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership

This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

In this special Campfire Series episode, Jeff Mottle joins the podcast to tell us the full story of CGarchitect — from a side project launched in 2001 to a 21-year platform, a sale to Chaos Group, and everything in between: the 3D Awards, CGschool, the evolution of archviz from expert-only technical gatekeeping to storytelling, and what COVID revealed when it stripped away all the travel and in-person events that had been keeping him going. We also get into his four years at NVIDIA, the AI wave he'd been predicting for nearly a decade before it hit, and why the AEC industry's instinct to wait for a clear winner may be the costliest mistake it makes.

This episode is especially relevant for visualization professionals, design technologists, and firm leaders watching AI reshape the tools they've built careers around. Jeff makes a direct case that the democratization of archviz didn't start with AI — the last 5% just got sped up — and he's specific about why billing by the hour is the industry's biggest liability going forward and what a shift to outcome-based pricing actually looks like.

To learn more about Jeff Mottle, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/229

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership

This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL

Steve Burrows CBE joins the podcast to talk about why the construction industry keeps rewarding dysfunction instead of fixing it. We explore the gap between selling time and creating value, why startups keep failing to change construction by trying to change all of it at once, and what the collapse of Katerra actually taught the people who were in the room when it happened.

This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders and engineers who feel trapped in the cycle of meetings, emails, and change orders, and who suspect the system they're operating in was never designed to produce great work. Steve makes a blunt, practical case for starting with what you can control, and his perspective is shaped by decades of working on some of the most complex structures in the world before walking away from the corporate path to figure out what comes next.

To learn more about Steve Burrows CBE, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/228

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

_____

Episode Sponsors:

AVAIL

AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com

Confluence Events & Podcast

Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com

TRXL+ Membership

This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and full access to our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Learn more at https://www.trxl.co/#/portal/signup/

-----

Sign up to become a TRXL member.

• Free members get email notifications when new episodes are released and when new posts are published on TRXL.co
• Paid supporters of TRXL+ get ad-free podcast episodes, full show notes, and exclusive Leadership Edge email newsletters from TRXL