Power play
Håvard Haukeland, Co-founder of Spacemaker, now Autodesk Forma, and Senior Director, Autodesk, talks to Danielle Kenneally
Making buildings more energy efficient
AN intelligent software pioneer, Håvard Haukeland has come a long way since those early days in 2016 when, as an architect, he alongside Anders Kvåle and Carl Christensen, started exploring if it was possible to build an intelligent software that could help other architects discover the best way to design neighbourhoods.
That idea developed into what is now known as Autodesk Forma, formerly Spacemaker. So not only did it mean the trio achieved their ambitions but it saw them develop a formidable relationship with Autodesk who now champion its cloud-based AI software after acquiring it in 2020.
Here, Håvard talks to the Civil Engineering Surveyor’s Danielle Kenneally about Autodesk Forma’s journey, how the idea came about, where it is now, and what more it has in store.
How have you got to where you are today as senior director at Autodesk and co-founder of Autodesk Forma?
I’m one of the three founders of Spacemaker, an intuitive, collaborative, cloud-based AI software that empowers architects, urban planners and real estate developers to design site proposals. Spacemaker, which is now known as Autodesk Forma, was developed to enable architects, which I have a background in, and urban planners to plan sites and develop early-stage designs to help them to work faster, smarter, and more collaboratively.
Autodesk Forma, for me, was borne out of frustration as an architect. Being given a challenge to figure out what to do with a site project and how to best develop it, is an important task.
Up until its acquisition by Autodesk, my role was as CEO, but I was basically doing a little bit of everything, so of course as we grew, it became natural to merge with Autodesk who could provide investment into the design and construction solution.
One of the things that I spent a lot of time doing was meeting clients and users and understanding what the industry itself needs and then converting that into product strategy. Taking the time to do that was about improving what we have to better meet the market needs. This is something I still do as senior director at Autodesk, I still work strategically to ensure our users reap the benefits of the tools we have and I also look at what else can we do to change the product, so it better meets their needs.
It’s essentially about understanding the current market and keeping atop of improvements as a result of feedback.
Tell us more about Autodesk Forma, how did it come about?
Autodesk Forma, for me, was borne out of frustration as an architect. Being given a challenge to figure out what to do with a site project and how to best develop it, is an important task. It could be a home, a workplace or a hospital – they’re very important developments to solve. And it felt like there were not the tools to solve it in a smart way – like being blindfolded and trying to use your intuition and experience to come up with smart ideas.
It’s an extremely difficult and also challenging task just to draw, say hundreds of apartments, in a way that gives the best possible outcome for those living there, while meeting all the economic and sustainable needs for that project.
However, we know all sites can be developed in a good way. Autodesk Forma was borne out of this frustration – that there should be an easier way to develop a smarter site from the outset.
That frustration has grown into cloud-based AI software which was acquired by Autodesk – what was that like?
It was really exciting – after putting together a team and spending a couple of years creating the AI software that was both useful and created value to address these issues, it snowballed very quickly. All of a sudden, we had more than 100 employees, with Autodesk Forma being utilised across the world. It’s amazing to be a part of a software creation tool that has had a huge impact on the built environment in just a few years – architects, developers, and engineers, all over the world are now using our tool to make better decisions about how to develop a site.
The last part of that story is when we joined forces with Autodesk in 2020.
As a multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries, it has the distribution power.
We also realised that we had a shared vision of the industry’s future with those at Autodesk and knew that joining forces would enable the solution space to become infinite.
It’s a very exciting time to be a part of Autodesk as it transitions into the AEC cloud world and expands its portfolio to provide solutions that are faster and smarter, with more collaborative workflows.
This has seen the launch of a tool that predicts operational energy use in real time, what does this mean and how is it used?
Our rapid operational energy analysis is a visual, easy-to-use, collaborative cloud-based Autodesk Forma tool that shows predicted operational energy in real time. It’s a tool that helps architects and urban planners design with energy efficiency in mind.
Autodesk is on a mission to introduce an AEC cloud solution where more sustainable outcomes can be easier to achieve, with Autodesk Forma being at the forefront of that.It allows for modifications to be made to key design factors for energy consumption, such as geometry, window-to-wall ratio, and roof and wall construction type, to instantly see how these things may affect energy consumption for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and appliances when the building is completed.
Users can immediately see how tweaks in early phase design, when it’s cost- and time-effective to make changes, could impact predicted energy use, as they design in real time.
What are the benefits of having this information at the design’s early phase?
Currently, there is no access to analysis like this – existing energy analysis tools can be complex and technical, requiring detailed design and operational inputs and expert understanding of the data. This can cause disruption to the design process, so the huge benefit of this tool, which uses machine learning to create simulations, is that it provides a predictive analysis at the click of a button.
It offers the ability to make changes to the design, say whenever the building is rotated or another storey is added, at that very early design stage when these decisions are easier and more likely to be made. We believe that early stage prediction of operational energy is good enough to have a significant impact on the design, versus the previous method of building an advanced analysis tool that is used downstream when the building is nearing completion.
It’s definitely still a duty to do that because there are still impactful changes that can be made, such as, insulation thickness, window shading and HVAC efficiency, but it can be difficult and costly and often, too late to make big construction changes when everything is drawn and detailed.
Understanding that 40% of global energy consumption is used within buildings and with energy efficiency top of everyone’s minds considering the energy crisis, how does technology, like this, help maximise energy efficiency?
The insight an analysis tool like this can provide can really make a difference to how buildings and infrastructure are designed. For example, if a designer knows that by making one small change, it can reduce the energy needed and save 100kWh per square metre per year by making a building two metres wider at a point in time when it’s easier to incorporate, it will if it can.
Sustainability is top of everyone’s agenda, and being able to prioritise energy efficiency from the start of the design process, where the biggest positive impact can be made, is key.
If it’s a large building this can make a huge difference to the plans of all those involved, from the architect to the owner, and the contractor to the stakeholders, however, it’s not something that can be done at a later stage when a building is nearing completion.
Sustainability is top of everyone’s agenda, and being able to prioritise energy efficiency from the start of the design process, where the biggest positive impact can be made, is key. As part of Autodesk Forma’s real-time analyses, including microclimate, solar panel, sun, natural light, wind and noise, this tool can equip design teams with the insights needed for more sustainable outcomes.
How can civil engineering surveyors and the wider industry in general help to make buildings more energy efficient from the outset, through the design phase and its build?
Focus on the early stage when a project is in its most open phase. A small project team working out the kinks is easier than the hundreds of people who may be involved in the project downstream. I would also suggest exploring the opportunities of new technologies like our new rapid operational energy analysis tool. Plus, collaborate, especially with those who make design decisions early on.
Are there more future Autodesk Forma developments that you are excited about sharing on your mission to help build better and more sustainable cities?
We’ve really seen the value of making predictive analyses; training a dataset that’s based on thousands of real-time simulations to use machine learning in order to find a way that that gives the user the opportunity to predict the result, is much more beneficial than doing advanced calculations.
They’re easy-to-use, instant, visual tools that can be applied to not only operational energy here, but also to microclimate, wind, sunlight, traffic, noise – the list goes on. We’re really excited about seeing other areas where we can introduce this method, with operational carbon a huge area where we have seen a lot of interest and also a lot of opportunity.
If you look wider and look at the whole AEC value chain, we really believe in transitioning from files to free data flow and collaborative workspaces in the cloud. There you can do almost whatever in whichever tool you want, without needing to be blocked by these silo-based software systems that we have today. It’s the future and Autodesk is on a mission to introduce an AEC cloud solution where more sustainable outcomes can be easier to achieve, with Autodesk Forma being at the forefront of that.
Håvard Haukeland, Co-founder of Spacemaker, now Autodesk Forma, and Senior Director, Autodesk, talks to Danielle Kenneally