North America Subscription

I’ve been working at GRAPHISOFT for over a year now and it is great to see the launch of ArchiCAD Subscription for the North American markets.

This is one of the major projects I have been working on since taking up my role here in Budapest.

Following on from both the success and learnings from introducing ArchiCAD Subscription in New Zealand we’ve developed a comprehensive Webshop and Subscription Offering.

Unlike other vendors we believe in offering customers choice and to that end the Subscription Licensing is not a replacement for our perpetual licenses but rather another purchase option.

As we round in New Zealand a certain portion of the market will finds the month to month payments far more affordable and we’ve also introduced an annual option which is cheaper then the monthly option.

APPC Chengdu

I’m in Chengdu for the GRAPHISOFT Asia Pacific Partners Conference which I’ve attended for the last few years. This is the first time I’ve spent time in China beyond passing through an airport.

Chengdu is the capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan and its been an interesting visit to date (I passed on eating brain at one of the social events).

As with a lot of cities the are contrasts everywhere you walk. Walking in one direction and I’m in a domestic styled hopping mall where all the shops are in two storey buildings that look more like houses. Walking in the other direction and the quality of life is a lot different.

I’m doing a presentation regarding pricing – which generally isn’t most people’s favourite topic but fingers crossed it goes well.

Signing off from Cadimage – 20 years

Following on from the press release regarding the sale of Cadimage to Central Innovation, today I signed off from Cadimage after 20 years and a busy week. The fact this coincided with ArchiCAD 20 is a pure coincidence and I apologise for the repeated use of 20 in this post!

Auckland – Monday

We started the week with the Auckland ARCHICAD 20 Launch which included the news of the sale of Cadimage. The breakfast launch was closely followed by the signing of all the paperwork related to the business sale and then a celebratory drink with the Central Innovation team who were in town for the day.

New Plymouth – Tuesday

As mentioned in an earlier post, the ArchiCAD 20 Signature Project is the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth. So on Tuesday we chartered a plane to take a dozen of our long term customers down to visit the building and present ArchiCAD 20 inside the centre.

It was a great day for flying and great to connect with customers who have been using ArchiCAD over my last 20 years.

Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown – Wednesday/Thursday

Wednesday / Thursday we quickly jumped around the country for more ArchiCAD 20 launches.

Friday – Cadimage Sign Off

Today was a humbling experience as the team shared a number of items and videos about my time at Cadimage. It was a great afternoon with both past and current members of the Cadimage Team including Murray the founder of Cadimage.

As a present, the team had arranged a physical representation of the Cadimage ‘C’ which is absolutely amazing.

Still able to demo ArchiCAD!

When I first started with Cadimage I helped launch ArchiCAD for Teamwork (ArchiCAD 5.1)

20 Years later I am proud of the fact that this week I could still travel the country and demo ArchiCAD – I haven’t done it every year but at least I still know my way around the product!

Signing off

20 years is a long time for someones ‘first job’ but I have had an amazing journey from a fresh university graduate to managing director, I am immensely proud of what both I and the entire Cadimage Team have achieved over the last 27 years in business.

Business truly is all about People, I’ve been fortunate to work with a group of absolutely amazing people and will remember my time fondly.

Also without customers there is no business. Many of my customers over the last 20 years have also become great friends.

I’ve had a wonderful journey, it’s now time for a new direction.

Thank you all.

Central Innovation acquires Cadimage Group

AUCKLAND, 1 AUGUST 2016 – Central Innovation Ltd and Cadimage Group Ltd has announced an agreement in which Central Innovation has acquired 100 per cent of the assets of Cadimage Group and Cadimage UK. This action is intended to advance Central Innovation’s mission to become a leading provider of design and workflow solutions to the manufacturing and AEC sectors in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ).

The acquisition combines the strengths of both organisations to create a comprehensive suite of OPEN BIM solutions in A/NZ. The range of solutions includes best of breed software ARCHICAD, DDS-CAD and Solibri of which Central Innovation is the exclusive distributor across A/NZ.

Chief Executive Officer of Central Innovation, Max Piper, said, “with the joining of Central Innovation and Cadimage we can leverage the strengths of both teams to create complete solutions for customers across the AEC market in Australia and New Zealand.”   

“Cadimage Group has over 27 years in New Zealand and Central Innovation has 25 years of service in Australia to AEC customers. By combining these two great companies, we are essentially placing the final puzzle piece and will be able to go to market stronger than ever.”

“This really is a great step forward for both companies,” said Cadimage Group Managing Director, Campbell Yule. “For us we have found a company that values and understands our business and customers. This deal ensures that our existing team and solutions offering will continue to expand.”

– Ends –

About Central Innovation 

Central Innovation sources, builds and advises on world-class design process solutions to the manufacturing and construction industries. We have over 25 years of experience advising our customers on optimising their design, processes and systems by using the world’s most capable design and modelling software, run on the highest performing hardware, utilising the best people. We enhance this with exceptional technical expertise, specialist consulting, on-going training and education plus access to our specialist recruitment team. 

We are the parent company to Intercad and GRAPHISOFT Australia. Both are leading resellers in their vertical markets of CAD 3D software solutions. We are also Australia and New Zealand’s only licensed reseller of the DDS-CAD product suite. The IC3D suite of specialist software and hardware products is also part of Central Innovation. 

About Cadimage Group 

Cadimage Group distributes, develops and supports a range of design and performance evaluating software for architects, engineers and construction companies that enhance design capability and reduce risk and cost. Established in 1989 as a CAD Bureau, Cadimage Group has evolved into a customer-focused sales and support organisation in the AEC industry to distribute a wide range of products including ARCHICAD, Artlantis and Solibri Model Checker, as well as developing and exporting its own software.

ArchiCAD 20 Signature Building

Having been involved with ArchiCAD in New Zealand for over 20 years we’ve come close to seeing a local building featured on the ArchiCAD Box.

This year we finally succeeded and it is awesome to see a great piece of architecture featured on a significant release – ArchiCAD 20

The Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth was designed by Patterson Associates and uses Stainless Steel as the main cladding to reflect (pun intended) the local industries of oil and gas production.

Taipei 101

I’m currently in Taipei for GRAPHISOFT’s APPC 2015.

When I first arrived I did what I enjoy doing in all new cities – I went for a walk to orientate myself and help with jet lag etc.

After only 5-10mins Taipei 101 came into view. Having held the record for the tallest building from 2004 – 2010 it is no wonder.

Having taken it in from the outside it was great to see on the conference agenda a tour of the building literally from bottom to top.

Once we got to the top – in double decker high speed elevators which took 37 seconds to reach the top – 1,010 metres per minute of 60.6kmh!

As with all tall buildings they are exposed to high winds and need to employ a dampening system to counter these winds and reduce excessive movement. And what a system:

This 660 tonne suspended steel ball mounted on hydraulic dampers is a tuned mass damper. This massive ball helps reduce the movement of the tower by over 40%. Skyscrapers really are incredible feats of engineering.

Considering Taipei 101 held the record for the tallest building, it comes as no surprise this the biggest TMD ever installed.

Lisbon – IPC 2015

Last week I was in Lisbon to attend the annual GRAPHISOFT International Partners Conference.

This is a great to meet up with old friends, make new friends and find out what has been happening around the world with ArchiCAD and the plans for the future.

I was proud to collect a Sales Growth award for the third year in a row – some real momentum in NZ ArchiCAD Sales that our Team can feel extremely proud of.

Lisbon was a beautiful city, and while I didn’t have a large amount of time to explore, we got to see a lot of the city during various events.

Zaha Hadid in Seoul

It’s quite a while since I posted some photos from my travels – which is only because all my travels in the last year or so have been to places I have posted about before.

The purpose of my visit is to attend the Asia Pacific Partner Conference hosted by GRAPHISOFT. I am also conducting a day long workshop focusing on ArchiCAD in Education.

Having arrived late last night I woke to a chilly minus one degree but decided to kick the day off with a walk as I had spotted something from the hotel window.

What I spotted and subsequently found was Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

Having only opened this year it is no surprise I never saw it last time I was here over five years ago – though construction began not long after my previous visit.

The building is a massive 85,000 m2 of floor area and features:

  • Design Plaza
  • Dongdaemun History & Culture Park
  • Underground Plaza

The scale and form of the building are impressive and both the concrete and metal fabrication detailing is absolutely impeccable.

Check out the photos below – and also the Interiors on Zaha Hadid’s website.

Graphisoft IPC 2014 – Budapest

I’m just back from the Graphisoft International Partner Conference – the first I’ve attended for a couple of years and the first I’ve attended in Budapest since the Icelandic Volcano Episode.

This year was the biggest yet with about 400 people representing 175 Partners.

As always the event was a great chance to catch up with old friends and make many new friends. It was also good to hear the results of 2013 and both, hear and see, the plans for the future – and there are some exciting things to come!

This year provided two very special highlights for Cadimage Group and myself personally.

First up, we were awarded the Distributor of the Year award. This is an award I have worked towards for a long time and have come close to before. To finally win it was a proud achievement.

GS_DotY

Secondly, I had been invited to present the New Zealand Story to the conference so on Tuesday morning I presented the history of ArchiCAD in New Zealand over the last 22 years – 17 years of which I have been involved in.

The story had been billed as “New License Sales Success” and everyone was expecting our sales secrets. Instead they heard about the steps we have taken over 22 years to build up a successful business. There were no silver bullets, but a huge array of stories of what had worked and hadn’t worked for us.

Presenting to partners who have been invovled in ArchiCAD longer than I had was a nerve racking experience, but even some of these partners were able to take some ideas away for their own business.

To those who attended the IPC I trust you enjoyed my story.

To the New Zealand ArchiCAD Customers, thank you for being the essential part of our business and staying loyal over the 22 years of ArchiCAD in NZ. While Distributor of the Year was a proud personal achievement it was a direct result of the fantastic team and customers we have here in New Zealand.

2013 Student Design Awards

Well the year is quickly disappearing and we once again had the pleasure of sponsoring the NZIA Graphisoft Student Design Awards.

The grand final was held last night in Auckland in front of an enormous crowd – the best turn out in the 6 years we have been sponsoring the event.

David Sheppard, John Melhuish and Camilla Block had the unenviable task of judging this years awards and while they felt there was a clear winner they were blown away with the calibre of all the work.

Taking out the top prize this year was Raphaela Rose of Auckland University.

Raphaela Rose - Auckland University
Raphaela Rose – Auckland University

Highly commended were Sacha Milojevic (the son of my first year History of Architecture lecturer – Michael Milojevic) and Nathan Swaney, both also of Auckland University making it a clean sweep – the first time since our invovlement began.

Sacha Milojevic - Auckland University
Sacha Milojevic – Auckland University

Nathan Swaney - Auckland University
Nathan Swaney – Auckland University

All the students should be congratulated for the efforts they put in to make this a fantastic event.

Judges Citations

Victoria University of Wellington, School of Architecture

Ashley Beck - Bio-Body Reactor
This exploration of the complex relationship between humans and machines (cyborgs) is presented with impressive, evocative imagery. Integral to the concept is the presence of algae and its potential to sustain humanity on several levels. The building itself has a cinematic, menacing and thought-provoking quality.

Toby Coxon - Desiring Affect
This ambitious investigation into the beginnings of the design process questions the fundamentals of static habitation. The result is a proposed bakery/café composed of a sequence of sculptural, elastic spaces.

Tara-Lee Carden - City of Flux: liberating the concrete terrain
This imaginative proposition grapples with the almost insurmountable problem of impending sea level rise. Moats, canals, locks and aqueducts are all employed to create a new urban playground and work precinct on the Wellington waterfront. The need to think beyond artificial property lines and take into account the city’s underlying geomorphology is addressed directly and confidently.

Hayden Grindell - Date with Data
An unglamorous and ordinarily unseen part of our infrastructure – data storage – takes centrestage in this project. Several solutions are investigated, one a self-contained tower of austere beauty. In another, complex, sectional relationships are explored to house disparate uses with deft integration of the groundplan.

Auckland University, School of Architecture and Planning.

Marianne Calvelo - MAD WOMEN: a contemporary architectural translation of domesticity
One of Auckland’s much-loved buildings, St. Kevin’s Arcade, is reinterpreted as the headquarters for Architecture + Women NZ. The result is a genuine alternative to conventional workspace, with cleverly integrated children’s play areas and flexible gathering rooms. The whole is intimate and intricate.

Nathan Swaney - Extraction Lands and the Permanence of Production
Offshore oil and gas rig hardware, salvaged and recycled as a ship-breaking yard, is this project’s guiding idea. The scope is expansive and heroic. The themes of industrial decay and rebirth – as well as waterfront habitation – are convincingly juxtaposed.

Sacha Milojevic - Newmarket Campus as a Porous Megaform
Created with intelligence and intuition, this project offers a vision of an educational community, conceived in an organic manner from a series of single rooms outwards. It recognises the ‘world apart’ quality great universities share, yet does not ignore its urban context. Every part of this deftly presented scheme exudes a sense of passion for architecture.

Raphaela Rose - Sex(uality) and the City: Counteracting the Cock-ups of Auckland’s Main Strip
Architecture is cleverly and gainfully employed as a mocking tool in this mischievious, satirical project. The scenario calls for the city blocks containing the Sky Tower, casino and proposed new super-brothel to be surrounded by a fun park themed by recent local sex scandals. The result is a joyful, rollicking series of attractions, each of them like an exquisitely and wittily conceived fable. Beneath that sugar-coating, a subversive message filters through, undermining the current environment that has been foisted upon the city.

UNITEC – Department of Architecture

Michael Holehouse - Architecture for the Whangamarino Wetland
Conceived as a distilled series of poetic moments, this project sensitively opens the door to a previously inaccessible wetland. Considered, restrained archetyptal forms (demonstrated by highly crafted models) have been designed to eloquently acknowledge the ground conditions on which they stand.

Tessa Crosby - Social Sutures; the integration of the medical facility into the urban tissue
This well-researched and articulated project relocates an oncology building from the isolated hospital campus to a central CBD site. It re-imagines the ground floor as a public convention centre and the beginning of an architectural promenade through the site and building. A humane and sensitively conceived piece of work.

David Cook - Reclaiming the lost city
This design for a civic arts space is a thoughtful response to some of the questions now facing Christchurch. Using materials lovingly rescued from earthquake rubble, a centrally placed oculus acts as a symbol of light and hope. The spirit of preservation embodied by the project provides an alternative to wholesale demolition.

Daniel Smith - Humanitarian Architecture, People, Place & Power
The challenges facing a western architect assisting in a Third World country are at the heart of this project. After exhaustive consultation with the inhabitants of a Cambodian village, the architect has arrived at a sensitive, honest solution for a series of new public buildings. A limited palette of materials and construction techniques, together with difficult climatic conditions, have been harnessed to deliver a convincing, positive outcome.