This is interesting and cool for entertainment, but it's extremely hard to picture using this as a replacement for an architect.

We're building an ADU right now and the floorplan design was a very small part of what our architect did. So much more of the value came from the relationships he has with the structural and geotechnical engineers we used as well as the relationship with our city building department.

This really strikes me as a product in search of a problem.

Maybe a homeowner could use this for initial planning before finding an architect to use, but at that point you're competing with pencil and paper.

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richardw 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The benefits were in communication and relationship arbitrage? Surely both of those can be automated over time.

This is just one aspect but it’s still useful. Many people want to see a house and say “please help me make that”. In Australia there’s a set of house patterns that reduce the overhead of just landing a design and pushing it through the admin hurdles.

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conductr an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As counterpoint. I’m also building an ADU and no architect was needed. I had a drafter iterate on a layout document, most of it was deciding things like windows, door and cabinet layout. It’s not super necessary but informative to layout out MEPs (cost $800.) Although, we didn’t need colored or 3D renders, not value added for us.

From there, I kicked the PDF to a completely unrelated structural engineer that gave engineering specs, a few extra drawings that are standard copy pastes from his previous efforts, and his stamp (cost $600.)

From there, I had everything I needed to get accurate bids from general contractors and permits. Nobody needs to have any special city level connections in my major US city if you follow general code standards along the way they have to approve it. The GC knows what the on site inspectors will pass/fail as sometimes they play by different rules. At the end of the day, GC can always pull out the code book and prove an inspector wrong. Doing so tactfully is part of their jobs as inspectors are a revolving door and not always as knowledgeable as you’d think they should be.

Note. I don’t live in an area where seismic is an issue.

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PrimalNick an hour ago | parent [-]

Completely agree with this. Most cities in the US are not that strict. Those cities are where building actually happen. Not in LA, Bay Area, etc, etc.

Majority of homes being constructed in the US are done in areas where as long as you follow the general code standards, you'll be able to get approval. This is why template house plan websites exist.

A very standard process for a builder is buy or use a template -> make tweaks with a drafter -> structural engineer for additional structural documents and stamping (liability) -> submit for permitting.

This opens the market for a tool like ours. In the short term, it won't be as helfpul in strict markets, just pure ideation, but over time that'll change with the model learning how to ingest local codes standards for designing within.

	▲	conductr 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It looks great! I've built a few houses at this point and honestly always find this ideation part a major pain. Not that it's huge but the $800 could have been closer to $100-200 if we just had more firm convictions when starting the conversation, we ended up about 6-7 revisions total which was wasteful (paying by hour). I will be sure to try this tool on my next project. Features like detailed framing plans, siding/wall/roof/insulation/etc all the detail cross-section drawings would be welcome additions. Especially if I could then tag the product type for each layer and it produced an inventory/shopping list. I think this is closer to what BIM software does but would be great to have even as a DIYer/GC.

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pbreit 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How much structural and geotechnical detail does an ADU need?

	▲	mrhottakes 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's one of the many questions that you trust a competent architect to handle!