Working with Reope

The last five years have been some of the most disruptive in the history of the AEC industry, and I bet that was also said for the previous five. Yet nowadays, tools like Dynamo and Grasshopper turned from something niche that would be discussed at conferences to something that everyone uses daily. It has gotten so predominant that today we are rarely approached to develop Dynamo workflows. Obviously it is not because people stopped using it. Instead, they became so comfortable with it, that they no longer need outside help.

Does this mean that we are now out of work? Not at all. In fact, I feel like we are more popular than ever. Our clients keep asking for new tools that are growing in complexity, interactivity and connectivity - tools that would have been considered too difficult, cost prohibitive or simply impossible years ago. And we keep delivering. I believe that the ever increasing list of AEC software consultancies can attest to this fact. Tools like Dynamo and Grasshopper finally opened the floodgates of creativity for an industry that had been held back for far too long. It took a while for the torrent to stabilize but in the end we were lifted to a higher level.

So then the question naturally becomes -

“Why should I hire Reope instead of company abc or xyz?”

There is a lot of competition all around and honestly, the end product might very well prove similar. Yet I truly believe that T.S. Eliot’s tried old saying -

“The journey, not the destination matters.”

is very applicable here. The process that we go through, the discoveries and insights that are achieved, the challenges that we try to relay clearly and then navigate together, the

cyclic and continuous improvements, this and so much more is why I believe Reope is the right choice. It is a process that has evolved during these past five years and that we keep refining and adapting. Working together is not about delivering some solution, it is about guaranteeing that both parties achieve a long-lasting benefit. Making sure that in fact, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Trying to gradually nudge the industry in the right direction. It is almost humorous to me when our corporate software overlords or the latest startup, year-after-year, boldly state that they have yet again come up with the greatest solution to the woes of the AEC industry. The marketing machines will continuously churn out blurbs about this amazing product X for months. The product might even reach a select few, yet these “solutions” quietly fade away until the next one arrives and the process is repeated all over. It is so rare that one would achieve a foothold. Why does this keep happening? I believe it is because the problems that architects and engineers try to solve are very open-ended. There is no single solution, no definitive list of steps and rules to follow, no single parameter that can be optimized to come up with the right answer.

An answer might prove right for a location yet be totally wrong for the one just across. It is because there are usually multiple valid solutions and it is only through the experience and the expertise of the engineers and the architects that we understand if a result is practical or impractical. That experience is something that feels magical – it is not static; an objective that can be achieved or acquired – it is a constantly moving goalpost that you realize you have reached only after somebody else points it out. It is also easy to lose if you stop practicing it, especially in a fast paced industry like today’s. Experience is gained by both looking ahead and looking back and if you are not in the right spot to do that, it will keep eluding you. It is accessed on an almost subconscious level. For this and other reasons, experience is not something that can be codified or easily broken into logical steps. This is why I think a lot of these new solutions fail to deliver – very skilled managers guide amazing software developers and together come up with a way to solve a well defined problem in a static sterile environment. They end up with a solution in search of a problem. The real world is anything but. Things get messy quickly, new and unique issues pop up all the time, requirements keep growing, projects compete for limited resources and the divide between the makers and the do-ers constantly grows wider. You don’t just need great

managers and software developers – you need a new breed of people that can bridge the divide and continuously evolve your tools to a constantly adapting landscape. You need Reope. That sweet spot in the middle of the venn diagram that provides just the right amount of making and doing. Understanding a particular problem, the set of precise conditions that you are faced with and being aware of the limitations in the available solution-space. A custom built approach that is the perfect fit.

We don’t try to automate you – we remove the tediousness, ease the sharing of knowledge, augment repetitive processes, all to empower you and give you more time to do what only you can – solve the challenges that you excel at. Our strength lies in the fact that we relate – we relate to your specific case because we havebeen on the same path and felt the same pains.

Working at Reope

“I like what you preach, brother, I’m with you all the way. Now give me the inside scoop.”

According to the US EPA, the average person spends 93% of their life indoors.

We as an industry are more or less responsible for the wellbeing of society for 93% of every second of every day...think about that for a moment. In fact, bump that number further because time spent in man made parks and recreational areas or the infrastructure that gets us from place to place should count as well. That is no small task and it is no surprise that working in AEC can be challenging and exhausting – we all know it. Yet when you finally solve this week’s puzzle, it feels so incredibly rewarding and satisfying, knowing that your work will contribute in one way or another to 93++ % of people’s lives. That feeling is the pride in this accomplishment and it is why I think we stick around. Reope is only a tiny part of that bigger whole, although we are growing. The constant challenge is still there, but the beautiful thing is that it has a different theme every week. Today you may be generating facade details, tomorrow assisting a MEP layout, next week – converting an analytical model. I love this diversity! I love the fact that I have the opportunity to keep expanding my horizons, gradually realizing the holistic nature of it all and coming to the realization that we are not working on a jigsaw puzzle but a burr one. It can be exhausting, sure but we are a team. We discuss what everyone is going to be working on, balance the tasks to an individual’s strengths, give each other tips and help one another when we get stuck. We are given a chance to provide input on everything that comes out of Reope. It is so incredibly invigorating to work in a team like that – learning from each other and growing together. It is the spirit of this collaboration that drives us to do better with every new project and it is why I believe Reope is the right choice.