Introducing Skema for BIM 2.0 Design Automation
Blue Ocean has officially launched its next-generation BIM solution. The two-tiered software application includes the Skema cloud-based 3D conceptual design tool for architects and designers, and the Kreo Design platform for architecture firms. Together they form the first BIM knowledge reuse engine.
Skema for Conceptual and Generative Design
More than 2,000 architects and engineers have already been introduced to Skema through the Spring 2023 Sustainability Challenge, a bite-sized learning series produced by Green Building Education Services (BGES). These designers have seen how Skema performs urban design, site assessment and massing studies, and sustainability analysis, easily generating multiple options with different massing alternatives in one project.
“Designers need the ability to do analysis and iterate decisions in an agile and systematic way, and data-driven BIM 2.0 tools can help them improve their productivity,” said Martin (Marty) Rozmanith, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Blue Ocean. “With the generative design capabilities of Skema, architects can conduct engineering simulations at the conceptual level and compare multiple options in a fluid manner. It helps them make more qualified decisions.”
Skema Systematizes the Design Process
Skema is able to take the data created in the conceptual stage and move it forward through design development into construction drawings in a way that works for an architect's office. Its unique capabilities include:
Creates multiple uses/solves
Proforma metrics analysis for building design at the site and building level
Building layout concept catalogs can use a firm’s Revit data as inputs
Produces blocking-stacking and Level of Development (LOD) 350 data and designs in Revit
Methodology is extensible to all building types
Output data fully editable in Revit for construction drawings
Full Revit Integration Maintains a Firm’s Investment
As a lab-to-market software partner, Blue Ocean is working with select design firms to deliver BIM LOD 350-as-a-service through the combination of Skema with the Kreo Design platform.
These firms are partnering with Blue Ocean to transform from file-based processes to data-driven workflows while maintaining their significant investment in Revit.
The integrated solution provides a data-driven workflow to automate 50+ percent of a floor plan layout. It produces a higher LOD building that contains a firm’s own Revit families, types, and assemblies. In addition, Skema’s integrated proforma metrics help designers optimize the project based on owner requirements.
Integrated Decarbonization Strategies
As the building industry heeds the call for decarbonization strategies, new technologies, processes, methods, and mindsets must forge together to create a comprehensive approach to driving widespread adoption of sustainable practices. Blue Ocean Co-founder Charlie Cichetti is applying his leadership in green building rating systems, energy modeling, and sustainability education to the development of tools that radically improve project sustainability.
“Too often, sustainability goals are overlooked,” said Charlie Cichetti, CEO of Blue Ocean. “Blue Ocean aims to help designers improve a building’s carbon footprint, whether that’s at the schematic phase or in later stage design development, which previously would have been cost prohibitive. Because these advanced technologies and tools provide embodied & operational carbon feedback during each design phase, architects and designers can more easily incorporate sustainable elements in designs that meet their owner’s goals.”
Blue Ocean Founders
The founders of Blue Ocean combine their expertise in AEC software, architecture, and green building practices to deliver solutions that help architecture firms transform their business models and practice. They include Marty Rozmanith, one of the creators of Revit; Kristina Bach, AIA, President of Blue Ocean and former USGBC LEED reviewer; and Charlie Cichetti, LEED Fellow, who co-founded four companies in the built environment: Sustainable Investment Group (SIG), GBES, Aetos Imaging, and Blue Ocean Sustainability.
Blue Ocean partnered with Kreo Software, a London-based software development company, to bring Skema and Kreo Design to the market.