In this episode of “Doolhof,” Pim van Meer talks with Abram de Boer, architect and owner of MNNR Architects. Their conversation yields some surprising insights.
Some architects still talk as if digitization were diminishing their profession. As if data, standards, and parametric design were the beginning of a world in which the architect is gradually being replaced by a spreadsheet with taste.
I don’t buy it. And after my conversation with Abram de Boer, I believe it even less. We found ourselves agreeing remarkably often. But the best part was that we turned out to have discovered exactly the same thing on one crucial point.
Abram summarized his starting point as follows: “We want to make the best-balanced decision based on space, economics, ecology, and social value. Technology and standardization give us the opportunity to make that decision based on sound reasoning, rather than gut feeling.”
I responded in the way I myself like to be surprised: “You get the idea. We do exactly the same thing. As a developer, I literally do the same thing to show that we want to be the best. Because to objectively be the ideal partner, you first have to dare to create a single, uniform measurement method.”
Check it out. That’s something to mull over for a moment.
For years, the fear was that data would lead to boring, uniform architecture—a sort of mathematical Eastern Bloc. But the real threat turns out to be the opposite: not uniformity imposed by force, but dreariness born of probability. If everyone pulls the same average images from the same machine, the unusual suddenly becomes valuable. And deviating with a sound rationale—that’s something no machine can do; only a human with a plan can.
Hence, perhaps, the most beautiful line from the conversation: “The better the tools become, the more important the architect becomes as the director of quality, context, and meaning.”
But then comes the key question, which I deliberately asked out loud: how do you actually measure that quality? My own answer has always been: quality is perfectly measurable, as soon as you ask the right stakeholders how they measure it. Abram took it a step further, and his words left me speechless: “You can never fully measure quality. You’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s measurable. And that shifting boundary is where the architect thrives.”
According to him, that’s the next frontier of the profession: making soft values tangible. “Making a sense of home, timelessness, and even ethics measurable,” he said. “Not to calculate the magic away, but to give it a voice alongside the construction costs. Because a value you don’t measure loses out in every comparison to the number that’s already there.”
And then he turns it around: “A standard is actually a frozen value from another era. As soon as you can measure the value underlying it, that standard can become fluid, moving toward quality.”
There, data isn’t a threat.
There, data becomes ammunition.
But—and now I’m going to be uncomfortably honest about my own side of the chain—that approach only works if the values upstream are clear. Abram said it without reproach, but it hit home hard: “We provide full transparency into our models. But in that same project, I have no idea what the client is including in their foundation cost breakdown or their LOI.”
This exposes exactly where things often go wrong in the chain. An architect can strive to work as intelligently, precisely, and methodically as possible, but if we don’t explicitly define the values upstream, he’ll still have to guess what matters to the other party. And then, as I said during the conversation: “If we, as developers, don’t have a clear understanding of what an investor is really looking for, an architect can’t possibly provide the best solution. Then we’re not holding him accountable for his design, but for our own lack of clarity.”
This is not an invitation to complain or point fingers. It’s a call to the entire industry to be more honest. Because if you want architects to provide better answers, you have to dare to ask better questions. And that’s exactly where digitization helps: by making those questions explicit, linking values to models, and moving from vague feelings to focused conversations.
Abram’s summary was almost disarmingly simple: “Only when you know the basic parameters can you design in a data-driven way—and only then can you deviate creatively in a targeted manner.”
That’s the whole story in one sentence.
Don’t start by going wild with a free-form design and then hope that feasibility will follow.
Don’t start with the design as a statement and then be shocked by the numbers.
Instead, first understand the basic parameters, and only then deviate from them in a smart, creative, and purposeful way.
Because, yes, the architect still needs to think outside the box.
Not to reproduce the median, but to create context.
Not just drawing the average, but imbuing it with meaning.
This becomes stronger, not weaker, as the rules of the game become clearer.
Filing moment
The architect of tomorrow isn’t the one who shouts the loudest that technology threatens his profession.
The architect of tomorrow is the one who understands that his position actually becomes stronger the moment he knows what values drive the stakeholders. He is the one who dares to turn soft values into hard ones, and who then deviates from the norm better, more precisely, and more uniquely than anyone else.
In a world where machines produce an infinite number of average results, that deviation is the rarest commodity there is. The groundbreaking, data-driven architect.
So the architect’s role isn’t getting any smaller.
It’s changing. Becoming more precise. And—if we do it right—greater.
About Pim's digital maze
In this column, Pim takes you on a journey through the sometimes wondrous, confusing, yet rapidly changing world of digitization. He draws on his experiences as the director of digitization at VORM. Pim is outspoken and critical, but above all, he wants to help you. Are you stuck in the digital maze? Pim will help you find your way out…. Read all the episodes here.
This is an article from Construction and Installation Hub. Want to keep up with all the news from the construction and installation industry? Then take a look at the hub and sign up for the online community.
↗
