Hi there,
This week's posts keep landing on the same blind spot: practices consistently misjudge where their real value and constraints actually sit. Vendors hire software engineers when the domain knowledge they're missing is already sitting inside a BIM Manager. The profession argues about capping architects when the problem is demand, not headcount. Practices keep paying for InDesign when the job it does can now be done inside tools they already own. And digital team org charts get redrawn without ever asking whether the person in the middle has the authority to make anything stick.
Below: the ConTech hiring pivot for BIM Managers, the "too many architects" thread read in full so you don't have to, the PowerPoint toolkit replacing InDesign at practices like Hawkins\Brown, and v2 of the Digital Design Lead org chart - plus five new tools and a Customer Success Manager opening at Pirros.
Let's get into it. 👇
What Sparked the Most Discussion This Week
Every ConTech company is quietly trying to hire a BIM Manager. But most BIM Managers have no idea how valuable they are.
Russell Curtis asked if there are too many architects. With over fifty-odd comments later, almost nobody defended the cap he proposed. I read the whole thread so you don't have to.
This diagram may be controversial… I wanted to test where a Digital Design Lead actually sits in a modern practice. Here's v2, updated with what practice leaders actually flagged.
Is your practice Technology ready?
Not sure where to start? Start here. The free "Is your practice technology ready?" guide gives you an honest read on where your practice stands - the gaps, the quick wins, and the questions worth asking before you spend a penny on new tools. It's the same thinking behind the Blueprint above, in a form you can run yourself.#
What's inside:
-/ The four phases of a connected technology strategy
-/ The six things most practices haven't addressed but should
-/ A self-assessment with a scoring guide and recommended next steps
-/ Five questions to ask before any technology decision
Built for Practice Directors, Managing Directors, Digital Design Leads and Studio Principals.
Download here: Is your practice technology ready?
Live Event
Co-created by Nikita Morell and Aya Shlachter, Archicon is billed as the only "unboring" business conference for architecture firms - built around profit, people, practice and AI rather than the usual CPD-point circuit.
Expert speakers include Tim Ross, Andrew Maynard and Kevin Hui (the Archimarathon duo), Nick White, Izzie White and Adam Semel (SOM), among others.
Over two days, 250 architecture firm owners and decision-makers will gather at the W Hotel in Melbourne for the conversations most architecture conferences avoid - business development, AI workflows, profitability, marketing and what it actually takes to run and grow a practice.
When: 8-9 October 2026
Where: W Hotel, Melbourne
250 seats only, and tickets are selling fast.
Get your ticket: www.archicon2026.com
Top 9 Rhino Plugins from the ConTech Database
Each week I will continue to share new software added to the ADDD Database and specific categories of software to help you find the right solutions and stay up to date on what is emerging out there. See example from last month:
ArkoAI
Reimagine the rendering process with the click of a button. That's ArkoAI. ArkoAI - Home
Rhino Banana
Rhino Banana connects Rhino to a state-of-the-art AI image model. Rhino Banana — Rhino 3D rendering powered by Nano Banana
Archfine
Transform Sketches Into Stunning Renders. Upload your sketch or photo and let AI create photorealistic architectural visualizations instantly. Archfine - AI Powered Architectural Visualization
AIQ_Urban
AIQ Urban is a Rhino plugin that streamlines the master planning workflow by automating repetitive drafting and analysis tasks. Instead of spending time on manual calculations and updates, planners, architects, and developers can focus on evaluating design options and making better planning decisions. AIQ_Urban | Food4Rhino
ArchiHacks AI
Access AI image and video generators directly inside Rhino3D and Revit. Generate stunning AI-powered visualizations from your 3D models without leaving your workspace. ArchiHacks | AI Plugins for Architects
BEAM
Enhance your BIM modeling.Bring BIM to Rhino® with BEAM. Enrich Rhino geometry with BIM data, then import and export to and from Autodesk® Revit™ and IFC. BEAM Rhino BIM Platform | MKS DTECH
ArchiHacks AI
Access AI image and video generators directly inside Rhino3D and Revit. Generate stunning AI-powered visualizations from your 3D models without leaving your workspace. ArchiHacks | AI Plugins for Architects
Cyclops
Cyclops has been developed with the objective of integrating real-time analyses into the design process, addressing the longstanding challenge of time-consuming analytical cycles and interoperability issues in construction-related digitisation. Foster + Partners launches Cyclops plugin to enhance sustainable design | News
ArchiHacks AI
LandArchTools
LandArchGrade generates a live terrain model from your spot heights, breaklines, and structures. Slope analysis is colour-coded against thresholds you set, contours and flow arrows update live, and every edit happens directly in the viewport. Drag nodes, adjust elevations, move structures. The terrain rebuilds as you work. LandArchGrade | Grading Software for Landscape Architects in Rhino
ArchiHacks AI
Reer
Reer is the agentic layer for the CAD and BIM. Bringing AI directly into Rhino, Revit and more. Reer | AI Workspace for CAD & BIM | Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit & More
Videos Update
From the AEC Tech Futures Channel
One Role Worth Noticing This Week
“Pirros is building the intelligence layer for design production. We are fundamentally reshaping how architecture and engineering firms manage project knowledge and technical design details.
Our platform is an AI-powered hub purpose-built for the AECO industry. We help architects, engineers, and contractors streamline detail management to improve consistency, minimize errors, and accelerate project delivery timelines.
We are establishing the system of record for design production in a global $12T+ market that has been underserved by modern software for far too long.”
→ View role: Here
See all roles here: www.aectechjobs.com/search
What this issue means for you
I think that every post this week is really the same argument from a different angle: value and control keep sitting in the wrong place on the org chart. BIM Managers are under priced because practices - and vendors - treat their years of live-project scar tissue as operational rather than commercial.
The architect-supply debate keeps missing that the constraint is demand, not headcount, so a cap would make the profession scarcer without making it essential.
InDesign keeps costing practices days a week not because the tool is bad but because nobody questioned whether it was still the right tool.
And a Digital Design Lead sitting neatly in the middle of an org chart means nothing if they don't have the authority to make a decision stick.
The practical move is the same in each case: audit where your real expertise, cost and authority actually sit before you buy, hire or restructure around where you assume they sit. That might mean pointing your BIM Manager at a vendor role mapped to their skills, questioning a software subscription nobody's challenged in years or simply asking your Digital Lead whether their mandate matches their box on the chart. If you're not sure where to start, the free readiness guide above is built for exactly that first audit.
Get in touch - reply to this email or book a call: 30 min with Allister Lewis
Thanks for reading!
Allister
Richard has been mostly sleeping recently. This is him temporarily awake.
