In the DJC: JA Using Gaming Tech to Enhance Design Process

Partner jack chaffin, aia leads ja’s innovation lab

by Lynn Porter, Journal Staff Reporter

Jack Chaffin, a self-described “old geek,” is leading Johnston Architects in developing and using technologies and tools to help design public projects, commercial real estate and backyard cottages in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

To that end, the Seattle firm is leveraging gaming platforms and making its traditional renderings with a higher level of realism for mostly online community outreach for design projects during the pandemic.

It also created an interactive web-based optimization tool to help get the best views from projects, as well as the Parametric Casita, a product where clients input their address and are presented with the developable area on their single-family lot for the cottage, or detached accessory dwelling unit.

Chaffin, a JA partner, works with an-house research and development team on the tech tools, some of which have been tweaked to deal with the constraints brought about by the virus.

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the parametric casita is available in countless iterations, shown here configured as a studio

He said it's unusual for a 30-person firm, such as Johnston Architects, to have an R&D arm, but it shows that can work at a smaller scale. More small firms will need to follow suit “as we progress through our tech revolution in architecture” — or “get left behind,” he said.

Johnston Architects used its optimization tool for a 47-unit resort community in Lake Chelan called Ponderosa for Wright-Wapato, Inc., the owner and developer. The tool optimized the position of the townhomes and their roof type and pitch to get the best average optimal views and to define view corridors, Chaffin said. You can go to this website to see how it works.

He said you could use the tool on a tower project, twisting the building or changing the unit layouts in favor of the best views. Johnston Architects did that for a feasibility study for a residential tower in Seattle, he said.

The nearly 30-year-old Johnston Architects is known for design excellence, he said, and the goal is to take what's great about Johnston and “evolve it” by embracing tech tools.

ja developed a view analysis program in house to help find the best design solutions for clients, in this case a planned community of townhomes and flats near lake chelan