My journey with Archicad began in mid 1988 when I started my architectural practice. I attended several shows that displayed the latest and greatest that computerization had to offer the architectural design community. I could only identify three programs at the time that featured a 2D interface, 3D geometry and correlating quantities output. If I recall correctly, one program was developed in Chicago and ran on IBM machines. At the time, one station cost a whopping $25,000, so it was out of my reach. The other two programs appeared to be very similar and ran on Apple Macintosh machines. The first one was Architrion which was developed in France. The second one was Archicad. In the summer of 1989, I received a call from the local distributor of Archicad offering a substantial discount, which put it in my budget range. And so my journey began as I bought my first computer - an Apple Macintosh, along with a license of Archicad 3.82 (I think). Very soon afterwards, version 4.0, then 4.1 were released.

I haven’t looked back since then. I delved into GDL as I realized that I could create much more robust geometry using it and several years after that began developing objects and selling them through Objects Online. My objects were sold in 24 countries around the world. This side business paid for my upgrades over the years as my workforce was primarily proficient in Autocad and I couldn’t reap the benefits of what was then termed the “Virtual Building” concept beyond producing very convincing images of projects.

Still, I believed in the potential for using this intelligence to augment the design and production process while reducing errors and repetitive menial tasks, so I faithfully kept at it.

Archicad has helped me keep focus on Architectural design while having increased my technical knowledge in such areas as energy and environmental design. Now, I’m further developing my design skills using Rhino/Grasshopper/Archicad as well as utilizing the Ladybug plugin and EcoDesigner Star to visualize and better understand the thermal behaviour of building envelopes and to maximize daylighting.

All in all, I can’t imagine not having Archicad as my main design and production tool.

Thank you Graphisoft,, Gábor Bojár, and Steve Jobs!

Evangelo Kalmantis OAA, AIA, NCARB, LEED-AP BD+C