Workspaces: Driving Sustainable Design for AEC Teams

The Design Modelling Symposium Kassel brought together professionals across AEC to explore new approaches to sustainable design and resource-conscious workflows.

Workspaces served as the digital foundation for the workshops, organising teams, data, and resources in a way that simulated the operations of a 20-person AEC SME.

This collaborative environment allowed participants to explore cutting-edge digital workflows while reimagining how finite construction resources could be used to create sustainable designs.

Speckle Powered Workshop Overview

The Design Modelling Symposium Kassel was structured over two intense days, each designed to balance learning, collaboration, and hands-on application.

The DMS workshop aimed to equip participants with the tools and techniques necessary to tackle real-world AEC challenges, all while emphasising resource-conscious design and the effective use of Speckle and Karamba3D.

Design Modelling Symposium Kassel Day 1: Exploring the Tools and Building Teams

Day one was all about immersion.

Participants dove into the capabilities of Speckle Workspaces, Speckle Automate, and Karamba3D and how these tools could shape collaborative workflows.

But it wasn’t just a technical deep dive but an opportunity to connect, pitch ideas, and form teams.

Key takeaways included:

• How Speckle Workspaces support collaborative design.
• Embedding carbon cost metrics into designs using Speckle Automate.
• Using Karamba3D for real-time structural analysis and how it links with Speckle.

By the end of the day, teams had set the stage for Day 2, pitching initial concepts and forming their strategies.

Design Modelling Symposium Kassel Day 2: Putting Ideas into Action

Day two saw the transition from theory to practice, with teams diving into a hackathon-style design charrette.

Here, they used the lessons from Day one, collaborating in near real-time, testing new workflows, and refining designs on the fly.

Teams used:

• Speckle Workspaces for real-time model sharing.
• Speckle Automate will enrich designs with carbon cost data.
• Karamba3D to fine-tune structural aspects, balancing function and aesthetics.

As the day progressed, the focus wasn’t just on the final design but also on experimenting with and applying the tools effectively.

Teams were free to innovate, test, and revise without worrying about breaking anything—they used Speckle's experimental spaces for just that.

Final presentations were polished in Notion, embedding live data from Speckle model views and PowerBI dashboards to tell compelling stories about their designs.

Workspaces in Action: Organising SME-Like Teams

During the workshops, the participants were divided into smaller teams to simulate how an AEC SME (Small and medium-sized enterprise) might organise its design processes, material management, and project workflows.

Speckle Workspaces provided the ideal digital framework for this exercise, allowing teams to collaborate in near real-time while defining clear roles and responsibilities.

This setup reflected how small-to-medium-sized firms manage their projects but also introduced an extra layer of flexibility by seamlessly inviting external collaborators.

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Workspaces: first steps 

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Workspaces: Roles and Permissions

Speckle Workspaces offer a granular level of control over user roles and permissions, making managing project data and collaboration across teams easy.

In this scenario, the workspace owner had total control over the structure, managing who was involved and their level of access. The workshop teams were divided into roles such as:

• Owners: Participants with full administrative access to the workspace, responsible for overall project management, structuring the data flow, and assigning roles.
• Members: Active participants involved in hands-on design and data work, with permission to modify models, collaborate on designs, and engage with project data in real-time.
• Guests: External stakeholders or collaborators who were brought in for specific parts of the workflow, allowing them to view, comment, and contribute without full access to the project or workspace.

This breakdown mimicked the real-world dynamics of an AEC Small and medium-sized enterprise, where different access levels need to be carefully managed depending on the team member’s role.

Speckle’s flexibility in assigning these roles ensured everyone could participate meaningfully while maintaining control over sensitive project data.

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Workspaces: Separation of Experimental and Formal Project Spaces

One of Speckle Workspaces' standout features is its ability to separate formal project spaces from experimental playgrounds.

During the DMS workshops, teams used this feature to maintain a clear boundary between:

• Official project data formed the core of the design and was closely monitored and managed by the project owners.
• Experimental spaces were created where ideas could be tested, workflows explored, and materials evaluated without impacting the main project’s integrity.

For SMEs, this separation is crucial. It allows design teams to innovate and experiment without worrying about disrupting the core project or compromising data quality.

Once an idea or workflow proves successful, it can be merged into the official project space, ensuring the design remains up-to-date and robust while benefiting from continuous experimentation and innovation.

Workspaces: Collaborating with External Partners

Another layer of complexity, which Speckle Workspaces handled elegantly, was the ability to invite external collaborators—consultants, engineers, or even clients—into the workspace or individual projects.

By offering them guest access with limited permissions, the teams could maintain control over the design data while benefiting from external expertise.

This mirrors the real-world challenges AEC SMEs face when bringing outside partners into a project, and Speckle’s role-based access made this process intuitive and secure.

• External partners could be invited to view specific project models or even participate in decision-making without compromising sensitive data.
• This approach allowed for open, cross-disciplinary collaboration, where outside voices could engage meaningfully in the project yet remain confined to areas where their input was needed.

This functionality also enabled stakeholders to stay updated on the project’s progress without requiring constant file sharing or direct involvement, streamlining the design review and feedback loop.

Workspaces: Real-Time Collaboration and Data Sharing

Throughout the workshops, Speckle Workspaces allowed real-time data sharing and collaboration. Team members could synchronize model updates instantly, ensuring everyone was working on the latest version.

This is a game-changer for SMEs, where project timelines are often tight, and miscommunication or outdated models can lead to costly delays.

Speckle’s real-time collaboration meant that:

• Progress could be tracked instantly, and designs could be adjusted on the fly.
• Data transparency was maintained, with team members always having access to the most recent model version.
• Any updates or changes were automatically propagated across the team, reducing the risk of conflicting designs or redundant work.

This feature perfectly aligns with how SMEs need to operate in fast-paced environments. It ensures that all collaborators—whether internal or external—are working with the most accurate and up-to-date information at any given moment.

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The DMS Teams’ Projects: Creative and Resourceful Designs

Each team produced unique designs, with resource-conscious workflows at the heart of their concepts.

Team 1: Material-Led Design

Focusing on using materials based on characteristics like length and cross-section, Team 1 allowed these elements to dictate their design with minimal human intervention. Reusing 164 out of 167 beams demonstrated how Speckle can support material-centric design.

Team 2: Upcycled Pavilion

Team 2 tackled an upcycled pavilion, blending architecture with sustainability. They used Speckle for collaborative design, Karamba3D for structural analysis, and PowerBI to track material use. Their centralised material database streamlined the process, turning resource management into a core part of their design.

Team 3: Repurposing Timber

Team 3 used Speckle and Karamba3D to optimise timber cross-sections for both function and aesthetics by repurposing timber from an existing structure. This project highlighted how these tools can enhance designs aimed at sustainability and reuse.

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Wrapping Up the Symposium

By the end of the weekend, participants had created 261 model versions across 20 users and 10 projects.

That’s the power of incremental collaboration—when teams don’t need to share bulky files and instead focus on targeted models and specific data sets, innovation happens quickly and efficiently.

Looking Ahead: SpeckleCon Workshops

Building on the momentum from Kassel, we’re excited for this year’s SpeckleCon, where we’ll dive even deeper into data-driven design with workshops on topics like automated embodied carbon calculation with Karamba3D, Jupyter Notebooks for

Speckle data mastery and BI dashboards for managing design workflows from concept to construction.

Stay tuned for more innovation and collaboration—it’s just the beginning.

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p.s.

I want to take a moment to express our deep appreciation to all the participants—professionals, researchers, and students alike—who brought their energy, creativity, and expertise into this collaborative space. It was inspiring to see so many diverse perspectives come together, mixing technical skills with fresh ideas to push the boundaries of what’s possible in resource-conscious design.

A special thanks go out to Ljuba and Alex from Bollinger and Grohmann for defining the brief and the context and Matthew from Karamba for inviting us to be part of this incredible event. Their leadership and vision made this collaboration possible, creating a platform where innovation and shared knowledge could thrive. The exchange of ideas and techniques throughout these two days reaffirmed the power of open collaboration in driving the AEC industry forward.

We’re excited to continue building on the momentum from this event and look forward to the new opportunities for collaboration. To everyone who participated—thank you for making this a meaningful experience. We’re just getting started.

Sincerely,

Jonathon