DBL founder Chuck Eastman speaks at a podium for the BIM Forum.

About Us

About Us

The DBL was started in 2009 by Professor Chuck Eastman, a pioneer of Computer Aided Design and one of the originators of BIM. In its nearly 10-year history, the DBL has become one of the industry’s foremost institutions in building information practices, leading the development of industry standards, and educating a generation of technology development and professional practice leaders.

Today, BIM has become a reality in the industry, and disruptive technologies are rapidly transforming design and construction practices. The DBL is expanding its core strengths in BIM standards, data management, and interoperability into new directions including collaborative web systems, big data analytics and learning, and connecting to diverse research fields including robotics, materials research, and the Internet of Things.

Improving Building Industry Practices

The Digital Building Laboratory (DBL) connects Georgia Tech researchers to professionals in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) industries. We bring practitioners working in the field together with cutting edge research in data science, robotics, 3D visualization, and materials science. Working together with industry partners, DBL research teams create new tools and ways of working, and help industry adopt these advances through training, standards development, and student internships.

Our interdisciplinary lab draws researchers -- faculty and students -- from academic units across Georgia Tech, including architecture, computing, building construction, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. Industry partners span professional design and construction firms, software and building product companies, owners and government institutions, and industry trade groups.

Our Take on Digital Technology

Digital technologies are dramatically impacting the building industries, from the tools and processes used to design and build, to the technologies and systems delivered, to the ways people and organizations experience and interact with the built environment.

Today’s technology allows digitally generated and optimized designs to be automatically connected to digitally augmented processes across the supply chain: from robotic fabrication, to augmented reality, to intelligent building sensors networks.

New building information modeling (BIM) tools and practices combine 3-dimensional virtual buildings with rich structured data, allowing deeper understanding of projects during design; simulation of project behavior during engineering; robotics and digital positioning during construction. Information generated at one step of the process can be directly re-purposed by others in a digital collaborative system.

Get To Know Us

DBL director Russell Gentry shows a building material to the Lab's Symposium visitors.

Who We Are

We work across disciplines in the College of Design, and with Georgia Tech research and academic units.
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A DBL student presents classwork to Symposium visitors.

Our Academic Role

Our researchers teach and advise students in the School of Architecture master’s and Ph.D. programs.
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A DBL Symposium visitor wears a virtual reality headset.

Our Network

We bring together academic, technical, and professional partners for advanced, project-based research.
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Questions?

 
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