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NOW LIVE IN ISSUE #01 · SEPTEMBER 2026
REAL TERRAIN, REAL CONTEXT: FULL SITE MODELLING IN BLENDER
TOPIC 3 OF 3
Most architects have never opened Blender — it's not exactly known as an architecture tool. But for one specific job, it might be the best free tool that exists right now: pulling real-world terrain and building data into a 3D scene by typing a coordinate, no manual GIS downloads required.
We tested it on I. M. Pei's Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong — real elevation data from the slopes of Victoria Peak, real building footprints and heights from OpenStreetMap, no guesswork. Then out to Rhino via OBJ, or into any BIM tool as real IFC4 data, using the same open-source engine behind our Image-to-BIM workflow in Topic 2.
ONE IMAGE.
A REAL BIM MODEL.
TOPIC 2 OF 3
From an image of a floor plan to a real, data-filled BIM model. We stress-tested the workflow on the Chichu Art Museum by Tadao Ando, a rotated, non-orthogonal plan with no scale reference, exactly the kind of drawing that breaks automated tools. It didn't break this one.
8 AI MODELS.
1 WINNER FOR AEC.
TOPIC 1 OF 3
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Qwen, Kimi, and DeepSeek, tested head to head on five real architectural tasks. Not benchmarks that sound impressive on paper, tasks you'd actually hand off on a Tuesday. One model came out ahead, and the gap wasn't small.
The SDC Loop is a monthly newsletter by Sweden Design Computing. Every issue delivers 60 minutes of concentrated knowledge on AI tools, computational workflows, and the ideas reshaping the future of design.
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