The AI Layer Is Coming to Architecture! Are You Ready?

By the final stretch of NXTBLD 2025, my digital notebook was a mess, full of quotes, diagrams, company names, and underlined things like “vertically integrated software through agentic AI??” and “this team is ahead of the industry” That’s how you know it was a great event. These reflections are from me, Joachim from Reope, writing on behalf of our team of architects who code. We spend our time turning off-the-shelf design and BIM software into something more: a custom layer that fits the way your practice works. And the conversations at NXTBLD confirmed it: the time for that layer is now.

The session that left me thinking long after was by Foster + Partners’ Martha Tsigkari, who shared work from their Applied R&D. What they’ve built is nothing short of ambitious. Their AI Portal doesn’t just generate images. It does so much more, things that investors are throwing millions after startups to fix is already happening inside Fosters + Partners.

To me the big idea was one space, many tools, seamless experience. It feels like a vision we’ve all been circling around. And it works only if your tools are ready to collaborate. And right now, most design software isn’t ready. That’s where Reope comes in. We help firms make the platforms they already use, Revit, Rhino, Miro, even internal tools fit their creative process. Whether that’s through data integration, scripting, automation, or something more advanced, we make sure your practice doesn’t fall behind while the tools race ahead.

I was also impressed by Motif’s presentation. Their collaborative layer sits neatly between the existing tool ecosystem, offering flexibility, communication, and context. At this moment they’re not trying to replace your tools. They’re trying to help them talk to each other.

And then there was Forma, which has a huge advantage that's cruical for anything AI: data. Its access to Autodesk’s data ecosystem gives it a huge head start in making predictive tools that can plug into the real work of design.

But not all data is available for training AI models. Some companies prefer to keep it inhouse. As Sean Young from NVIDIA said at NXTBLD 2025:

“The power of AI comes from data—most of which is behind your firewall.”

This is another place where the team at Reope comes in: helping you unlock that data safely, strategically, and securely, without compromising IP or creating more mess.

There’s so much potential ahead. But it will only be realized by firms who are willing to take their platforms seriously, and shape them into systems that serve their own creative process.

If you’re ready to build that future, we’d love to work with you.

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