The Goal
Architecture for everyone
For its approximately 25,000 members, the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects (AKBW) has long been the central point of contact for a wide range of architectural topics. With a mobile app focusing on architectural themes and outstanding buildings, this image and visibility were to be strengthened, while also inspiring interested non-members to engage with AKBW’s offerings. The award-winning projects of the “Beispielhaftes Bauen” (Exemplary Building) architecture prize were to be consolidated in the mobile app and encourage users to discover and explore architecture in real life—for example, through individual “architecture tours.” The objective was to positively influence AKBW’s image as a forward-thinking institution. Through continuous expansion and additional content, the mobile app is intended to grow into a comprehensive architectural guide. In addition, there is potential for cost savings by replacing various local print publications.
Discover Building Culture—with Mobile Support
The hybrid app developed by us provides architecture and building culture enthusiasts with information, images, and geographic data for each project. Details include planners, client, year of construction, address, and information about awards. All of the currently available 680 projects have received awards in competitions such as “Beispielhaftes Bauen” or “Baukultur Schwarzwald.”
Users can filter according to these criteria or display projects located nearby. Each project can be marked as a favorite, and entire search queries can also be saved. Thanks to the intelligent location-based search developed by .FUF, users can easily plan their own individual tours. With a single tap, Google Maps handles the navigation to the selected project.
During the concept phase, it became clear that offline functionality would play an important role, especially due to the large amounts of data generated by high-resolution photography. Since the app is intended to be used both at home and on the go, the project data is stored locally on the device, while the storage-intensive images are largely retrieved online. The powerful search function also works regardless of whether the user is online or offline. The app is also aimed at international visitors: project descriptions as well as the entire menu navigation are available in English and French.
Flexibility through offline Capability
The mobile app offers a wide range of features. Requirements included intelligent offline capability and efficient storage management. Because projects are displayed with high-quality, high-resolution images on modern Retina and 4K devices, the storage on iPhones and Android devices would otherwise fill up quickly. Therefore, the app—approximately 30 MB in size—installs only low-resolution thumbnail images. High-resolution images are loaded via mobile data or Wi-Fi when a project is opened. Users who wish to allocate more storage to the app or save mobile data can download the high-resolution images via Wi-Fi. For performance reasons, once images have been downloaded, they remain stored locally for future access.
The hybrid app technology used ensures compatibility with the major mobile operating systems iOS and Android. In addition to web technologies such as JavaScript (Angular) and HTML5, the framework Apache Cordova forms the basis of the hybrid app. Apache Cordova (PhoneGap) was also used for packaging and integration into the App Store and Play Store.
The Advantages
While native apps were long preferred for performance reasons, hybrid apps have now come into their own. For our digital agency .FUF, the decision in favor of a hybrid app rather than a native app was made quickly: hybrid apps require significantly less effort to support multiple operating system platforms. They also offer strong synergy potential when applications are additionally provided as web apps. A particularly interesting development in this area is Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which offer app-like functionality without installation or the use of app stores. With increasing processing power of mobile devices and improved webkit rendering engines, the performance of hybrid apps is, in many cases, no longer distinguishable from native apps.
The Success
Architecture from all over Baden-Württemberg in a single App
With the AKBW app, we provided the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects with a region-wide mobile application that consolidates all award-winning architectural projects in one place. Thanks to efficient storage management, the existing high-resolution image material could be presented in a modern and appealing way without any loss of quality.
International tourists can also navigate the app with ease—available in English or French. In the future, individual districts will be able to create and publish their own architecture tours within the app.
Project Info
Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects
URL: https: //www.akbw.de/baukultur/architektur-app
5 months Implementation period
Start with 680 objects
Platform: Android and iOS
Customer
As a corporation under public law, the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects, based in Stuttgart, is a service provider, interest group and supervisory body for its members. The AKBW offers a wide range of information and advice services - increasingly via the Internet - to support architects in all matters relating to the practice of the profession. The chamber represents the political interests of the architectural profession vis-à-vis the state government, districts and local authorities. It also informs the public about the work of its members and comments on important issues in the construction industry.
Target Group
The approximately 25,000 members of the AKBW - Baden-Württemberg architects from the fields of structural engineering, interior design, landscape architecture and urban planning - use the diverse range of services offered by the Chamber of Architects. In addition to this core target group, the mobile app is also intended to appeal to and inspire clients, building contractors, students and, in particular, the general public interested in architecture.
Technology facts
Hybrid app for iOS and Android based on HTML5 and JavaScript
Frameworks: Apache Cordova Framework, AngularJS
Backend: JSON API, interface to the app and to the TYPO3 website for data maintenance
Multilingualism: app supports three languages (DE/EN/FR)
Data update without app update when starting the app via API. This allows editors to update the data at any time.
Backend
The solution presented here implements the functionality of the mobile app independently of the server backend. The backend is primarily used to initially load the object data into the mobile client and then update it incrementally as required. This means that all functional requirements are implemented in the client as far as possible.
Glossary
Native app: App developed for the operating system of a specific target platform, e.g. iOS or Android.
Web app: Cross-platform app that usually runs in the browser.
Hybrid app: Mixture of native app and web app that is based on web technologies but looks like a native app and can be obtained via the app stores.
Progressive app: Website with characteristics of a native app.
Apache Cordova: Open source framework for mobile programming.