The Goal
Architecture for Everyone
For approximately 25,000 members, the AKBW has been the main point of contact for a wide range of architectural topics - Including architectural tours and catalogues. Aiming to inspire members, architects and interested non-members to engage with what the AKBW has to offer, we developed a building culture app. To achieve this goal, the award-winning projects of the “Exemplary Building Prize" had to be consolidated into a mobile app - Encouraging users to discover and explore architecture in real life. Through continuous expansions and additional content, the mobile app is intended to grow into a comprehensive architectural guide. Replacing local print publications totally in the near future, to save costs and grow digitally.
Discover Building Culture—with Mobile Support
The hybrid app adds real value when exploring the local building culture, by appending information, images and geographic data to each project. All of the currently available 680 projects have received awards in competitions such as “Exemplary Buildings” or “Building Culture BlackForest.”
Each project can be marked as a favorite, and entire search queries can also be saved. Thanks to the intelligent location-based search, users can easily plan their own individual tours. With a single tap, Google Maps handles the navigation off the selected project.
During the concept phase, it became clear that an offline function would play an important role, especially due to the large amounts of data generated by the high-resolution photographs. 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. Additionally the app features an automatic translation for tourists: Project descriptions as well as the entire menu navigation are available in both English and French.
Flexibility through offline Capability
The mobile app offers a wide range of features. One was that projects needed to be displayed as high-quality, high-resolution images on modern Retina and 4K devices. To prevent the storages on iPhones and Android devices from running out of capacity, the the app—approximately 30 MB in size—installs only low-resolution thumbnail images. High-resolution images are only loaded, 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 separately. For performance reasons, once images have been downloaded, they remain stored locally.
The technology behind the app ensures compatibility with all major mobile operating systems. In addition to web technologies such as JavaScript (Angular) and HTML5, the framework Apache Cordova stands as the core pillar of the hybrid app.
The Advantages
While native apps were long the preferred way to go due to performance reasons, hybrid apps have recently completely caught up. Additionally Hybrid Apps come with great advantages: Such as requiring significantly less effort to support multiple operating systems. A particularly interesting innovation in this area were Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which offer app-like functionalities without having to install them or use app stores. Furthermore, mobile devices are only increasing in terms of processing power, making the performance of hybrid apps 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 a single place. Thanks to efficient storage management, the existing high-resolution image material could be presented in a modern and appealing way without compromising the quality.
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.