221: ‘Architecture’s Busyness Trap’, with Joachim Viktil
A conversation with Joachim Viktil about architecture's busyness trap, exploring the disconnect between constant activity and meaningful progress, the impact of outdated business models on productivity, and strategies for creating healthier, more effective architectural practices.
Joachim Viktil joins the podcast to talk about the growing gap between how architects are trained to think and how architectural firms are structured to operate. We explore the hidden cost of staying busy, the limits of billable-hour business models, and why architects, despite being trained as systems thinkers, are often confined to producing deliverables instead of improving the systems behind the work.
This episode is especially relevant for firm leaders and tech-curious architects who feel the tension between utilization and leverage, and are questioning whether the current structure of practice is setting their best people up to thrive.
Original episode page: https://trxl.co/221
Episode Sponsors:
AVAIL's content management system (CMS) simplifies access to your firm's content in one easy-to-use platform. Search and access files from anywhere, create standards-compliant models, streamline documentation, and onboard new hires faster. Try AVAIL for free and request a demo at https://getavail.com
Join AEC industry technology leaders at Confluence, a series of in-person events and a podcast fostering conversations between firms and tech companies to support innovation. Learn more, explore upcoming events, and listen to podcast episodes at https://confluence.getavail.com
This episode of TRXL is brought to you by TRXL+ members! Join our community of supporters to get exclusive benefits like ad-free episodes and our AEC Leadership Edge newsletter. Your support keeps these valuable conversations going. Click here to learn more and become a member today.
Episode Links:
Some links on this page help fund our work, and we may earn a commission from purchases at no extra cost to you.
Connect with Joachim Viktil
Reope — Architects Who Code
- Reope
- Website
- Why it's relevant: The Oslo-based team at the center of this episode — a small group of architects and engineers who build custom software for AEC firms, specializing in Revit add-ins, Rhino plugins, workflow automation, and developer experience work for in-house design technology teams.
- Håvard Vasshaug — Co-founder of Reope
- vasshaug.net
- Why it's relevant: Joachim credits Håvard's early reputation in the Dynamo community and his "phenomenal" work building early client relationships as the foundation Reope's international reach is built on.
- Dimitar Venkov — Architect and Dynamo expert, Reope team
- Why it's relevant: Joachim describes Dimitar as "an absolute legend in the Dynamo community" — someone who contributed directly to improving Dynamo's performance for Autodesk and whose expertise is a key reason major firms trust Reope with high-stakes tooling.
Books on Leadership and Motivation
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us — Daniel H. Pink
- Buy on Amazon
- Why it's relevant: Evan references Pink's research on leadership and motivation — specifically the finding that a leader's choice to stay present with a team during a hard push, and simply name the difficulty upfront, produces a measurably different outcome than walking away. It's a direct touchpoint in the episode's extended discussion on what good leadership actually looks like.
AI Tools and the Coding Revolution in AEC
- Claude — Anthropic
- claude.ai
- Why it's relevant: Reope's team switched their AI subscription from ChatGPT to Claude — Joachim walks through the decision, which was grounded in concerns about how OpenAI has handled content creator rights compared to Anthropic.
- Cursor
- cursor.com
- Why it's relevant: An AI-assisted code editor Joachim points to as part of the shift toward "vibe coding" — where architects and engineers with no formal CS background can write and iterate on software with AI assistance.
- Zapier
- zapier.com
- Why it's relevant: Joachim uses a Zapier setup experience as the clearest example of what AI tooling should look like — AI-generated configuration followed by a precision layer where you can correct and adjust the details. He argues most AEC tools are still missing that second part.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- modelcontextprotocol.io
- Why it's relevant: Joachim identifies MCP as the development that has most clarified where AI is actually headed for architecture firms — giving language models structured access to a firm's own tools, libraries, and content so they can start to be useful on real project work.
- Autodesk Forma (formerly Spacemaker)
- autodesk.com/products/forma
- Why it's relevant: Referenced as a Norwegian-origin AEC tool (acquired by Autodesk) that represents the next generation of web-based, context-aware design software — one of the acquisitions that put Oslo on the AEC tech map.
- Hypar
- hypar.io
- Why it's relevant: One of the web-based tools Joachim cites when discussing how the interface paradigm for AEC software is shifting — away from layered desktop menus toward context-aware, experience-centered design environments.
Architecture Software and Platforms
- Dynamo
- dynamobim.org
- Why it's relevant: The visual programming environment Reope has been embedded in since the company's founding in 2017. Joachim traces the arc from early Dynamo days through to today's text-based coding — the through-line of how computational design tooling has evolved.
- Rhino and Grasshopper — Robert McNeel & Associates
- rhino3d.com
- Why it's relevant: The other major software environment Reope builds for. Much of the firm's work with studios like Heatherwick involves Rhino-based workflows where complex geometry is central to the design process.
- Revit — Autodesk
- autodesk.com/products/revit
- Why it's relevant: The BIM platform underpinning a large share of Reope's client work, from content management tools across multi-model projects to the daylight compliance checker built for KPF.
- AutoCAD — Autodesk
- autodesk.com/products/autocad
- Why it's relevant: Joachim uses AutoCAD's decades-long precision as a benchmark when arguing that geometry is genuinely hard to solve well — and that people coming from outside AEC routinely underestimate it.
Firms and Studios Referenced
- KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox)
- kpf.com
- Why it's relevant: A Reope client and the site of "KPF Tech Week" where Joachim spoke — the engagement that started their working relationship. Joachim details how KPF commissioned a daylight compliance checker calibrated to the New York Light and Air Code built on top of existing Reope tooling.
- Heatherwick Studio
- heatherwick.com
- Why it's relevant: Evan uses Heatherwick as a counterpoint to the efficiency argument — a studio where the depth of design craft appears incompatible with the relentless drive to do things faster and cheaper. Reope has also done collaborative work with the studio's computational tools.
- Populous
- populous.com
- Why it's relevant: Jonathan Nelson, Global Head of Digital at Populous, presented at AEC Tech on the question of hiring talent from outside the AEC industry — a position Joachim directly pushed back on, and a debate the episode follows in detail.
- TRXL 213: ‘The Rise of Tech-Driven Leadership in AEC’, with Jonathan Nelson, Nirva Fereshetian, Heath May, and Shane Burger
- Turner Construction
- turnerconstruction.com
- Why it's relevant: A Turner presenter at AEC Tech described rolling out ChatGPT to 15,000 employees with control-group methodology to measure actual productivity — an approach Joachim found surprisingly rigorous, even as he questioned whether the productivity gains were real or just more activity.
People Referenced
- Nathan Miller — Founder, Proving Ground
- Proving Ground
- Why it's relevant: Nathan moderated the AEC Tech panel and asked the question Evan calls the best of the conference: whether AI is making things faster and more efficient — and whether faster is the right goal at all. The episode doesn't have time to chase that question down, which is exactly what Evan says about it.
- Jonathan Nelson — Global Head of Digital, Populous
- Populous Team Page
- Why it's relevant: His AEC Tech presentation on hiring data talent from outside AEC is the direct spark for one of the episode's sharper exchanges — Joachim's methodical takedown of why industry-native knowledge matters more than raw technical skill for implementation-focused work.
Events and Conferences
- AEC Tech
- aectech.us
- Why it's relevant: The annual conference where several of this episode's conversations originated — including the Turner deployment presentation, the panel on AI and efficiency that Nathan Miller moderated, and the context in which Joachim met key people at KPF and other major firms.
Previous TRXL Episodes
- Episode 140: 'You Had Me at Anger' — Håvard Vasshaug
- trxl.co/140
- Why it's relevant: Joachim references a previous TRXL appearance by Reope's co-founder — this is that episode, where Håvard covers the founding story, the Dynamo community, and the problems Reope was built to solve.
- Episode 200: 'A Framework for Digital Transformation' — Nathan Miller
- trxl.co/200
- Why it's relevant: Nathan Miller's most recent TRXL conversation before this episode — deeper context on how he thinks about digital transformation in AEC, which shades how his AEC Tech panel question lands.
- Episode 135: 'Realizing the Potential' — Nathan Miller
- trxl.co/135
- Why it's relevant: An earlier conversation with Nathan on staying critical and honest about what new tools can and can't do — a through-line directly connected to the efficiency debate in this episode.
About Joachim Viktil:
Joachim Viktil is CEO of Reope, a team of architects and engineers who code custom automation solutions for leading international AEC firms including KPF, BIG and Heatherwick Studio.
Before joining Reope, he spent over a decade at Ramboll in engineering and design manager roles as well as part of the leadership as a director, head of digitalization, innovation, and M&A.
At Reope, Joachim focuses on leading a brilliant team that extend the developer community of firms, help retain talent, and implement automation that solves real project delivery challenges. He's a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Autodesk University and AEC Tech Symposium, where he explores topics ranging from AI's role in design to the democratization of coding in architecture and engineering.
