From Architecture to BIMobject: A Career in Digital Construction ft. Matthew Jackson

In this Architecture Social CPD conversation (around 78 minutes), Stephen Drew speaks with Matthew Jackson, Business Development Director at BIMobject, about leaving mainstream architecture for digital construction and where architectural skills can take you beyond traditional practice.

Who this is for

Architecture students, Part 1 and Part 2 assistants, and qualified architects who are curious about technology-led, product or business development roles, and anyone in practice trying to understand BIM, product data and digital workflows more clearly.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

1. Explain how architectural training and skills transfer into technology-led and business development roles.
2. Describe why BIM is better understood as a set of digital workflows and information practices than as a choice of software.
3. Summarise why construction lags other industries on digital adoption and where the biggest gains sit.
4. Explain how BIM objects and product data support faster, smarter and greener design decisions.
5. Identify the three levers through which an individual can influence sustainability, including career choice.
6. Outline emerging directions such as design for manufacture and assembly and what they mean for the architect's role.

From architecture into digital construction

Matthew studied architecture and worked as a Part 1 assistant after graduating during the 2008 financial crisis, designing schools, hospitals and public projects. With work scarce, his path became non-linear: freelance design, then a role launching AutoCAD for Mac with Apple and Autodesk, then selling Revit, and finally a move into BIMobject in 2014. His point is that a career rarely runs in a straight line, and that opportunity often arrives sideways.

Why architectural training travels

Matthew argues that architecturally trained people are highly employable outside practice. Few courses ask you to create something from a blank page, make it work for real people, and then defend it in front of peers for an hour. That combination of creativity, communication and accountability is rare, and it is exactly what serves him on conference stages and in business development today.

BIM is a workflow, not a tool

Revit, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks and the rest are tools, and you should master the one your employer uses. The real challenge, Matthew suggests, is understanding the digital workflow underneath: what information you need, what you must hand to an engineer, contractor, surveyor or supplier, and why. Moving from drawing boards to CAD, then CAD to BIM, changed the medium but not always the way people actually design.

The industry's digital maturity problem

Construction is one of the least digitised major industries and has seen only marginal efficiency gains over decades. Matthew frames this less as failure than as opportunity: a generation that grew up collaborating digitally is well placed to close the gap, especially given how much rework happens when models are not built to be useful downstream.

What data and product information really do

BIMobject exists to make building products digital, so designers can drop accurate, data-rich objects into their models rather than drawing everything from scratch. Good product data is not about the software; it is about giving designers, engineers and manufacturers reliable information to make better, buildable, more sustainable decisions.

Sustainability and the three levers of impact

Matthew describes three ways individuals influence the planet: what you buy, who you vote for, and, the biggest, who you work for and what you build. He points to Copenhagen's carbon-neutral ambition driving lifecycle analysis and carbon assessment into everyday Danish design, and notes that construction's carbon footprint dwarfs sectors like aviation while attracting far less attention.

The future and the architect's role

Looking ahead, Matthew highlights design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) and factory-based construction as forces reshaping how buildings are delivered, and with them, questions about where the architect adds most value. His steer is to lean into data, process and collaboration rather than defend the drawing for its own sake.

Key terms

• BIM: building information modelling, the digital methodology for designing and coordinating buildings with data attached.
• BIM object: a digital, data-rich version of a building product that can be placed directly into a model.
• DfMA: design for manufacture and assembly, building components in a factory for on-site assembly.
• Lifecycle analysis: assessing a design's carbon, energy and waste impact across its life.
• Interoperability: how well information passes between different tools and project parties without loss or rework.

Reflective prompts for your CPD record

1. Which of your architectural skills would transfer most readily into a technology or business development role, and which would you need to develop?
2. Where in your current workflow is information being recreated or thrown away, and what would it take to fix that?
3. Thinking about the three levers of impact, how does your choice of employer shape your contribution to a lower-carbon built environment?

About the guest

Matthew Jackson is Business Development Director at BIMobject, the Malmö-based digital construction marketplace listed on the NASDAQ First North Growth Market. He moved from architecture into technology and has spent his career at the intersection of BIM, product data and sustainability.