The natural stone dealer already offers BIM services and intends to expand this area with the acquisition.Franken-Schotter took over Pronag on July 1, 2018 as part of an asset deal and transfer of operations. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Pronag is regarded as a leading German BIM planning office for natural stone work. The reference list is long and includes, for example, the 3D BIM […]

The natural stone dealer already offers BIM services and intends to expand this area with the acquisition.

Franken-Schotter acquired Pronag on July 1, 2018 as part of an asset deal and transfer of operations. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Pronag is regarded as a leading German BIM planning office for natural stone works. The reference list is long and includes, for example, the 3D BIM planning of the Berlin State Library and the redesign of the Rhine promenade in Basel – the latter a collaboration with Franken-Schotter.

Dr. Torsten Zech, Managing Director of Franken-Schotter, comments on the acquisition: “With this takeover, we are addressing the Building Information Modeling megatrend, which will fundamentally and sustainably change the construction industry in the coming years. We are already seeing strong demand, particularly from the English-speaking world. In addition, BIM will provide us with massive support in the digitalization of internal processes and production workflows.”

In a 2017 study , management consultants Roland Berger found that BIM is increasingly becoming the standard for the entire construction industry. And will mark a turning point in the construction industry. Marc Aßmann, master stonemason and Managing Director of Pronag Bauherren, said in an interview in STEIN S02/2018 that BIM should be used as early as possible in the planning process, as the higher the added value. Franken-Schotter is planning to do just that and wants to “be a role model within the industry with our integrated and resource-efficient value chain”. The Pronag brand will be retained and Franken-Schotter will continue to offer external natural stone planning services from its Dresden site.

Art museums are breaking out of the building walls – into the digital space. Apps and online tours are now part of the permanent repertoire of art education. A survey of German consumers shows how this trend is reflected in the public. Advertorial Article Parallax Article On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. […]

Art museums are breaking out of the building walls – into the digital space. Apps and online tours are now part of the permanent repertoire of art education. A survey of German consumers shows how this trend is reflected in the public.

On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid from 1660 gazes absorbedly at the high-resolution beam of milk-white bliss. One pupil movement further on, a field with a red background vies for attention: this painting has been “liked” 10,806 times. Next to it, a scissor symbol encourages reproductive complicity: “Get creative”, “Download this work”!

Digital surfaces – apps on tablets and smartphones that wander through the halls in visitors’ hands – have also long been a familiar feature of museum spaces. In fact, this trend is closely linked to the exponential growth in visitor numbers at many art museums. The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart counted 375,694 tickets sold in 2015: an increase of 70 percent compared to the previous year, confirms Director Christiane Lange. New technologies – keyword “augmented reality” – are already on the rise. But can this trend, which focuses on the virtual, be sustained?

A survey conducted by the market research institute Promio on behalf of the media technology company fröbus among 1068 German consumers illustrates the reactions that different digital mediation methods evoke in visitors:

Proximity or distance to the object

The results of the survey show that the digital trend is currently moving back towards the object. Instead of keeping the works seemingly close but at a distance by clicking on a screen at home or integrated into the exhibition, the information conveyed by 3D visualization or projection directly on the object is gaining attention.

This impression is also confirmed by a cross-section of the current start-up scene in museum technology. Light choreography, turntables, 3D prints. The focus is on the work of art in all its facets: Details, reverse sides, as well as reconstructions of the original state are to be made accessible to visitors to the Museum 3.0 (replacing the digital-virtual 2.0). The Berlin start-up Clair Obscur, for example, has developed a new projection technology that can reveal the artist’s working process or hidden layers of paint directly on the painting. “It is important to us,” explains Lene Fischer, co-founder of Clair Obscur, “to create a closeness to the work, to tell the story of an object.”

interactive scape, who specialize in so-called multi-touch tables, choose a different way of communication. These release digital information when they are touched with a specially created haptic object. “Above all, a visit to a museum should be an experience – a tactile experience,” says Marcel Graf from interactive scape, describing their objective. This is particularly relevant in our digital age: “Our mediation concepts focus on a museum you can touch. An experience that you can’t have at home in front of a screen.”