Kayleigh Houde on building a more connected future with BHoM
In the fast-changing landscape of technology-driven design, the tools we build are only as powerful as the expertise and design workflows behind them.
Kayleigh Houde, Associate Principal and Computational Projects Lead at 海角视频, is at the forefront of this transformation – bridging technical innovation with human-centered design.
In this conversation, Kayleigh shares her insights into the , an open-source framework developed by 海角视频 that鈥檚 reshaping how engineers and designers collaborate. By turning domain expertise into reusable, interoperable code, BHoM empowers teams to work smarter, reduce rework, redundancy, and make more informed decisions throughout the design process.
But BHoM is more than just a technical tool – it鈥檚 a platform for connection. From enabling interoperability to fostering shared understanding across disciplines, Kayleigh reveals how this framework is helping the AEC industry evolve in a way that鈥檚 not only efficient, but deeply collaborative and resilient.
Q: How would you describe BHoM to someone unfamiliar with it? What makes it uniquely valuable in today’s fast evolving digital landscape?
Kayleigh Houde: That鈥檚 always an interesting question, because everyone tends to describe BHoM a little differently. But two key ideas stand out:
First, BHoM is a way for AEC professionals to express their expertise through code. At its core, it鈥檚 code – but it鈥檚 designed to scale across platforms like Grasshopper, Excel, or Blazor without needing to build custom foundations each time.
Second, many of the essential components – like interoperability – are already built in. That means you can focus on contributing your knowledge, rather than reinventing the wheel. The real value lies in having a centralized framework that lets you do just that.
Q: In an industry increasingly focused on computation, how does BHoM help us maintain a human-centered approach to design and collaboration?
Houde: Everyone in the AEC industry takes pride in their unique expertise. But something powerful happens when you start writing down what you know and collaborating with others.
You begin to uncover shared understandings – or realize where they don鈥檛 exist. Through co-creation, we define our inputs like a column grid or space design criteria and then define the processes by which the inputs should interact with other elements to achieve a client deliverable. Making your expertise both shareable and encodable.
This is central to our workflow-based approach. It鈥檚 not just about documenting knowledge – it鈥檚 about using it collaboratively to maximize impact. Encoding expertise frees up time for meaningful collaboration.
Q: Can you share a specific case or project where BHoM significantly improved collaboration or decision making across disciplines?
Houde: As an MEP engineer by background, I have an affinity for MEP consultants. We鈥檙e often working at the tail end of decisions – electrifying, heating, cooling, and lighting spaces based on inputs from others.
That鈥檚 why we built tools to manage dependencies and integrate them into workflows. It helps us stay resilient amid constant change. Instead of chasing updates, we can take ownership of our process and encapsulate it into tools that make our work more efficient and impactful.
Q: How does interoperability between data sources and tools through BHoM enhance our ability to align teams and workflows?
Houde: One of the biggest advantages is freedom from software constraints. If a client prefers a different platform mid-project, switching isn鈥檛 a major hurdle.
It allows you to be more resilient in your design or analysis and move from one platform to another. While it鈥檚 not completely seamless, you still need to build a workflow to map objects between platforms, it鈥檚 a significant improvement.
It liberates us from being tied to specific software packages, which many people end up relying on heavily. This approach has given us a bit more freedom.
Q: With AI becoming more integrated into our processes, how does BHoM support or complement that shift, especially in terms of human experience and cohesive code?
Coding isn鈥檛 just for specialists anymore – everyone can code. But that raises a question: can we all code in a way that still allows us to collaborate?
With BHoM, the foundation is already there. We鈥檙e harnessing how people use prompt-driven coding 鈥� whether through Copilot, Claude or other tools 鈥� by doing this we can build something bigger. Instead of isolated pieces of code or scripts, we can create integrated code that can address larger, more complex problems that require more than one person to solve.
We鈥檙e balancing the excitement of on-demand coding with the need to contribute to a shared ecosystem. That鈥檚 how we move toward use of AI at-scale.
Q: What role does the open-source community play in the evolution of BHoM and how have contributions from others shaped its development?
Houde: The fact that BHoM is open source is quite unique in the industry. We open-sourced it back in 2018, and it鈥檚 been a long journey.
We鈥檝e supported external consultants in building their own adapters and workflows within BHoM, and it鈥檚 amazing to hear their praise of the reusability of the foundations we鈥檝e designed. It鈥檚 also opened doors to collaborate with academia, since our code is publicly available.
Importantly, our object schema isn鈥檛 fixed. We鈥檝e left room for flexibility and evolution, which keeps the framework dynamic and responsive to new ideas.
Q: How do you see BHoM helping us engage the market more effectively or differentiate ourselves from competitors?
Houde: The fact that everyone can code now isn鈥檛 what sets us apart. What does is how we鈥檝e learned to work together through code.
We actively involve global discipline stakeholders in prioritizing what we鈥檙e developing, which signifies a significant shift in the technological maturity of our senior leadership. It鈥檚 the human-centric side of coding that will continue to differentiate us.
Yes, we鈥檒l see a rise in individual tools and one-off solutions. But our strategy – built on collaboration, shared purpose, and thoughtful integration – has staying power.
