187: ‘It’s Just Poly’s on a Map’, with Rob Asher and James Blackwood

Rob Asher and James Blackwood join the podcast to talk about the real-world complexity of designing and delivering projects—and how their work at Giraffe is bridging the gaps between technology, governance, culture, commercial intent, and design. We explore the limits of traditional tools and approach, the pitfalls of over-simplified models, and why real integration requires more than just good geometry. Rob and James share insights from their experience building Giraffe—a collaborative platform that combines design tools, mapping, data, and financial modeling—to empower better, faster, and more informed decision-making across teams and disciplines. Learn more about Giraffe. To learn more about Rob Asher and James Blackwood, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/187 To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co ----- Episode Sponsors: Giraffe Giraffe is a powerful, web-based tool that sits in the AEC stack to help architects, planners, and more design beautiful human cities. Giraffe offers two product tiers - Enterprise and Core - to serve different needs in the industry. With a focus on making their tools accessible, Giraffe's Core product is available to architects for just $45/month. Learn more at https://www.giraffe.build/designers?ref=TRXL ----- Support TRXL by becoming a member or by making a donation. Click here to subscribe and get the TRXL AEC Tech Newsletter and episode show notes emailed to you when new episodes are released. It’s free! Provide feedback for this episode at https://trxl.co/feedback