About Us
Architectural Construction Technology was founded by Gary Solan in 1982 as a one person Architectural Studio offering Architectural Services to other Architectural Practices, Developers, Builders and members of the public. At that time all drawing was done by hand and it was often slow. Gary recognised early the advantages of employing Computer Aided Design and had his first computer system spec built to make the best possible use of Autocad® which even then he could see was set to become the industry standard. The release of Autocad Aec® was a welcome addition and we were disappointed when Autocad® decided to drop it as a part of Autocad® and decided to develop Architectural Desktop instead.
Gary built up varied experience working on a number of different architectural projects both large and small in Ireland & abroad. Orla Conway joined in 1985 and brought marketing and organisational skills that had been neglected until then. From 1985 the company has grown slowly from being a small company to incorporating into a limited company T/A Architectural Construction Technology, employing 12 people.
Over the years additional cad licences were required and due their cost Autocad Lite® was chosen. The continual upgrading of the Autocad® software led us to look for an alternative solution to our C.A.D. needs but no product made the grade. It is only in recent years that the continual cost of upgrading Autocad® has driven Us to look again for a reliable affordable C.A.D. solution. Again we tried out a number of packages and we realised that Progecad® 2008 professional is that solution. We have a number of Progecad® 2008 pro licences mixed in use with our existing Autocad & Autocad Lite and we have operated this mixed environment for almost two years without any loss of data or difficulties. So much so that we approached progesoft sas the developers of progecad for an exclusive distribution and sales agreement for the whole Island of Ireland. The exclusive agreement took effect in July 2008 and we have started to develop a dealer network with the necessary support skill to offer all progecad pro or progecad standard customers the support that they will expect and need.
Presently, the company, based at 80 Ashgrove, Kill Avenue, Dun-Laoghaire, Co. Dublin is a small architectural services company. Being a small company all staff are involved in it’s various operations according to their ability and training. The company is working on a number of projects and has an impressive portfolio of completed architectural works.
The Directors believe in continual investment and development in staff as well as the business. Staff members are assisted and encouraged to continue with their education and training. The company also regularly take secondary transition year and part trained Architects to gain practical experience. To that end, staff are encouraged to train and three of the staff are currently studying part-time courses to improve their own skills. In common with progesoft sas we are pleased to offer free of charge progesmart to all students and an educational version of progecad 2008 pro free to schools and colleges.
The Directors have continually invested in equipment and the company is assured of being one of the most technology advanced Architectural Studios in the country. The company has Computer Aided Design capabilities since 1986 and currently has some of the most modern hardware and software available. The company continually monitors and assesses advances in technology to see if those advances can bring improvements to its clients and personnel. ProgeCad is another step on that path and the company now operates it's design studio with a mixture of the older Autocad licences and the newer Progecad 2008 pro licences. We have found no loss of data or corruption of existing files. Both C.A.D. solutions can be mixed on the same project.
The company has branched into offering for sale progecad pro, progecad standard and progecad's dwg viewer and an number of exclusive add on productivity enhancing programs we hope to offer this remarkable programmes with their cost savings to others architectural studios.