Autodesk acquisition delivers powerful urban design platform into South Africa

Autodesk announced the completion of its acquisition of Oslo, Norway-based Spacemaker on November 24, 2020, for $240 million net of cash. This represents Autodesk’s thirteenth investment in design and construction solutions providers in three years, including five acquisitions.

Spacemaker helps architects and urban designers maximise developers’ long-term property investments and realise the full potential of the site by enabling them to quickly generate, optimise and iterate on design options taking into consideration design criteria and data like terrain, maps, wind, lighting, traffic, zoning, etc. Further, supporting the effort to combat climate change, Spacemaker offers designers and developers the ability to consider sustainability options from the start.

The acquisition of Spacemaker provides Autodesk with a powerful platform to drive modern, user-centric automation and accelerate outcome-based design capabilities for architects, and urban designers and planners.

Customers of Spacemaker have seen remarkable results, decreasing project costs and increasing the value of their developments:

• A large European developer saved a year on the planning phase of a residential development project.
• A large Nordic developer was able to increase density by 16% while improving the number of apartments with a sea view by 33%, which could be worth more than €8 million.
• A large architecture firm improved productivity by 50% in early-phase development projects.
• A large construction firm increased density on a site by about 4%, which added an extra 900m² amounting to an extra €4.5 million.

“I am proud to officially welcome the Spacemaker team to the Autodesk family,” said Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk. “Now we get to the important work of developing the integration roadmap between Spacemaker and our existing design portfolio and introducing the Spacemaker team to our architecture customers worldwide.”

“From the outset, Autodesk demonstrated great appreciation for Spacemaker’s team, technology and vision, which made the decision to become a part of Autodesk a straight-forward one,” said Håvard Haukeland, CEO and co-founder of Spacemaker. “We appreciate those customers who embraced Spacemaker early on, and we look forward to not only deepening those relationships but to creating new partnerships with design teams around the world.”

“Bouygues Immobilier is committed to being one of the most climate-conscious real estate development firms in the world requiring an ever-evolving exploration of digital tools to support the effort,” said Pascal Minault, Chairman of Bouygues Immobilier. “Spacemaker is one such tool which allows us to design and build in a way which reflects our corporate values.”

WorldsView is the value-added distributor of Autodesk in South Africa.

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