Solibri Journal 2015 Issued on 231115 by Solibri, Inc.

SOLIBRI JOURNAL #5

EXCELLENCE

+ THE NEW STANDARD COBie 2016 – BIM just got serious

COLLABORATION IS KEY Why many heads are better than one

HKP ARCHITECTS BIM: There is no going back

M U S I I K K I TA LO

Musiikkitalo, the new Music Hall is one of the new modern landmarks in Central Helsinki. Solibri Model Checker was used extensively in the construction of this building. We are happy to have played our part in helping to shape the future of this city.

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INDEX

Cover story / Banking on BIM

Collaboration is key to BIM

California dreaming

Visiting HKP Architects in Helsinki

P R E FAC E

C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E WS

A journal overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

HKP Architects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Veidekke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Powerhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 David Jellings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 WSP Stockholm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Projektlederhuset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

GMP Hamburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Rijnboutt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 PEAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 J.P. van Eesteren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Harpaceas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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INDEX

Managing a complex hospital complex

Jonas Thornqvist & the Stockholm subway

Visiting Rijnboutt in Amsterdam

UK COBie Update

T EC H N O LO GY T I M E

C R E D I TS

UK COBie Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 AUTOCODES PHASE III . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Bond Bryan Architects . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Importance of training . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Tips&Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Editors letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Contact & credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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P R E FA C E

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P R E FA C E

FUTURE. CONNECTED. Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Solibri Journal. It’s been one year since we last compiled all the good things that have been happening to us. We’ve seen a continued growth in BIM and Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC). There’s been the continued advance of technology and a range of new customers who share the view of what ‘Quality’ can mean to construction. With those things in mind, we’ve have run a series of events where we promote Solibri as being ‘Future. Connected’. More of that later… This year’s journal focuses on several topics. Firstly we wanted to share and promote customers who are doing a fantastic job with Solibri Model Checker (SMC). You’ll see a whole range of global stories that showcase their skills and the benefits gained by mastering BIM. We’ve included updates on industry wide developments around COBie and Autocodes. Finally we’ve also included a ‘Tips & Tricks’ announcement for SMC users that allow you to maximize your SMC usage. You’ll find there’s more ‘slices of the cake’ so to speak when using our solution. Read those and you’ll be mastering QA/QC in a way that pays back for your company. The fact that we have a near 100% customer loyalty tells me it’s something valuable our team has done for our customers. ‘Future. Connected’ refers to the fact that you can trust us to deliver the necessary model checking solutions in the long term. This year sees a new team focusing on the delivery of a future cloud based checking solution. Our intention is to take QA/QC to the next level on both the desktop and the cloud. We are excited about offering new types of accessibility, checking and validation in the cloud. Quality was never a process of ‘do it once and forget about the results’. Quality for Solibri is about maintaining value throughout the whole workflow. We look forward to sharing our ideas when ready.

HEIKKI KULUSJÄRVI

Heikki is the founder and CEO of Solibri.

‘Respecting the environment’ is a company value we continue to uphold. BIM continues to develop new ways of measuring ‘green values’ throughout the construction process. Today, many owners wish to construct ecofriendly buildings with a recognized certification. We are at the stage where the manufacturing industry can list the CO2 level of many building components from production and transportation to assembly on work sites (whether it be a concrete slab to specific window type). Now these values exist, you can measure and visualize them in SMC. From the very first design draft to the final building design, you will be able to see the building’s eco ‘hot spots’. By using SMC, the owner and design team can be confident the environmental need is recognized and handled responsibly. In the short term we are not standing still in the area of our core model checking capabilities. Our latest SMC software release offers an improved interface, improved performance and more extensions than ever before to support your localized checking needs. I hope this gives you an idea of what’s happening in the Solibri world. I’ll promise you will be hearing more great news from us. Our team will continue to travel from Norway to Japan (and not forgetting the Americas) to meet our customers. We will continue to work with partners that help us expand the world of QA/QC. Thank you to those that share good development ideas with us. We would like to meet as many of you as possible. If our travel plans and schedules do not match, feel free to contact us via email or social media. Let’s keep doing great ‘quality’ work that we can all be proud of! Yours, HEIKKI KULUSJÄRVI – Solibri

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Customer Interviews Helping our customers in their daily work. Read what customers say and think about us, our solutions and the BIM revolution.

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PEOPLE NEED TO SEE WHAT BIM REALLY MEANS INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL PALM

“There’s no going back after using Solibri for 30 minutes.” That’s a bold statement by HKP’s resident BIM expert, architect Michael Palm. It’s a statement headline that requires further investigation. As with most Finns, Michael delivers this thought with a subtle honesty. We spend the next few hours talking with Michael to better understand how him, HKP and Solibri are helping shape some of the largest construction projects in the Helsinki metropolitan area. HKP Architects were founded in 1968. They have been responsible for some of the largest public construction projects in Finland. Their first notable building being the Helsinki Opera House. Their latest project is the construction of a large complex called Matinkylä Metro Centre. This project is the expansion of a transport terminal and shopping mall in the adjoining Espoo County. The space will now host 3300 car parking spaces, a new metro station, commercial retail floors, an apartment building and a combined public library with health care center. As Mikael explains “We like the idea of allowing people to utilize the library while waiting to see the doctor. It should provide an enhanced personal experience while waiting”. HKP’s strategy is one of focusing on large commercial projects. By doing so, they maintain one of the

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M AT I N K Y L Ä M E T RO C E N T R E

The current HKP project involving Michael Palm. This project will be ready by 2016 and will cover an area of 92,000 m².

largest architectural offices in Finland and help for the new Matinkylä Metro Centre. The shape modern Helsinki. They do this from an project has been designated a BIM project by impressive reconditioned downtown office the building owners. The construction compabuilding. The combination of exposed brick nies – NCC and Citycon both supported this work and modern features makes it a wonderful decision. HKP then needed to find the best work space for any creative endeavor. man for the job. That man was Michael. Since Michael has been working in architecture then, Michael has helped train the office in BIM. since 2000. He joined HKP in 2012 and hit the Michael explains his thoughts on BIM adoption. ground running. He had previously used Revit “We’re now in a good place inside HKP. The team and BIM and in a nearby project in Keilaranta, is trained and we have gone from asking my Espoo. It was these skills that interested HKP help every day to watching the team ask each

HKP / HELSINKI

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“Put quite simply, there is no going back”

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SENIOR & JUNIOR

Injecting new skills was a good move from HKP CEO Mikko Suvisto

other on how to solve BIM related questions. Now half of the office know how to use Revit and Solibri. There is a threshold but once you learn, you get enthusiastic. More customers demand BIM and sometimes it does feel like a ‘generation-shift’ type situation. I do believe many architects think a ‘BIM type approach’ will take more time and money. Those that work here with BIM will tell you the opposite. BIM projects are faster and more problem free”. I ask Michael how he balances his role as BIM advocate and project architect. “It’s a rollercoaster. Sometimes you just need to focus and can’t do both. I was hired for BIM but it’s a big cake and you can spend a lot of time managing the BIM model quality. Fortunately for me, the overall BIM project management for the Metro Keskus is done by NCC. They do overall co-ordination and that’s a big relief. I do weekly and monthly model updates for them. It’s a big project with over 100 IFC files going back and forth. I have been previously asked if I would rather be a full time BIM project lead or architect. I answer that you need to be both in my profession. You first start by being a creative. As the project progresses, your role transforms more and more into a project manager. I do feel that’s best as the creator shouldn’t lose

the link between those first design ideas and final creative delivery”. Interestingly, HKP had little reservations for this being a BIM designated project. It was a case of delivering what was needed for the success of the project. HKP also understood that not just the construction but the facility management of the building would require BIM. The design simply had to work with BIM. I ask Michael about BIM and Finland. What is the level of BIM adoption? Is it the ‘norm’ these days? Where will the market be in five years? “To be honest, BIM is still not as common as it should be. There are many 2D projects in Finland, especially smaller construction projects. There should be more BIM. Perhaps it’s the fact that big BIM projects take several years to complete before you can prove the benefits. I have been here since 2012 and still I’m working on the same project. It makes sense to use BIM on large projects. It keeps the quality and allows better collaboration. I think all people need to understand the benefits. In the short term, the construction company benefits from BIM. However, the real winner is the building owner that runs the building for the next 50 years. Previously, I felt architects saw BIM as additional work. A project ‘add-on’ that took

HKP / HELSINKI

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time. Something they couldn’t additionally lot of money and errors. If we hadn’t found charge for. Now it’s becoming mandatory and those faults, they would have ended up on the something’s wrong if you feel you’re doing construction site. Better to fix them earlier”. As free work for someone else and can’t see the Michael continues to explain, BIM offers him benefits for your own office”. a better use of your time designing a space in I can see Michael is an early adopter a form that creates better drawings for you in without him ever using that term about the long term. himself. He trains BIM within HKP. He’s Visualization within Solibri Model fluent and enthusiastic when opening Solibri Checker benefits HKP. Solibri offers the user a Model Checker (SMC) to see how they use it. fluent and easily understood view of the model. Incidentally, he was testing electric cars on “Last spring, Citycon marketing division came the previous weekend. I ask about this and he to learn about SMC and reading IFC files. After sees the similarity between BIM, Solibri and 30 minutes they understood the basic funcelectric cars like Telsa. “It was funny when we tionality and there was no going back. Within tried the electric car. It had been recommended two hours, they were really comfortable with by a friend. No noise, fast acceleration – why the idea of viewing 3D models and faults in couldn’t driving always be like this? This is how SMC. 2D models can never give you that kind I perceive BIM to construction”. of understanding in such a short time”. I turn to his comments about Solibri and We talk of the future and what technolog‘no going back’. Michael explains how they use ical developments would interest Michael. He Solibri in every part of the planning for Metro sees shared cloud based solutions as the way Centre. He tried alternative software but the forward. With ever increasing file sizes, a cloudlevel of checking was better with Solibri. based model and automatic clash detection “Everyone has Solibri running on their desk- would help enormously. He is also interested tops. If it’s a ‘Solibri day’, I focus first on clash in ‘point clouds’ and building mapping. I take detection. When we have a ‘BIM week’, we have these notes for our development team. I can’t to make reports and what’s the status of our IFC. wait to share our existing development plans I do clash detection every day. The rest of the for the near future. Great minds think alike. team is cross checking the model. Especially the Or at least creative minds needing useful retail spaces to check the shop facilities match solutions think alike. Thank you Michael for the overall design for water and ventilation an interesting day. pipes. I make a lot of communication reports and share if I see problems arising”. RUSSELL ANDERSON I ask about what savings Michael finds with Solibri? “It’s really hard to say how much time is saved with Solibri. I can say that after two years of clash detection, it has saved a

H K P H I G H L I G H TS

HKP focuses on large commercial projects Public libraries, universtiy buildings, transport hubs and retail centers.

M I C H A E L PA L M

Lead Architect in BIM & Solibri at HKP Architects, Helsinki.

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BANKING ON BIM

V E I D E K K E / STO C K H O L M

I L L U S T R AT I O N J A N N E I I V O N E N

athias P Nilsson is a lucky man. He works in probably the best project room I have ever seen. It’s like the result of an interior designer’s perfect brief. On the one wall is an interactive screen running Solibri Model Checker. The remaining walls have monitors and traditional date boards covered in different colored sticky notes. It certainly gives the sense of a well ordered project HQ. It also overlooks the current construction site for the new SEB bank office complex in Solna, Stockholm. This complex will be a combination of 3 large office blocks. Mathias is Veidekke’s VDC engineer. He co-ordinates BIM information management for the current bank project. He studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He did his senior thesis with Veidekke and went to straight to work for them after graduating. Veidekke is a Norwegian construction company with projects throughout the Nordic region. We took time to interview Mathias between project meetings. “Anyone who has dealt with a large scale BIM project will tell you the amount of information you need to keep tabs on is overwhelming. To do that without Solibri is impossible if you want any kind of assurance that what is being delivered is what has been agreed upon.” Tells Mathias. “In the design phase, it is often chaotic and hard to foresee the risks that are being designed into the building. With Solibri, you are able to eliminate clashes between installations. In the last two projects where we ran Solibri, we have had zero installation clashes on production sites. It’s hard to say the value of that in financial terms but it’s safe to say if definitely saves money.” Mathias continues to explain how Solibri offers him all round visualization in the design phase. “The Project you see through the window is for SEB. They are consolidating their offices with a planned completion date in 2018. When ready, it will house 4-6000 employees. For this project, our design team publishes new IFC files on a weekly basis. We then put these models

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through Solibri Model Checker to check for clashes and to do a visual run through before the next meeting.” Mathias shares his thoughts with us regarding BIM and the industry as a whole. He believes the term ‘BIM’ is misleading as it means different things to different people. He prefers VDC (Virtual Design Co-ordination) as he feels it encompasses more than merely a ‘flat 3D model’ which some feels is not as useful as once hoped. Moving towards the future, I am interested to hear what Mathias sees for the industry. The cloud is something that will continue to integrate into Mathias’ world. He sees it as the easiest way for multi discipline projects to come together when sharing huge file sizes. He also sees environmental issues playing a larger role in everyone’s consideration. “I read the heating of buildings consumes 50% of used energy. Lighting accounts for approximately 25% of the remaining consumption. Anything we can do to help efficiency has a massive consequences all over the world. Our work can play a part.” With that we say goodbye. Mathias has another project meeting and we take some stills of this project ‘war room’ for when we edit a film of this interview. I look forward to catching up with Mathias and Robert Priller of Graphisoft Sweden in the near future. Solna, Stockholm is one busy place for construction at present. RUSSELL ANDERSON

MATHIAS P NILSSON

Mathias is Veidekke’s VDC engineer. He co-ordinates BIM information management for a current bank construction project

IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF POWERHOUSE ARCHITECTS, NETHERLANDS

COLLABORATION IS THE KEY TO BIM INTERVIEW WITH STEFAN PRINS

oung, eager and innovative. Those are the words to describe the team from Powerhouse Company. Stefan Prins, associate and architect at this full service architectural firm, will share his take on BIM and Solibri. “Although some believe we already achieved pretty high standards with BIM, I think we are still on the verge. If you only look at how much the software we use has changed over the years. We went from drawing lines on paper, to drawing lines on a computer to actually 3D modelling software, like ARCHICAD. This BIM software was our first step into the world of BIM. I’m still amazed by the power that

3D models hold. For the first time I actually felt like I was designing a building prototype with the help of software.” Stefan believes the essence of BIM to be collaboration and communication. And both are really strong qualities of Solibri. “The Solibri Model Viewer already was one of our favourite tools, and when we started working with Solibri Model Checker our engineering team was over the moon.” We have a team of young professionals working at Powerhouse Company Stefan tells, and they all share their love for innovation. “We are constantly improving our workflow and our use of Solibri and ARCHICAD. With every new project we gain new insights and develop better uses of the software.”

STEFAN PRINS

Solibri Partner Stefan is an associate and architect at Powerhouse.

Powerhouse is still discovering all the possibilities of Solibri. “The rulesets really got my attention. I was eager to customize our own rulesets. But with the KeyMember Edition from KUBUS they cover 90% of the rulesets we want to use. It is developed according to Dutch standards, including laws and regulations.” I ask Stefan how he feels BIM changed their workflow. “Besides the usual changes that come with BIM, I noticed changes in the way we design buildings. It forces you to really think about how you build something, understand how, for instance, floors and ceilings intersect. With a 3D model this process comes natural with the software we use; Solibri and ARCHICAD. You get instant visual feedback about the consequences of changes in the design.”

“I don’t even want to think about how much time it would take to get the same level of quality if we hadn’t had Solibri.”

Stefan still encounters companies that mandate specific software. “Our only demand is that everybody uses IFC, then, everybody can use the software they prefer. And to assure the quality throughout the process, we use Solibri.” To conclude the interview Stefan shares with us their experience of how essential BIM is during the redesign of the passages of Amsterdam Central station. “We started out with traditional 2D drawings from the model to tender the design for a contractor. Then the contractor measured the actual building to compare with ours. It turns out, our model diverged quite a lot from the real world. We decided to ‘upgrade’ our model to a 3D BIM model. At that point we asked our suppliers to deliver their part of the model in IFC so we could incorporate everything. Throughout the

process we checked everything with Solibri. The first part is now completed, without any major issues. Solibri gave us control over the quality assurance throughout the project. I don’t even want to think about how much time it would take if we hadn’t had Solibri.” ROSA VAN TOUR

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SOLIBRI / UK

THE IMPERATIVE OPEN COMMUNICATION STANDARD

DAV I D J E L L I N GS

David is Managing Director of Solibri UK – global leaders in BIM validation. He is also a visiting professor in the faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment, Birmingham City University.

BuildingSMART has reshaped itself into a business-led organisation and met in June this year for a major meeting in Paris. The buildingSMART International Council Meeting & Chapter Conference 2015 bought all the chapters together to develop the next steps. The common theme for buildingSMART is open standards, which came across very clearly at the meeting. The agenda centred on using the combined skills of chapter representatives, via a series of workshops, to shape the future of buildingSMART activities and standards. They needed to understand how to harness the skills and develop a united message – the need for open standards. Together with the new appointment of Richard Kelly, Operations Director, this open and inclusive approach clearly shows that buildingSMART is evolving into a more professional and pro-active organisation, better equipped to drive the global open BIM agenda. The Council meeting was planned to allow a balance of communication from buildingSMART International Management and full engagement from members. This collaboration is essential to facilitate development of the business model. At the meeting Richard Petrie, CEO of buildingSMART presented a report highlighting that BIM presents a unique opportunity across the full built asset value chain. The continued growth is being driven by the realisation

that the BIM process improves predictability, increases asset value in addition to reducing costs, delivery time and carbon. For Petrie, the challenge is for buildingSMART ‘to become the credible go-to international standards body’ by expanding its operations and strengthening relations with governments and the wider industry. The goal is to enable full benefits from digital ways of working in the built asset industry, meaning to succeed, they must have: • Standards Body of Reference; • Vibrant Chapters; • Quality Mark in demand. Mark Bew, Chairman HM Government BIM Task Group, gave a presentation: ‘Building Information Modelling – Level 2 by 2016; Just the beginning?’ Bew outlined that UK construction contributes nearly £90bn to the economy, with BIM in the UK government being led by the Highways Agency, Ministry of Justice and Environment Agency, (who are close to 100% adoption of Level 2). He said that almost £10bn worth of projects had been delivered, or were in progress by the end of 2014. All UK government departments reported significant cost reductions (in the region of 10-20%), as a result of BIM implementation. Moving forward, early definitions of what Level 3 may look like were presented – with the key message that buildingSMART standards will be an essential part of the solution.

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C E RT I F I CAT I O N O F A P P ROV E D SYST E M S

I asked Jellings how successful the certification of approved systems have been to prove compliance with open standards. For him, open standards are fundamental to successful BIM, and buildingSMART look at a lot of standards! He mentioned that in construction, there is a two-fold problem. • A misunderstanding of what we mean by an open communication standard; • The resistance to change. b u i l d i n g S M A RT ’s m a j o r driver is how to work toward a common communication standard. This is the backbone for BIM and how it will be successful. Why? For Jellings it’s perhaps easier to understand if you consider the development of the mobile phone. He said: “Remember the old mobile phones? They were very heavy, with a battery pack that lasted for two minutes. Making a short call to the same network was easy, but to talk on a different network was far too expensive, and this was because everyone had their own communication protocol. In the 90’s it was eventually agreed that a common communications protocol was needed to fix the problem. Within a short time frame the solution was there. Billions of dollars were poured into the development of mobile phones and they became the preferred way to communicate. That’s just one example of where an open communications standard provided a total solution. “When we look at software within the construction industry we have to find a way of creating interoperability between multiple products – it needs an open standard.” The IFC schema is simply a way of presenting the data we need to build and operate built assets in a common computer

readable format. It’s free from the point of use and ubiquitous (IFC data is compatable with past versions). Jellings believes the industry has to understand that: “The IFC is something that is absolutely required and we will not be able to do BIM successfully unless we have a communication protocol. It will be free but it also has to be complied with by software vendors. “This was something of a challenge at first – ensuring the software vendors understood the need for compliance – but that has somewhat dissipated now they have realised the importance. After all, the industry wants it and the UK government have recognised that the core and centre of Level 3 BIM will be an open communication protocol (or IFC). The emphasis for buildingSMART is to develop the IFC going forward.” Jellings says. “It’s good but not perfect. To develop it we need to concentrate on an IFC for infrastructure. There are projects underway to do this and we are working with some of the biggest construction projects globally, as well as in the UK to do this. The likes of HS2 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel have a vested interest in making IFC for infrastructure a success.” A second level of emphasis for buildingSMART is for software vendors to ensure their products can comply with the IFC, and that requires a rigorous and robust certification process.

“From my experience, the bigger contractors, the bigger design houses and the engineering groups are all doing BIM...“

COBIE

COBie was originally developed by Bill East of the US Army Corp of Engineers to develop and record asset data for their establishments throughout the world. Firstly and most importantly, COBie was developed as a sub-set of IFC. COBie has a hierarchical structure which goes into building, spaces types, objects, components, property sets etc. and that structure is exactly the same as the IFC structure. Basically,

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SOLIBRI / UK

if you’re not producing COBie from IFC files you’re making more work for yourself. Jellings noted that: “The construction industry is very traditional, but BIM is a major transformation which means they have to rethink and reassess their processes. COBie and IFC are just elements of BIM, with COBie being a way of presenting asset data (which is a specified requirement). It’s been great for BIM as the UK government have said they want COBie. W H E R E A R E W E N OW ?

As the 2016 deadline gets ever closer, one of the most common BIM question rears its head. Are we there yet? Jellings replied: “Ask 5 different people this question and you’ll get 5 different answers but I believe that the adoption of BIM is not as great as most of the industry surveys show. However, statistics depend on how you interpret the results. If we look at the actual number of companies in the UK – of which there are tens of thousands – and ask what is the percentage of those that have adopted BIM, I believe the answer is very low. The many thousands of companies in the UK are micro businesses doing small works – extensions etc. These people will never use BIM, or need to use it,” he says. “However, if you look at the volume aspect of the businesses, or, if you take the top twenty or so of contractors, they are all trying to seriously develop BIM programmes. This top twenty of businesses probably account for around 30-40% of the UK construction business. In terms of cash, then you could say that BIM adoption is now above 30% in the UK. For me, it all depends on how you ask the question. From my experience, the bigger contractors, the bigger design houses and the engineering groups are all doing BIM, be it at it different levels or different degrees (with some better than others), but all making a concerted and serious attempt to do it. “Our major issue now, is spreading BIM down the supply chain. A large company with available staff and cash will be able to it, but if you’re a fifty man construction company it’s more difficult. This integration of the supply

chain is the big challenge. Once we can crack that then the physical numbers of people doing BIM will start to increase,” says Jellings. In terms of ever reaching Level 3 BIM, the most important point to make is to get Level 2 ready first. Mark Bew has put a team together to start to define what Level 3 may look like, but the success of that depends on Level 2 as the bedrock. We can start to define what Level 3 looks like but until Level 2 is up and running out to the majority of the industry, it will be difficult if not impossible to implement. BIM IS SIMPLE!

Jellings is an enthusiastic and passionate BIM advocate who has been experiencing the BIM idea since the 1980’s. His background was in manufacturing and during that time, he went through what was termed, the ‘Integrated Process’. He explained: “That’s what BIM is – an integrated business process. It’s important not to get hung up on the complexities of BIM. BIM is simply a way of allowing people to have access to the information they need when they need it. If you think about that, everything else starts to fall into place. “The most important aspect we have to understand is that for BIM to work, we have to trust people and share information – and that is the biggest barrier in construction. As an industry, we have rarely in the past worked on that principle, so we have to do the opposite and realise it’s only a way of sharing information. Once you get your head around it it’s simple. You can’t do BIM by yourself and you can’t do BIM unless you change the way you think.” LISA CARNWELL

Editor lcarnwell@adjacentgovernment.co.uk planningandbuildingcontroltoday.co.uk twitter.com/LCarnwell REPRINTED WITH KIND PERMISSION OF LISA CARNWELL

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‘QUALITY’ MEANS I GET TO SLEEP ON A SUNDAY NIGHT

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We meet Jonas Thornqvist in the clouds. Well, not literally but we’re on the top floor of the WSP Stockholm building. There’s a great view over the city and the interior design team must have taken this as inspiration when designing this lofty space. Above us hangs wireframe cloud installations. A perfect backdrop for what Jonas, Robert Priller/Graphisoft and I are soon to talk about. Jonas has great experience in WSP and BIM. He’s the BIM Coordinator and Product Manager within WSP. It’s why we wanted to talk with him. I wanted to hear how WSP is using BIM in their processes. I also wanted to understand how Solibri fitted into all this. Jonas explained he’s been working with 3D since 1994 and has watched technologies come of age. It’s only been in the last 2 years that IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) have truly come of age in Sweden. They have offered Jonas an excellent export format to share and coordinate information between different BIM programs. Different disciplines are now much more integrated in the workflow. We’ll hear more of that later as we speak with Jonas. WSP is involved in building city and local government projects – schools, hospitals and the new subway line in central Stockholm. WSP does not have a BIM manual as such but does use BIM in all large scale projects. Jonas tells us “WSP has investigated the value of BIM to its business. By using BIM, we can reduce the number of modifications on a project from 10% to 3%. It’s a big difference when you’re talking projects with a cost of over 1 billion Swedish crowns. It’s a good argument for our clients to demand BIM and it’s a big reason for us to offer it.” “BIM to me is all about communication, not just clash detection. The government has seen the value of BIM in the lifecycle of a building. They are starting to understand that BIM isn’t just used in the design phase. It’s also valuable for the facility management process of their buildings. IFC files provide that link.” I question Jonas on the benefits of Solibri to his work. I’m interested how he uses it for himself and within the project team. “Solibri is a very easy software to use in the building environment. You prepare the clash detection, then create a presentation with notes and share with the building manager. You reduce the number of issues, solve problems upfront and then you start to see the benefits. One of my key favorite features is the visualization. A colorful

JONAS THORNQVIST

WSP BIM Coordinator and Product Manager, explains how WSP is using BIM in their processes.

ROBERT PRILLER

Robert Priller works at Graphisoft Sweden and is the co–author of this article.

3D model with indicated issues allows us to have solution driven discussion, not a problem driven discussion. That’s how WSP operates, thoroughly with a sense of responsibility. It’s the best thing for the project and we have only one earth, we should preserve its resources where possible.” I wonder if Jonas sees savings with Solibri Model Checker. “It’s hard to give a specific number but I see savings in work efficiency and communication. We can now define improved success in the early design phases and then manage them before they become a big problem. I believe one hour of changes in the design phase is worth 1000 hours in the project phase.” Jonas is also driving the improved usage of components and classifications. He understands that better BIM models from the start means improved data down the line. Jonas goes on to discuss quality and what he sees to be the future of construction. “Quality to me means I can sleep on a Sunday night. If the information is correct and I can control it, then the Monday coordination meeting is going to go well.” This is especially important when he looks towards the future. Builds are becoming increasingly complex with environmental regulation and energy efficiency. Today you don’t have the amount of human site resource like in previous years. You need to make sure the project is perfect before you start the building phase. He believes ‘the cloud’ and shared databases will be the way to go to handle these large files on the move and on site. WSP and their team are professional and conscientious. They want to do a good job and for the right reasons. Jonas is one of those team members making that happen. RUSSELL ANDERSON

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C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

COMMUNICATION IS ABOUT PEOPLE AND THE REST IS TECHNOLOGY Peter Dufvenberg works as a project manager and BIM strategist in Projektlederhuset, Stockholm. He’s a structural engineer by education and has worked with Vico software. His current projects include a school and university laboratory. He has just presented at a Graphisoft industry event and I’m eager to hear his thoughts on BIM, Solibri and the industry as a whole. Peter offers us a coffee in his office. It’s a converted tobacco storage warehouse with high ceilings and fantastic light. It feels like the first day and spring and it’s a good place to get to know each other. Peter shares his thoughts… “I first heard about Solibri when working in Vico software. I discovered Solibri assured me

high quality models with the right information at the right time. It allows us in the project team to avoid ‘information islands’ and to use this information to lift each other. We can estimate models properly and these maximize time and money.” “Communication is very important to me. Communication is about people and the rest is technology. If you don’t communicate properly, what’s the point?” It’s Solibri that helps Peter communicate. I asked him to explain what he sees as Solibri Model Checker’s core value. “I see Solibri’s features and benefits as multiple and changing all the time. In the early design phase, we put the models together and start talking strategy. For example, how do the

PETER DUFVENBERG

Peter Dufvenberg works as a project manager and BIM strategist in Projektlederhuset, his current Solibri projects include a school and university laboratory

P RO J E KT L E D E R H U S E T / STO C K H O L M

HVAC channels look like? What is the model quality? We then make rules for the design phase and later on, use Solibri’s rulesets to check for fire safety, sound proofing, collisions and finally estimations and scheduling. The benefits really are different depending on what situation I’m in. I think it’s vital for the construction site to rely on the model. With Solibri, you can do a virtual safety check to minimize dangers – you can show big shafts that need fencing off and you can reduce risk. It also allows me to think long term by questioning how will this school fulfill its demands over the next 50 to 100 years?”

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to evolve despite the slow development cycles by his standards. I ask Peter to leave us with one success example of Solibri in action. “There was one project recently that had an incredibly short design phase. There was a big pressure on the architects and construction team to deliver. There was also the added issue of adopting BIM and new working methods. It was here that I used Solibri to make a statement. I ran checks on the model and found 899 issues. It actually took me 4 days to compile the report for the team. Seeing that kind of value helped shake things up.”

“BIM models help us discuss with the building owner”

We turn our attention to BIM. Peter explains, “BIM models help us discuss with the building owner. Owners tell us what they want in the early phases. They want to see different alternatives. We use the model to do this and can then see how much these choices will cost. How much carpet? How many windows and doors? Even how much space can I get for rental purposes to make my money back? 3D models really make the difference. Even more so if it’s a quality checked model with the necessary information.” Peter still wishes to see the evolution of BIM in Sweden. It’s in the early stages and there is confusion on what it means and what it should do and when. The industry needs to get ‘over that hill’ and to understand the value it gives. Peter is hopeful it will continue

I look forward to Peter making more presentations in the future. I see him a ‘change agent’ that could shake things up within the industry. If the progress of BIM has been slower than desired by many, I suggest that more people talk with Peter. He also makes a good coffee… RUSSELL ANDERSON

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WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD The architects at GMP in Hamburg will spare themselves a lot of anxiety, a lot of money and a lot of time by using the Solibri Model Checker for their future projects.

C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

The software supplier Mensch und Maschine (MuM) made a major contribution to this upgrade: not only are they providing GMP with CAD software and training, but they’re also offering a never-ending supply of good ideas for making GMP’s work easier and safer. Shanghai’s Oriental Sport Center, Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Estadio Bernabeu in Madrid, Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof, Villa Guna in Jurmala, Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban ... Anyone who wants to visit the construction projects of the GMP architects, Gerkan, Marg and Partners, can look forward to an interesting trip around the world.. With 13 locations from Rio de Janeiro to Shanghai, the agency focuses on diversity, unity and unmistakable uniqueness. As it says on their website, “Our ideal is to make our designs so simple that they will stand the test of time.” B I M , O B V I O U S LY

It’s obvious from the global scope of their activities that GMP has been dealing with the issue of Building Information Modeling (BIM)

G M P H A M B U RG

GMP Hamburg are architects making a splash on the world stage. They are involved in building 13 international locations that influence thousands of lives.

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GMP HAMBURG / GERMANY

for many years. It’s difficult to acquire projects in Asia and the Anglo-Saxon countries without BIM, explains Markus Carlsen, who has been responsible for the systematic development of BIM infrastructure at GMP since he took the position of BIM Manager and Developer a year ago. GMP’s BIM team now has 6 employees at their German locations. “Luckily, we’ve had the right partner from the very beginning: Mensch und Maschine,” explains Markus Carlsen. Mensch und Maschine (MuM) has provided the architectural agency with CAD software for a long time, mainly from the Autodesk software corporation, but also with their own tools and interfaces that facilitate design and documentation work. MuM also knew that GMP was interested in Building Information Modeling, so their consultants presented new software, new approaches, new ideas. A D I S C OV E RY F O R Q UA L I T Y M A N AG E M E N T

The people at MuM were looking at the bigger picture: The software supplier invited its customers to a BIM Day at a Hamburg building services agency. In addition to CAD software, they were also presenting the Solibri Model Checker (SMC). “We needed a quality assurance tool for our designs,” recalls Markus Carlsen. “But we didn’t have a precise idea yet. After the presentation, we at least knew where to look.” Contacts with Solibri and MuM followed; a trial version of SMC was installed. The BIM team at GMP simulated the quasi-ideal sequence of a BIM project. The project was replicated with the existing tools. They intentionally accepted the kind of errors that occur in the daily work of architects, building services planners and structural engineers. S M C F I N D S E R RO RS Q U I C K LY A N D R E L I A B LY

Markus Carlsen mentions two examples of typical errors: When designers are marking supports in the floor plan view, all it takes is for the phone to ring at the wrong moment, and suddenly they’ve clicked the top edge of the floor in the story above as a reference height, instead of the bottom of the finished ceiling. In large building projects, often nobody

notices the mistake at first. It’s also likely that no opening is provided for some of the many hundreds of ventilation ducts. Such an error may even go under the radar in the 3D view. It’s precisely this kind of error that SMC found during reproduction of these projects. Files were periodically exported from Autodesk Revit, the building services and structural engineering software, as IFC data (Industry Foundation Class, a software-neutral model description language), and then imported into SMC and tested. The indicated errors could then be fixed quickly and easily.

“Our ideal is to make our designs so simple that they will stand the test of time.”

A MORE PRECISE CA LC U L AT I O N I N O R D E R TO C O N F I D E N T LY M E E T DEADLINES

Solibri Model Checker helps to detect very complex errors early—errors which, in the worst case, wouldn’t be visible until construction work had already started. If the model of planning through to construction were to remain the same, errors would be nearly unavoidable. Huge numbers of them can be found quickly and easily using BIM. To be sure, the model has to be present from very early on with a great level of detail. However, this effort in the earliest phase pays off later in a big way. We have to try to avoid changes as much as possible. They result in high costs later in the planing process, even with BIM. Can the savings from the use of SMC be quantified? Markus Carlsen laughs: “I can’t express it in terms of numbers. But one thing is for sure: It’s A LOT! …GMP will spare themselves a lot of anxiety, a lot of money and a lot of time once the Solibri Model Checker is firmly incorporated into the team’s work. “We know that we’re on the right track,” says Markus Carlsen. “And we’re very grateful to the people at MuM that they always keep the easier and safer work of their customers in mind. Their tip about SMC has already proven to be worth its weight in gold.” ROSWITHA MENKE

Brünnenstrasse 59 3018 Bern Schweiz

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S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 3 2

WE CONTINUE TO IMPRESS OUR CLIENTS WITH THIS SOLUTION INTERVIEW WITH MARIËLLE VISSERS OF RIJNBOUTT

Rijnboutt, a multidisciplinary architectural firm, is located in the heart of Amsterdam with a beautiful view over the Westerdok waters from where we sit. Today I am interviewing Mariëlle Vissers, BIM specialist and quality coordinator, about her belief in the power of BIM. Rijnboutt counts over 50 employees, and Mariëlle has a busy job monitoring the overall quality insurance of the entire firm; including developing and guarding the implementation of BIM protocols, office templates and helping out colleagues with questions about ARCHICAD and Solibri. Mariëlle has seen, and experienced first hand, the (r)evolution of BIM in the Dutch construction industry. “A remarkable thing about BIM is that the changes that come with it, are less radical then most people think. The tools we use are getting more advanced, but we still design buildings. Therefore we need to

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C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

ROKIN, AMSTERDAM

This former bank will house the flagship stores of Marks & Spencer and Haussman.

“Solibri helps us collaborate, easily monitor and check every model. For us, that’s the real power of BIM.” communicate and collaborate with constructors, engineers and commissioners, and have to make sure we manage the complete process while designing timeless, robust buildings and spaces. The 3D model, compared to 2D, leaves less room for mistakes in this process and generates dynamic information. This is a huge development and benefit of BIM. ”Mariëlle explains. She continues: “Important to acknowledge is we need to be aware of the fact that everyone has a different perception of BIM. For us, BIM is a tool to check each other’s work to avoid unnecessary cost failures. But, engineers

want to derive parameters for listing and costs, and commissioners want to use it for facility management. Same BIM, different goals. So BIM is not some kind of magic word or action that clears the path to perfect collaboration and reliable information. You have to agree on a set of ground rules and make sure the mindset of all parties are on the same page.” Rijnboutt recognized the potential and need for BIM, and Mariëlle assisted with the incorporation of BIM into their core business. Where others struggle with their role as an architect, Rijnboutt thrives in this changing market, because they are agile, know what they

RIJNBOUTT / AMSTERDAM

MARIËLLE VISSERS RIJNBOUTT

Rijnboutt covers every discipline in the fields of architecture: urban planning, landscaping and heritage design. They believe in the power of communication through structured design with open processes and standards.

are doing, and simply are really good at their job. “Solibri and ARCHICAD are the tools that help us achieve this level,” she said. We continue talking about Solibri. She mentions they use it to clash models from the constructor and engineer, but also to check their own models. “We once tried to help our cost expert by giving him information we derived from our 3D model to calculate quantities. But he set it aside and rather did the required calculations like he always did. It turned out he used a wrong measurement at one point, which made his calculations incorrect. Luckily we spotted the mistake rather quickly because we had our own quantity lists.” For the last part of the interview Bonnie Snoek joins us. She is one of the project leaders

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at Rijnboutt and uses Solibri on a weekly basis. I ask her about the importance of BIM and Solibri. “It is really easy to use and the visual feedback you get from Solibri is instant and very informative. Deadlines become much tighter and projects need to be done quicker. Solibri helps us deliver quality faster, saves us time and money, but above all helps us to keep impressing our commissioners with the work we produce.” Bonnie concludes: “I really like to work with Solibri, its user friendly, simple and helps me do my job a lot quicker.” ROSA VAN TOUR

DE ONTMOETING, AMSTELVEEN

Project with approximately 250 homes and covers a GFA of 6.000 m2, including an underground parking.

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BIM AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD. NEWS FROM THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

It’s a good day to arrive in Stockholm. It’s early March and Sweden has thrown off its winter coat. The sun is shining and the temperature gauge is showing double digits. There’s a smile on people’s faces that tells me spring is in the air. Today we’re meeting Mattias Lindström. He’s the Development Engineer in PEAB. He’s one of the people that is driving the BIM process within the company. He is in Stockholm to hear the thesis presentations of other staff members. He’s excited to see development and new ideas within the company. We’re lucky to find time with Matthias. His home and work base is 800 kilometers up North from Stockholm. When not being a BIM ambassador, you’ll find him up

P E A B / STO C K H O L M

in the arctic-circle with his family. On his free days, he likes extreme snowmobiling. Today, his Lenovo computer is his weapon of choice. “PEAB is one of the biggest contractors within the Swedish market. We do a mix of commercial and residential projects. I’m currently running a large residential project up North. I’m using BIM and Solibri to lead that project. I have two personal missions within PEAB. Firstly I wish to drive BIM implementation within the workflow. Secondly I wish to introduce a 5D modelling process that will increase profit and customer satisfaction.” Says Mattias. I would like to know more on the benefits that Solibri brings to his projects. “I first heard about Solibri from within PEAB. I needed a good software solution for introducing BIM collaboration. I started to use Solibri and found it to be an easy-to-learn tool. Many people have a fear of new technology. I don’t find that when referring Solibri to others. I also realized you can’t destroy anything with Solibri. If you make a mistake, you know the model will be unaffected.” Mattias continues, “There’s several things I enjoy about Solibri. The 3D viewer is something I really like. I can easily visualize what the project contains. My team and I can then control the building projects from day one. Solibri Model Checker gives me the assurance I need to trust the model. Also, in my work with 5D BIM, I use Solibri for quality checking and quantity take off. Compared to regular clash detection software, you can successfully define the conditions to do much more than just this.” “Solibri offers me quality assurance within the construction project. When I get a 3D model, it’s hard to manually find issues. Solibri finds 90% of the project issues that should concern me. It may not replace the human eye but it’s a great tool to support the building phase.” I ask Mattias his opinions on BIM and its adoption within PEAB and the industry as a whole. “BIM is very important for the industry as a whole. It firstly defines what information and tasks we need to know today to run the project. It then solves tomorrow’s problems, today. It finally offers us an insight on how to run future projects in a completely different way. I see BIM as an unbroken chain of information. With BIM, you don’t lose information and money. It’s not yet perfect. We need to fix

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all the file formats and co-ordinates by working to agreed common standards. We also need to have a successful BIM manual. Success to me means that both contractors and designers are comfortable in using the manual in a common way. It shouldn’t be left with the designers with little collaboration. I still feel we leave each other too much alone.” We haven’t much time left before the thesis presentations begin. Mattias also shares his thoughts on time and money savings. “It goes without saying that time and money are very important to us as contractors. We continue to push for a streamlined workflow to improve collaboration and gain better results. However, that’s not the be-all and end-all for me. Savings that support the environment fits very much with our belief in sustainable building development. Our customers expect this and BIM and Solibri help to enforce these activities. It’s the right thing to do and PEAB is very much pushing this agenda.” On that note, Mattias leaves to be inspired by his colleague’s educational projects. We took some pictures to include in this interview. I didn’t get the picture of him on his PC screensaver. It shows Mattias jumping off a steep mountain hill on his snowmobile. What may seem like madness to some is simply exhilarating to him. Taking a calculated risk to experience something new is what Mattias does best. I now understand why he’s the best man to push BIM within PEAB... RUSSELL ANDERSON

M AT T I AS LINDSTRÖM

PEAB Development Engineer explains how he is driving the BIM process within the company while living in the Arctic Circle.

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C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

THE COLLABORATION WITH BIMCOLLAB – ADDING VALUE TO THE WORKFLOW INTERVIEW WITH MARK MOERMAN, J.P. VAN EESTEREN.

The understanding of BIM is still a challenge. That’s why I met with Mark Moerman, BIM director at J.P. van Eesteren, and a real ambassador for BIM. J.P. van Eesteren is part of TBI holding, which is in the top 5 largest construction companies in the Netherlands. I wanted to talk to him about BIM and his take on its maturity in the last few years, and the ones to come. He tells how he envisioned five years ago that by this time BIM would be the standard. “It is hard sometimes to understand why BIM is still a struggle for people.

I guess it takes some time before people are used to another way of working and believing in it as well. We got the tools for it, now we only need the right mindset.” According to Mark a 3D model is the start to get everyone in that right mindset and to understand BIM. “Even with the most experienced experts you can talk about issues from a 2D drawing, and it still seems that after the meeting you were all speaking a different language. We need the 3D model to talk and visualize for us.” This is one of the reasons he

J . P. V A N E E S T E R E N / N E T H E R L A N D S

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 3 8

NETHERLANDS

Population: 16.8 million Solibri Gold Partner in the Netherlands is KUBUS BV

“The insights we gain with Solibri are priceless.“ loves Solibri, he tells me. The visualization is Then Mark started talking about so simple, effective, and a really flexible tool. BIMcollab. “There are only few tools that When Mark starts talking about Solibri, really add value to the BIM workflow”, he says. you can tell he really knows his stuff. And when “BIMcollab is one of them, together with Solibri he explains how they use Solibri you know they of course. We already used BIMcollab on a small really made it their own. They design their project, and people got really excited about own rulesets and classifications for every working with it. It really makes the process project. “We do not believe in learning every more cohesive. That is, what I believe, BIM single functionality Solibri has. We just wing should do. Make all the fragmented informait. Whenever we come across an issue during tion whole again.” a project, we will then start designing rulesets Even for such a big construction company, for that specific project. We act on the needs or maybe because of it, it’s a though job to and demands of a project, not the other way convince everybody that BIM works. Mark around. Of course we also use basic rulesets never doubted that. He knew BIM when he that provide us the information we often need saw it. “My first real experience with Solibri during a construction project.” happened when I was working in the Middle The fact that you can easily customize East as BIM manager. We used Navisworks to rulesets and classifications within Solibri clash our models and hired an external firm really can make a difference. The project where to do additional quality control checks on our Mark and his team are currently working on is models. They used Solibri and the results were a cancer treatment center. Because of the radi- really impressive. That’s when I knew Solibri ation, there are a lot of requirements regarding is a unique tool. And there still isn’t any other the installations within the concrete walls. tool that can match it.” “Solibri instantly showed us if the installations deviated at any point. And because we could ROSA VAN TOUR assure the quality of the building, we got approval for this project.”

MARK MOERMAN

Mark Moerman, BIM Director at J.P. van Eesteren, and a real ambassador for BIM.

ROSA VAN TOUR

Rosa is part of the marketing team for KUBUS BV. She sees a challenge in turning strategic concepts into concrete and practical actions. Using a combination of creative thinking and positive actions

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 4 0

H A R PA C E A S / I TA LY

BIM FOR ITALIAN PUBLIC EMPLOYERS – GALLIERA GENOA HOSPITAL EXAMPLE P R E M E S SA

MANAGING A COMPLEX HOSPITAL COMPLEX

I L L U S T R AT I O N J A N N E H Ä N N I N E N

The government decides to use BIM in the redevelopment of a major hospital complex in Genoa. The Province of Genoa (It. Provincia di Genova) is a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Genoa.

Since May 2015, Galliera Hospital was finally able to restart the procedure for the design of a New Hospital. After a two years standstill, the project of the whole New Hospital has been divided into two lots: Lot 1: Consisting of the construction of a new structure that will be built on the same site of the existing hospital; Lot 2: Involving the restoration and repair of the current historical hospital halls. Galliera Hospital is going therefore to manage a very complex operation, both from the engineering and design point of view and from the managing point of view. Lot 1 work value is amounts to approximately 135 million euro and consists of a new building (three basement floors and three floors above ground) construction, in a highly urbanized area, to be realized after four existing buildings are removed. The planned restructuring of Lot 2 consists of monumental buildings, currently used for hospital activities that will be converted to host logistical and organizational activities. Therefore the New Galliera Hospital realization does not consist of just a “simple” new hospital building construction, but of a much more complex operation, that will be developed in phases and which requires that the existing hospital functionality is kept working, before, during and after the new building construction phase. This aspect involves the complex organization of the so called “transition phase”,

including logistics and management issues related to: Maintaining the hospital functioning during the preparation of the area before the new building construction. This phase requires that the buildings to be demolished are emptied and that all the sanitary and hospital functions are transferred into other existing buildings (where some unallocated areas have been identified) or in ‘ad hoc’ temporary buildings to be provided just for the costruction period. Maintaining a functioning hospital during the construction of the new building. A further issue is the time schedule that is very restricted, since it is expected that the new building shall be functioning by the second half of 2021. The New Galliera design, born as a response to structural inadequacies of the current buildings, provides also an opportunity for radical cultural change for all operators involved. It involves the physical realization of various initiatives such as the intensive care hospital, the lean hospital, the digital hospital and a green hospital - All initiatives that demonstrate Galliera’s commitment to innovation. This commitment, along with the complexity of the work, led the Hospital Management and Technical office to identify Building Information Modelling as the fundamental tool in the design process of the third millennium hospital, essential choice for managing the complexity of the operation, further also confirmed at an international level.

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C U STO M E R I N T E R V I E W

Lot 1 and Lot 2 will therefore be developed with BIM technology and methods, even though the following have different administrative procedures and contracts management. For both Lots, hospital Galliera is going to prepare bid documents containing special “contract language” requiring the use of building information modelling. Here is the bid document to better understand what was wanted for this project: T H E C U R R E N T B I M M O D E LS L E V E L O F D E TA I L ( LO D ) A N D S PAC E M A N AG E M E N T F O R SA N I TA RY R EG U L AT I O N S R EQ U I R E M E N TS

Lot 1 BIM Model – The preliminary design of the new hospital is completed under the traditional methodology because it is the reworking of the project approved in 2011 by the Conference of services, reduced by two levels following the variant required by the application of the spending review of metropolitan area. Once the approval of the preliminary design will be approved by Genoa municipality, the project will be converted into a BIM model. This BIM model will be used as a starting point of tender phases for further investigation of the level of detail during the progression of design phases. The BIM preliminary design will be developed as a LOD L0; this means that this model will comprise spaces, each with corresponding functional use, main structural and architectural structures such as slabs, main walls, secondary walls, stairs, openings, etc. Lot 2 BIM Model – Together with Lot 2 traditional bidimensional design, a digitization campaign of historical buildings has begun. BIM models of the monumental complex have been developed at a comparable to L0 level of detail: spaces and main structural elements and architectural features such as main walls, interior partitions, ceilings, windows, doors, stairs and roofs have been modelled. This level of detail allows Galliera hospital to use Solibri Model Checker®, Quantity Takeoff

functionality, for evaluating gross quantities and for immediately and very clearly visualize spaces. Spaces, modeled with their hospital functions and placed in Solibri Model Checker®, have been and are going to be mapped and grouped according to specific healt and sanitary classifications. These classification groupings are strategical and functional for cheking the correspondance of the hospital building to the Liguria Region health requirements. For this purpose Hospital Bim technicians are setting rules to check the so called “structural requirements” such as: • Minimun area of hospital rooms; • Hospital rooms must be provided of less than 4 beds per room; • A room called “medicheria” must be provided for each hospitalization zone These rules, testes and fine - tuned in the Bim model of the historical buildings, will be used, together with other rule sets, to make quality control of the New Galliera building. Galliera Hospital administrative offices are going to write the bid documents fot the design, execution, construction and management of the New Galliera requiring that participants to the bid produce a L1 BIM LOD. This model will be checked during the bid award phase and subsequently detailed by the contractor. For each contract phase different rulesets will be estabilished to grant Galliera Hospital the control of the model together with the works progression. Reasons and Objectives inducing Galliera Hospital to BIM bid and contract language The New Galliera Hospital design and construction is a High complexity - Cost, time and quality critical project. For this reasons it needs for all available QA tools.

The 3D objectoriented model development will allow the model to be visualized and used in a shared, interpretable and interoperable way.

In the following the main objectives and BIM Uses Galliera Hospital wants to obtain from the BIM technology development: • Visual checking - this Bim use will be very useful since the beginning

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H A R PA C E A S / I TA LY

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of the design phase to control Lot 1 and Lot 2 interaction and to manage the “transition phase ” with the help of 3D modeling and of different classification colors. Thanks to Solibri Model Checker® it will be possible to identify the different positions of the hospital functions to be moved from their original site to the ones during the “transition phase ”, and corresponding areas and volumes compared. Improve quality and information exchange between different involved parties (designers, contractors, stakeholders, ecc.) Generate easily and immediately comprehensible documentation, useful to introduce and show design also to non- technical operators. From a Technical perspective improve design delivery and reduce design errors with clash detection and model checking. Ensure correspondance of the final result to initial goals. Generate the hospital database, in order to follow the lifecycle of the building, useful for maintenance management and Facility Management. Use the model for hygienic-functional planning.

The 3D Object-oriented model development will allow the model to be visualized and used in a shared, interpretable and interoperable way. This means that bidder and subsequently contractor will have to allow the Employer (Galliera Hospital) the availability of the continuously updated model in order to llow them to look at it, to examine it, to compare the different design options and to check it. Models will have to be developed according to the LOD required by the Hospital and checked through customized coded quantity and standards checking procedures. Data stored in the BIM models will be used for maintenance and management hospital check. The hospital functionality (structure and Mep) and its possible technical improvement will be granted and maintained through an adequate maintenance plan, that will be realized by using the BIM model.

G A L L I E R A H O S P I TA L AS P I LOT S I T E O F I N D I CAT E E U RO P E A N P RO J E CT A N D T H E P E R F E CT BA L A N C E B E T W E E N B I M A N D S U S TA I N A B L E CITIES

BIM modelling of Galliera hospital finds another important application: Galliera Hospital is one of the 8 partners envolved in the European Project development called ‘Indicate’. The BIM model on the entire existing hospital is going to be used to test and validate Indicate tool. Indicate tool will support key stakeholders in the transformation towards smart & sustainable cities. The project will develop an interactive cloud-based tool to enable dynamic energy assessment of multiple entties within the urban environment. Indicate will allow decision makers, planner, urban designers and other stakeholders to: • Plan using an energy-based decision support tool, that utilizes dinamic simulation accounting for buildings & their occupants, urban environment & energy distribution grids. • Reduce energy consumption & carbon emssions by indicating the impact of best practice energy efficiency measures. • Integrate new technologies & services to optimize supply & demand via dynamic simulation modelling, GIS & 3D modelling • Optimize existing systems for local balancing through demand response & tariff analysis via dynamic simulation modelling of the interactions between various urban entities. The partners, from the UK, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, include: 2 large companies, sSMEs, 2 universities; and 2 public authorities. Expertise include: Dynamic simulation Modelling, GIS devepolment, 3D urban CAD modelling, demant site management, sustainable urban indicators, business model development for energy in cities, Integration of Energy efficiency Solutions & Demand on fossil fuels. ELISA SPALLAROSSA

Dirigente Ingegnere S.C. RUP - Nuovo Galliera

ELISA SPALLAROSSA

Solibri Partner Harpaceas acts as the technology partner in the project with Solibri Model Checker.

4 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

Technology Time An insight into new solutions and the new ways of doing things.

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 4 4

4 5 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

UK COBIE UPDATE: BUILDING DIGITAL BRITAIN

TECHNOLOGY TIME

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 4 6

U K C O B I E U P D AT E

he date is April 21st. The scene is the prestigious RIBA building in Central London. The theme is COBie (Construction Operations Building information exchange) and the UK’s preparedness for the Government 2016 mandate on the subject. Solibri took time to attend and present in this BIM Prospects event. We wanted to interview the key players (customers and government spokespeople). We wanted to add a layer of transparency to the term COBie, what it means to the industry and what is Solibri’s part in helping these new ideas become a reality. We started by interviewing David Philp. David is Head of BIM for the UK BIM Task Group. He has been one of the key players leading the planning and implementation of BIM and COBie in the UK. These were David’s thoughts on the subject. “It’s a good question – What is BIM & COBie? We have three key components behind Level 2 BIM here in the UK – Graphical information, non-graphical information and data sets. In its purist form, COBie is an information exchange in a digital format. It lets all players get involved – it’s an easy point of entry and it allows many ways of exchanging and using data. COBie is really a structured data set. A ‘transparent suitcase’ to quote the Nick Nisbet analogy. It allows me to see the compartments, I can then fill those compartments and take it with me through the stages and a plan of work. It’s a great container system for taking and sharing information. We are now well on the journey towards 2016 and the government mandate. We went through mobilization, getting the BIM task group, testing the hypothesis and building the standards that define Level 2 BIM. Now these standards give all parties access to the same

4 7 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

“We are no longer a single team working alone in an office. It’s about sharing information readily and globally”

E C U S T EO CMHENROILNOTGEYR VT II EMW

UE KI G CE ON BHI EA AURPDD AT / AEM S T E R D A M

DAV I D P H I L P

David Philp, Head of BIM for the UK BIM Task Group. He has been one of the key players leading the planning and implementation of BIM and COBie in the UK. We caught up with David at the RIBA Building in London.

data set and that is really important – We have a common data environment for all. You may well ask are we getting there. Well, the hypothesis is tested, and we have had early adopter projects that did a good job of raising awareness within supply chain by showing the potential savings. We still have plenty to do but the key processes and tools will ready by summer and we focus on the next horizon line - The delivery of Level 2 BIM. We have also challenged ourselves with the question - Has it been successful? We currently see 10 billion pounds worth of public sector projects in the pipeline with Level 2 BIM maturity. Once these come into production, I believe we will be able to prove the success. I am happy with the added value we have offered the industry. Supply chain collaboration is improved, risk is reduced and we are reforming construction – Making a genuine difference to digitize it while making advancements and innovations in technology. I am convinced the government mandate has helped accelerate the pace. We have heard internationally how the UK has been audacious in its approach. There are now whole projects that have the vision ‘Digitally Built Britain’ and we continue with the journey plan. We have been going through one of the most significant and disruptive changes by design. We are creating new ways of working. We all now work globally. We need to share information right across the globe. We need the technologies and the processes that clients want. We are no longer a single team working alone in an office. It’s about sharing information readily and globally”. It is interesting also hear what our key customers think about the forthcoming changes in the UK. We asked Balfour Beatty and Mace for their thoughts on what COBie means to them and their business. Peter Trebicock, BIM & Design Programme Director, Balfour Beatty said the following: “COBie means a lot to me in our business. Our public sector clients want to capture their building asset data and COBie is an excellent ways of doing this. Fifty percent of our work is for public projects and it is important we have

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 4 8

satisfied customers and BIM offers us this on such projects. The better the data, the happier the client with improved asset management. We have gone as far as identifying sixty benefits of BIM. The three main benefits are these. Projects now have more clarity and clarity offers us reduced costs, reduced programming times and reduced rework. These in turn lead to cost savings and increased client satisfaction”. We also interviewed Philippe Sauvageot, Principal Architect & BIM Champion of Mace “COBie to me is a structured data set. It ensures data is provided in a common format that can be used to hand over data at the end of the projects. In our public sector projects, we have invested so our project teams understand the government BIM mandate and we have trained our staff to deliver a ‘soft landing’ on forthcoming BIM public sector projects”. David Jellings, Solibri UK’s Managing Director concludes, “From the Solibri side, we see COBie as an opportunity and a challenge – it is simply a way of capturing asset data at the time it is created and COBie is a way of sharing that data back to an asset manager in a consistent and standardized way. You can now better manage and compare similar things in similar geographic locations. We are ensuring data quality in a model and if the model is correct and has the correct COBie compliant data, we can simply map that in a COBie format. COBie makes absolute sense and we expect COBie to evolve in the big data environment of tomorrow. It will be a more integrated database system and that will link to a multitude of applications for facility management and ongoing support for the maintenance of a building. We can ensure the data captured in COBie in 2016 or 2020 is the correct data and that will be a big help to our customers”. RUSSELL ANDERSON

AUTOCODES PHASE III – CALIFORNIA DREAMING

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 0

U S AU TO C O D ES P H AS E I I I

I L L U S T R AT I O N M I K K O V Ä Y R Y N E N

he AutoCodes Project continues to make steady progress while expanding the areas of focus and coverage. Phase III will continue until September 2016, when we plan to move the project to a new organizational structure. Currently, the Project operates under the Fiatech organization, which has served as an excellent forum for the past 4+ years to interact with owners and technology enthusiasts. Fiatech has provided a business incubator environment that has fostered a very collaborative approach to applying technology to address significant industry issues. During the first two phases of the project we made excellent progress in building a methodology for addressing BIM-based code compliance. We executed a successful proofof-concept program; developed protocols for model authoring and developed a Process Transformation Course to educate and assist plan review organizations as they evolve from paper-based processes to a 2D/BIM-based digital review process. At the time of this writing, more than 600 professionals have attended this training, in the US. While the previous phases have been largely theoretical or conceptual, in order to establish and confirm the seriousness and scope of the challenge, the goal of Phase III is to focus on implementation and real-world usage. This is an exciting undertaking as we continue to encounter people, and organizations, that are extremely interested in extending the benefits of BIM. Our goals for Phase III build upon the work that was started previously, but also include some very specific areas of focus. Goal 1 – As noted in the previous Solibri Journal, we have shifted our International Building Code focus to the 2012 version, rather than 2009. In addition to the IBC requirements, we are also now expanding our matrix (M3) to include the California Building Code (CBC) for 2013. This is a significant effort, as it requires the identification of the differences that exist between the two Code versions. Goal 2 – Pilot Project in the Healthcare Industry with the active assistance of multiple industry partners. This project will focus on a single floor of a hospital, and will serve as

CA L I F O R N I A

Capital City: Sacramento Size: 158,706 square miles (3rd largest state) Population: 37,679,000 Nickname: The Golden State

an affirmation of the capabilities of Solibri Model Checker (SMC) to verify and validate the information within the model, and compliance with the CBC. Participants include the project owner (Kaiser Permanente), their design partner (SmithGroupJJR), the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and Solibri LLC. OSHPD is the review authority for ALL healthcare projects in the state of California. Goal 3 – Engaging with the US Access Board and delivering the ability to check for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA). While SMC has included some rules for checking compliance with some basic ADA/ABA requirements, we have made this a priority in Phase III. This is a very important focus area for us, as ADA/ABA compliance is mandatory in the US, and non-compliance is usually addressed with a formal complaint, and very often, litigation. Goal 4 – Continuing to make improvements in the Digital Transition course and sharing the course at more industry forums. This course has been very well received and we need to keep the information fresh and easy to access. While this recap is relatively short, the scope of the content is enormous. We will continue to keep you updated as we move forward in Phase III. These are very exciting times and the issue of inconsistent and seemingly random manual reviews is well documented. We don’t have to convince people there is a problem, we just need to show them that SMC can be a critical ingredient of the solution. JONATHAN WIDNEY

President of Solibri LLC

5 1 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

TECHNOLOGY TIME

A JOURNEY TO BIM MODEL VALIDATION E A R LY ST E PS TOWA R D S VA L I DAT I O N

In early 2013 Bond Bryan Architects invested in a single network license of Solibri Model Checker. We had recognised that validation of information was going to be critical to the future of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in both our own business and the industry. We began by testing a few of our models and quickly realised that we needed to do more work implementing standards within our models before we could develop a viable model checking approach. So during the summer of 2013 we spent a lot of time focussed on the integration of emerging industry standards in our authoring tool. At the same time the BIM overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work became available (which was subsequently published as the RIBA Plan of Work 2013). So in September 2013 we introduced new authoring tool templates to our staff for use on live projects. These templates focussed on greater data integration and moved away from creating and exporting native data fields to using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data, which is covered by ISO 16739:2013. Moving to IFC also allowed us to align our data deliverables with COBie-UK-2012. COBie is a subset of IFC and is the non-graphical data deliverable for all UK Government projects from April 6th 2016 and is at the core of Solibri Model Checker (and its free accompanying viewer). So we knew that aligning with open international standards would provide us with the best methodology for validating our data and subsequently using it for other workflows. B U I L D I N G VA L I DAT I O N WO R K F LOWS

So six months after introducing our new workflows we were starting to get better models.

RO B JAC KS O N

Rob Jackson of Bond Bryan Architects is helping to set uniform standards for the construction industry.

With this improvement in our authored models, it allowed us to return to Solibri and work on developing a matching set of rules to the authored model standards. Having spent a long time understanding the data we were creating building a set of rules was more straightforward. Our whole approach has been built around the RIBA Plan of Work 2013, BS1192:2007 (and subsequently PAS1192-2:2013) and COBie-UK-2012. As a practice we are keen to integrate as much of COBie as possible, irrespective of whether we are asked for it. We have always believed that standard BIM deliverables should become the ‘new norm’ over time rather than something that is additional to our services. Whilst we were building our model validation rules for Solibri, a new version of our authoring tool, Graphisoft ArchiCAD was released. This version allowed us to automate much of our data creation through mapping. Changes were also made to make the workflows simpler for staff. This immediately offered the opportunity to integrate more information as standard. This meant that the validation process could be more specific and therefore more robust. So in September 2014 we finally rolled out our company rulesets for Solibri Model Checker to be used in anger on our new live projects. T H E RU L E S E TS

Built to align with industry standards but coupled with a clear understanding of what data we should produce at each stage, the rulesets are split for each RIBA workstage. This means the user can focus solely on the set of rules they are required to pass at each stage. As much is automated, many of these rules will be passed with very little effort. We actually split out a lot of the out-of-the-box rules to create a longer list. This meant that users would see that they had passed an awful lot and not be daunted by the fact that a rule had failed because one aspect had failed within a single rule. Splitting the rules also allowed us to make the descriptions simpler and clearer and add information about where to fix the rules if they do fail. The advantage of this approach also means that a clear report can be provided to others about what has and hasn’t passed. We now have a number of projects that have implemented our rules. Instantly users

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 2

B O N D B R YA N A R C H I T E C T S / U K

RIBA STAGE 1

No input required

are surprised at the power of the issues Solibri picks up. Things they thought were thoroughly checked manually throw up issues. It becomes a positive challenge to resolve these issues rather than a chore. As we have used the rules more we have realised that further rules need to be added or existing ones tweaked.

produce Information Take-off. Our project models have become business development tools in their own right to some sceptical contractors. Many are amazed about the quality of the information we are now starting to output and they are realising what our approach can bring to make their lives easier.

T H E B E N E F I TS

N E XT S T E PS

Clearly model checking has obvious benefits to the quality of traditional outputs. Ensuring that spaces don’t have duplicate numbers means there is no chance of duplicated Room Data Sheets and it’s a similar story for duplicated window and door numbers. The benefit of this becomes more pronounced on bigger or more complex projects. So our outputs are more reliable compared to manual processes. We are also using Solibri to check our 3-dimensional models against others models such as Structure and Building Services. These models are being used in coordination meetings to discuss the resolution of issues. This is allowing issues to be resolved faster and removing the need to resolve these issues on site. This reduction in risk has an obvious cost benefit to contractors and ultimately to clients. However the benefits of integrating data and being able to validate it is that our information is more reliable for others to use. It can be used for COBie but it can also be used to 01. INSTRUCTION

So now in 2015 we have 3 licenses (with more planned) and are now only a year away from ‘BIM Level 2’ becoming required on all publicly procured projects. As a practice we are already seeing projects requiring COBie and we started our first projects, which formally required COBie in January 2015. Our model rulesets and Solibri’s COBie functionality are making this process relatively straightforward. Live projects are providing more valuable learning experiences and our processes will continue to evolve. 2015 will also see the publication of the Digital Plan of Work and updated Uniclass classification system. Both these will need us to develop our approach further and we also plan to introduce more checking for the extended requirements of BS1192-4:2014, NRM1 and the NBS BIM Object Standard. So over the summer we plan to further develop both our authoring approach and our matching validation process. September 2015 will be another step forward and the opportunity to further improve our offering. ROB JACKSON

RIBA STAGE 4 Project info

Associate Director Digital Solutions

02. CONTACT Additional info added to components

Bond Bryan Architects bimblog.bondbryan.com @bondbryanBIM

RIBA STAGE 1 RIBA STAGE 3 Project info (Project, site & building) & IFC Manager for Building Classification)

03. FACILITY

Additional info added to spaces

Storey Settings & IFC Manager

04. FLOORS

08. TYPES

Zone Stamp

05. SPACES

07. COMPONENTS

Walls, doors, slabs etc.

06. ZONES

09. SYSTEMS

IFC Magager > IFC System

IFC Magager > IFC Zone

5 3 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

TECHNOLOGY TIME

BETTER TRAINING MAKES BETTER USERS

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 4

I M P O R TA N C E O F T R A I N I N G / A U S T R I A

Albert Speer & Partner ZT GmbH, Pichler & Traupmann Architekten ZT GmbH and Züblin are just a few names of companies I visited last year in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Being a trainer of the Vienna based A-NULL Bausoftware I trained huge construction companies, big and small architectural offices, engineering offices and public authorities: All of them were tremendously interested in Solibri Model Checker. Some companies booked program and training as a package immediately. Others needed to experience the benefits of Solibri Model Checker for their daily work themselves before deciding. Training is the ideal setting to show solutions for almost any question. At the end everybody was satisfied to have participated in one of my trainings. What I have learnt from my clients is that once they get to know the program they are convinced of its potential for their company - small or big, private or public. What are the main benefits of Solibri Model Checker? Overall the feedback of our clients is very similar: presentation - checking - communication. P R ES E N TAT I O N

Solibri Model Checker offers you the possibility to take a look at different models of the various specialist plannings in ONE software and to coordinate these models. CHECKING

Solibri Model Checker is THE tool to spot mistakes fast and clear and therefore the basis for decisions on the next steps in projects. It is easily adjustable to your needs - your working processes and office standards.

I L L U S T R AT I O N J A N N E H Ä N N I N E N

C O M M U N I CAT I O N

Solibri Model Checker stands for easy and efficient communication. Due to the BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) it can be applied comprehensively in 3D software. You send your questions on the project directly into the programs of your specialist planners. By the end of the training users and executives are convinced of the possibilities and potential of Solibri Model Checker for their company.

Which leaves just two questions: How fast can we use and integrate Solibri Model Checker in our projects? How do we implement it perfectly into our quality management and working processes? J U S T S TA RT A N D K E E P T H R E E S T E PS I N M I N D.

First of all and most importantly is the implementation in your company. Everybody on the project team has to follow the office standards of modeling and structuring a project. Therefore you will define the standard rules in Solibri Model Checker and adjust them to your individual needs. Secondly, now you are ready to start checking the qualities and quantities - like measures or compulsory space in front of doors. Subsequently, you can continue checking the integrality of the models: analyse the escape routes and verify if the models comply with statutory and compulsary standards. Right after these three steps your company is able to secure the quality of models in no time. On that basis it is advisable to secure the internal quality and the quality of all partners involved. Finally you set up the project with all the information and data you need in the project or to be generated out of the project. That will give you an easy to handle overall control of the project at all times. Following these steps secures high quality standards for your company on the long run. The short time spend in a training and with the implementation of the program will pay off quickly. Your decision for Solibri Model Checker is a decision for efficiency and high quality. HANNES ASMERA

DAC H

DACH region comprises of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The combined regional population is 97.8 million people.

H A N N E S AS M E R A

Hannes Asmera is helping to lead the BIM adoption in Austria. In this article, we here how good training helps new customers how to better utilize all the features of Solibri Model Checker.

5 5 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

YOUR WORLD MADE EASIER Over the years, we have met a range of Solibri users. Our customers range from small architectural firms to global construction companies. SMC provides them all with the latest model checking features for Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC). Simply put, we help BIM to successfully integrate into the workflow. Whether it be a huge hospital complex or a housing development, you can trust Solibri to support the successful and cost efficient construction of a building. We have also noticed that our customers use Solibri in a multitude of ways. For most, model checking is key. For others, information take off or accessibility is their focus. It is for this reason that we have added the Tips and

Tricks section to solibri.com. There’s always more that can be done with SMC. As a SMC user, we ask you to take a moment to check these pages. You will find a range of new ideas how SMC can do more to support you in the workflow. Try them and the world of BIM just got easier. Each page has a link to a website where you can dig deeper into each feature set. So sit back and let Solibri do all the work. It’s why we use the market slogan - Solibri: Model Checking for Quality. Regards, THE SOLIBRI TEAM

TIPS&TRICKS

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 6

FIND ALL THE HELPFUL GUIDES & TUTORIALS SOLIBRI.COM /CATEGORY /TIPS-TRICKS

5 7 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

MODEL STAN SOLIBRI QUALITY APPROVED

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5 8

TO THE DARD 7 out of 10 is a pretty nice number 7 out of the top 10 Dutch construction companies use Solibri 7 out of 10 top Nordic construction companies use Solibri 7 out of 10 top Finnish construction companies use Solibri Solibri has had a 40 % growth in customers since 2013

5 9 –– S O L I B R I J O U R N A L

E D I TO RS L E T T E R

RUSSELL ANDERSON

Editor in Chief/Solibri Brand & Marketing Director.

Editor in Chief Russell Anderson explains why he’s banking on BIM Thank you for taking time to read this year’s Solibri Journal. It’s been a year since our last edition. This spring I had the pleasure to spend time in Stockholm interviewing various customers. We discussed their projects and how Solibri helped them in their daily work. It was great to hear that one customer could rest easy by using our software. Another had a ‘war room’ filled with interactive screens and boards stuffed with multi-colored sticky notes. From here, he leads the BIM co-ordination for the construction of a new major banking HQ. He literally was ‘banking on BIM’ to deliver the project on budget and on time. This year we have more customer stories and it continues to grow. It seems BIM now has

the momentum in many markets. I also see a sense of empowerment that model checking offers our customers. They can better deliver what was expected from them by using Solibri with Quality Assurance and Quality Control. As I write this, our senior developer has just walked past with a 3D headset in his hands. He is helping to lead our cloud development and is playing with new technologies to see what they could mean for Solibri users. I am as interested as you to see what the future holds. Either way, those that use BIM are not going back to the old ways. Technology evolves and so do our expectations of what it can do for us. Arthur C Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Right now that’s what I feel about the future when I hear what our development team has planned for Solibri Model Checker. If you wish to share any great stories and experiences, you can reach me at marketing@ solibri.com Yours, RUSSELL ANDERSON – Solibri

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 6 0

C R E D I T S & C O N TA C T S

C R E D I TS

Editor in chief Russell Anderson Contact marketing@solibri.com Creative Direction Agency Leroy

O F F I C ES & C O N TACTS

Headquarters Solibri Inc. Itälahdenkatu 21A 00210 Helsinki Finland Phone: +358 10 548 6800 Fax: +358 10 548 6806 info@solibri.com

Sales +358 10 5486809 sales@solibri.com

Solibri USA Solibri LLC 17470 N. Pacesetter Way Scottsdale, Arizona 85255 USA Phone: +1 480 305 2120 Fax: +1 480 945 9820 info-us@solibri.com

Solibri UK Solibri UK Ltd Queen Anne House, 35 Oxford Street, Newbury RG14 1JG, UK +44 (0) 844 854 9250 info-uk@solibri.com

Sales +1 480 305 2120 sales-us@solibri.com

Sales +44 (0) 844 854 9250 sales-uk@solibri.com

Solibri Germany info-de@solibri.com Sales sales-de@solibri.com

A BYG O N E E R A

The architectural office of today has banished paper to the waste bin.