BIM benefits for architects

Angela Spathonis Photo credit: Gensler Vignesh Kaushik Photo credit: Gensler

BIM software offers great advantages to the architecture, construction and engineering community. In this interview, Angela Spathonis, Principal and Managing Director of Gensler and Vignesh Kaushik, Regional Design Technology Director, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Greater China of Gensler tell us the benefits and the key challenges to its adoption.

SEAB: Can you briefly touch upon the benefits of BIM for architects?

Angela and Vignesh: Our increasingly complex world offers an ever-expanding number of factors to consider when designing. Environmental influences, constantly evolving business models, and a new generation of employees can all mean rapid change for the way space is used.

At Gensler, design is the heart of our offering, globally. The opportunity to develop solutions that are informed, purposeful, and compelling is the overriding reason why our architects have embraced integrated delivery so enthusiastically. Yet every project we design and implement with our clients is part of an ongoing relationship that is rooted in collaboration and trust. Our BIM models are designed to be digital twins of physical spaces, but they are also used to visualize and analyse the complex symphony of data created by the network –thereby serving as a tool to inform the future of spaces. Gensler’s predominant line of business involves architectural design projects which includes placing a great extent of building elements into a complete BIM model for virtual visualisation before project sign-off. Previously, this involved considerable manual efforts and also generated errors due to maximum human intervention. Using BIM, architects can deliver projects in a reduced time frame. Not only does this cut costs and resources, but architects are also able to accommodate clients with tight deadlines due to faster turnaround times. Additional benefits include round-the-clock design collaboration and quality control. It allows us to communicate design intent clearly to the client and collaborate with other stakeholders like structural and MEP engineers in real-time. This leads to reduced errors, inconsistencies and ensures predictable outcomes and highly reduced risk at the construction site.

SEAB: Can you share with us a notable project where you were able to present your BIM capabilities?

Angela and Vignesh: Design is the heart of Gensler’s offering, worldwide. The opportunity to develop solutions that are informed, purposeful, and compelling is the overriding reason why our design teams have embraced integrated delivery so enthusiastically. Yet every project we design and implement with our clients is part of an ongoing relationship that’s rooted in collaboration and trust.

The headquarters for Meta APAC is a landmark project that sets a new benchmark for Meta’s office projects globally. Located in Marina One in Singapore CBD, this project truly reflects Meta’s core values whilst incorporating the Singapore culture through its

Meta APAC Headquarters. Courtesy of Gensler. Photography by Owen Raggett.

design. The Gensler team used the Meta global workplace guidelines as the main framework and took design cues from Singapore’s urban structure for this multi-phase project by creating a series of neighbourhoods with supporting facilities within each neighbourhood. The design and documentation of this project was completed using BIM modelling software, which integrates the mechanical, electrical and structural components. This permitted early cost modeling and clash detection, keeping the project on budget and on schedule. Security was one of the client’s primary goals, so the structure’s materials project solidness and opaqueness throughout, reflecting the primary design concept: creating “a city within a city”. This project was achieved through the successful collaboration of many Gensler offices including Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, Sydney, Bangalore, San Francisco and Austin.

SEAB: What are the challenges in implementing BIM to a client’s project?

Angela and Vignesh: Gensler sees building architecture and designing spaces at a turning point. Wherever you look today, there is a desire for higher performance. Our architects have access to more innovative materials and technologies than were on the market even 10 years ago. The availability of sophisticated new building skins, systems, components, and strategies opens up an array of new possibilities when it comes to higher performance.

At the same time, the increasingly technical nature of building design means that project teams have to stay abreast of a burgeoning number of innovations – including the ways in which they collaborate with others in an increasingly integrated design and delivery process. All of this makes up-front research more critical than ever. We’re informing design thinking with analytical thinking. That’s changing the way that Gensler designs buildings and spaces.

The greatest departure from older practice involves energy modelling – computer simulation of building performance. While early generations of design software simply mimicked the process of designing by hand, building information modeling (BIM) enables designers to overlay threedimensional building information with climate and other site-specific data to predict how a building will perform over time. For example, a building can be analysed under scenarios for a year’s worth of weather conditions, yielding a valuable prediction of its actual performance.