Collaboration par excellence

Example: Hasselt City Hall, Belgium — The building of the new municipal administration center in Hasselt, Belgium, demonstrates how seamless collaboration in building projects can minimize risks and save costs from the design phase all the way to commissioning.
A joint project of several brands of the Nemetschek Group.
Nemetschek brands involved: Allplan, GRAPHISOFT, Solibri

Pioneering planning and project execution with Open BIM

“The end-to-end use of BIM solutions constitutes genuine added value for all stakeholders in the building process
because it enables seamless and efficient collboration”
Steven Hendrickx, Head Architect in Hasselt

Large-scale, highly complex building projects in particular require ongoing, reliable and efficient coodination between all stakeholders – both internal and external – across disciplines and between companies. Therefore, in association with other market players, the Nemetschek Group is promoting the Open BIM data standard. This is a universal, collaborative approach to designing, constructing and operating buildings based on open standards and workflows It makes it possible for project stakeholders to collaborate, even if the type of software varies from user to user. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) interface has established itself as an open standard and is therefore of central significance.

Sharing and evaluating data throughout the entire product life cycle saves time and money and improves quality. The administration of data is key to this digital transformation, for it is only possible to take full advantage of the potential if each stakeholder can access the data that he or she needs at any given time. This begins with a realistic BIM building model, which is an essential prerequisite for a genuine 5D workflo. This model is no longer limited to just 3D construction data; it also includes data concerning the dimensions of time and costs.

Seamless collaboration exemplified by the Hasselt City Hall

Under the management of the architect team comprising Jaspers-Eyers, MASS Architects and Michel Janssen, a new municipal administration center is being built in Hasselt. The complex, consisting of a renovated building section and a new building, provides approx. 17,000 m2 for the city administration and social services as well as offices. The architects and their most important partners are using Open BIM software solutions for the entire construction process. Three Nemetschek solutions are being implemented for this project: Archicad from Graphisoft for the design and planning of the architects, Allplan Engineering for civil engineering, and the Solibri Model Checker for the BIM quality control carried out by the construction company.

From the beginning, all information concerning the building project is contained in the digital building model – from the draft to implementation – including all design details, desired materials, fire protection requirements, acoustic properties, insulation and building structures, and administration. This constitutes considerable added value for all stakeholders compared to the old standard model, which was purely 3D. Thus, this improvement ensures more than just seamless collaboration between all those involved. The complex project can be turned over to the municipality – the proud building owner – with the required quality, on time and within the specified budget.

Hasselt City Hall is groundbreaking – in terms of design, planning and project implementation.

Independent and yet consistent

Steven Hendrickx, the head architect in Hasselt, recognized four decisive factors with Open BIM over the course of the successful project:

  • Individual partners design their model with their preferred BIM software, and with their own templates. Outstanding collaboration is ensured, though, thanks to a common, uniform standard which is specified in advance.
  • The division of labor is defined at the beginning of the project. Data on statics, for instance, have an essential impact on the architecture and structural design. Data on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, on the other hand, are also important but don’t generally flow directly into the architecture. These data, for example, can be sufficiently analyzed with the BIM solution for quality assurance from Solibri.
  • Design changes in one area don’t necessarily affect the plans of all the others involved in the project. The architecture and the building stage are inherently the most closely linked.
  • The expertise of the staff, i.e., extensive holistic knowledge of the various building disciplines, is also critical for the success of the project.

Two examples of the advantage of precise planning

In Hasselt, the construction company was commissioned with excavation, among other tasks. An assessment of the amount of sand that needed to be removed was done based on a cal culation using conventional 2D planning methods, which yielded a result of 800 cubic meters. The engineers used the Solibri Model Checker based on Open BIM and the data provided by the architects and arrived at a figue that was just half this amount, i.e., 400 cubic meters of sand. This shows how exact the work with Open BIM solutions can be.

The steel struts to be installed are another example: With the interface function IFC Exports from Allplan, it was possible to use the BIM model to automatically calculate which steel struts needed fieproofing. All it took was a mouse click to obtain precise results, right down to the running meter. In projects that don’t use Open BIM solutions, these calculations are made by manually entering the data from 2D drawings in Excel or some other software and then recalculating and evaluating the data for use in quotations and planning, a process that is susceptible to error and one that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. These errors often go undetected until the actual cost planning is already completed. In the case of the Hasselt City Hall,  it was possible to avoid such errors from the outset.

Converting to Open BIM pays off

As is the case with any change, it takes a certain amount of time for companies and employees to accept BIM as the norm. The best way, according to Steven Hendrickx, is to start out by planning smaller projects using BIM. The experience thereby gained will make it possible to complete successively larger BIM projects. The advantages of collaborating through Open BIM are obvious: The entire workflow is much simpler for all project stakeholders, and building projects are completed within time and cost budgets.

CONCLUSION

Consistent standards and open interfaces in par-ticular are essential for successful building projects. Stakeholders need solutions that can “work together” for all and any individual tasks being performed. Seamless collaboration between humans and machines: This is ensured with Open BIM, and backed by the brands of the Nemetschek Group.

Reference projects on this topic:

Nemetschek acquires leading BIM specialist Solibri

Solibri Corporate News Brand News News Company News

  • Solibri is the market leader in quality assurance and quality control for Building Information Modeling (BIM), the digital work method in the construction industry
  • High-level strategic fit and significant extension of Nemetschek’s solution portfolio for design and building processes
  • Considerable growth opportunities as a result of increasing focus on BIM standards required for public sector building projects worldwide

Munich/Helsinki, December 18, 2015 – Software provider Nemetschek AG (ISIN 0006452907) has agreed today to acquire 100% of the shares of Solibri Oy, based in Helsinki, Finland. Nemetschek was able to successfully beat several potential buyers because of its group structure with an independent brand offering.

Solibri is a globally leading and internationally aligned provider of software solutions for the quality assurance and quality control of Building Information Modeling (BIM), the digital work method for designing, constructing and operating buildings. The “Solibri Model Checker” validates that BIM models in particular are compliant in terms of integrity, quality and country-specific standards throughout the whole design and building processes. The evaluation of entire projects according to logical analysis rules which detect errors is unique worldwide. Solibri – like all the brands of the Nemetschek Group – is a proponent of open standards (Open BIM) and enables the application of building-relevant information via open interfaces across all stages in the building process.

Solibri was founded in 1999 and has around 35 employees. In addition to its headquarters in Helsinki, the company has branches in the US and UK and sales organizations in Spain and Germany. For the 2015 financial year, Solibri anticipates revenue amounting to just under EUR 5 million, an increase of more than 50% compared to the previous year. An operating margin (EBITDA margin) of more than 20% is expected for 2015.

The fixed component of the purchase price of the acquisition amounts to EUR 32 million. Financing is through the taking out of a loan. This is supplemented by earn-out components, which are linked to the increase in revenue and to profitability in the financial year of 2017. According to today’s perspective, earn-out payments amounting to approx. EUR 13 million are forecast. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

Perfect strategic addition

Strategically, Solibri is very significant for the further development of the Nemetschek Group. The solutions are a perfect complement; they will have a central position in the Nemetschek Group’s solution portfolio and connect all brands and their products by means of an integrated and holistic workflow. In addition, Solibri already has a high degree of presence in the building sector, which will reinforce customer access for the Nemetschek Group in this strongly growing market. Solibri targets clients across the entire AEC industry life cycle, e.g. construction companies, general contractors, architects, engineers and building owners. Sales are made directly as well as via a network of resellers. Today the solutions are already being sold worldwide.

“The acquisition of Solibri has been consistent with our acquisition strategy in the AEC industry and greatly strengthens our global position as a leading provider of Open BIM solutions. With the support of the Nemetschek Group, Solibri will continue to pursue its international growth strategy and benefit from our global customer access,” comments Patrik Heider, CFOO and Spokesman of the Nemetschek Group. “In Solibri we see a strongly growing company which will strategically strengthen our solution portfolio.”

Solibri, in turn, will profit from a strong group with an international sales focus and direct access to a growing customer base with more than 1.8 million users worldwide. “Synergies with the Nemetschek brands pave the way for further successful growth. I am convinced that we are an excellent fit for the Nemetschek Group and that we will benefit considerably from one another and further reinforce our market position,” says Heikki Kulusjärvi, CEO of Solibri.

Strong growth impulses as a result of BIM standards

Adherence to BIM standards for publicly financed building projects is a much-discussed topic worldwide as compliance becomes increasingly required by governments and public authorities. With the comprehensive application of BIM regulations, the demand for Solibri solutions is growing since they perform the required quality checks and improve processes. This results in considerable advantages in terms of cost and efficiency as well as a high degree of design reliability and transparency.

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