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 holds its ground in times of crisis

Ad-hoc Corporate News Company News

  • Revenues of 150.4 million euros
  • EBITDA margin of 20.9 percent
  • Cash flow for period at 30 million euros

Munich, February 18, 2009 – Nemetschek AG (ISIN 0006452907), Europe’s largest vendor of software for architecture, civil engineering and the building industry, managed to hold its ground in the last fiscal year despite the worldwide economic crisis and grew profitably in 2008 too. According to the provisional figures, revenues increased by 2.9 percent from 146.2 million euros to 150.4 million euros and are thus slightly higher than the most recently announced expectations.

Revenue growth in 2008 is largely attributable to sales in Germany, where the building industry managed to stay relatively stable. At 57.4 million euros, sales in Germany accounted for a third of overall revenues. The company achieved 39 percent of its revenues with long-term maintenance contracts. The consequences of the financial crisis first became noticeable in the last three months: in Q4, which is traditionally the strongest sales quarter, year-on-year revenues dropped by 4.6 percent from 43.4 million euros to 41.4 million euros.

EBITDA 31.4 million euros

The EBITDA in 2008 amounted to 31.4 million euros after 33.6 million euros in the previous year. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 20.9 percent after 23.0 percent 2007. In Q4 the EBITDA margin was 21.0 percent. The operating result (EBIT) was 21.0 million euros after 23.9 million euros in the previous year, the net income dropped from 15.3 million euros to 11.3 million euros. In particular, as a result of the drop in the interest level, the new market valuation of the interest rate swaps, which the company had entered into as part of the acquisition of Graphisoft, made a significant difference. This revaluation resulted in a one-time impact on interest of 2.5 million euros, which, however, did not have any effect on the cash flow.

The cash flow for the period is around 30 million euros and is thus at the same level as the previous year. The company managed to reduce the liabilities from the Graphisoft acquisition by more than half within two years. The debt now stands at 49.3 million euros. Nemetschek AG’s equity ratio increased from 33.7 to 39.7 percent.

In view of the uncertain global economic situation, the Managing Board will not provide a specific outlook. The complete annual report 2008 will be published on March 27, 2009.

Explanations

'Despite the economic downturn in the second half of the year we managed to increase our revenues and to cross the revenue threshold of 150 million euros for the first time in 2008,' says Ernst Homolka, CEO of Nemetschek AG. He added that the Nemetschek Group had survived the crisis largely unaffected to date but that from today’s perspective a sustainable forecast for 2009 could not be made and that the worldwide recession would also leave its mark on Nemetschek. However, the group had several strengths that would come to bear in the crisis. Among these were the comprehensive product portfolio and the broad customer base as well as the fact that the company achieved almost 40 percent of its revenues from long-term maintenance contracts. 'Nemetschek will definitely remain a significantly profitable company,' emphasized Homolka.

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