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:

The Nemetschek Group at BAU 2019 – twelve brands under one roof

Corporate News News Company News

Trade-fair focus: digital planning, Open BIM and the entire building life cycle

Munich, January 2019. On 14 January 2019, BAU 2019 will open its doors. Once again, large numbers will attend Europe's leading trade fair for architecture, materials and systems in Munich, with more than 2,100 exhibitors presenting themselves in the 18 exhibition halls. The Nemetschek Group will be present with twelve brands, all of them exhibiting in the newly-built Hall C5.

Since BAU was last held two years ago, two new exhibition halls have been built, rounding off construction of the entire trade-fair complex in Munich's Riem district. For BAU 2019, which is being held from 14-19 January, one of the two halls, Hall C5, will be entirely reserved for construction IT. Here awaiting trade visitors will be manufacturers and software solutions from the areas of project planning and project management, CAD and AVA, measuring technology and controlling. Digital planning with BIM will be one of BAU's core focuses, and one that visitors will repeatedly come across in the other halls and in the trade-fair's supporting programme. 

Driving forward the digital planning process with the BIM method
In Hall C5, the Nemetschek Group will exhibit a total of twelve brands. All the companies and their solutions will be located centrally in the exhibition hall and within a radius of around 30 metres. This will provide architects, interior designers, engineers, professional contractors and interested trade visitors with a unique opportunity to find out about the strengths of the represented brands within a short distance of each other. 

Regardless of the focal points set by each individual company, all the brands will pay particular attention to the holistic digital planning process. Thus, the Nemetschek Group and its subsidiaries are in an exceptional position to represent the complete building life cycle – from the initial design, visualization and complete planning with BIM, through the tendering, awarding and billing of construction works, to building operation and end-of-life recycling. 

Supporting the entire value creation chain in the construction sector
The Nemetschek Group has a special status in the construction sector, as Patrik Heider, Management Board Spokesman, explains: "Our strong brands and the Open BIM technology that each of them truly exemplifies mean that we are very well positioned internationally. With the Nemetschek Group we are able to cover the entire value creation chain in the construction sector and to offer our clients the best possible solutions for their tasks."

Bringing brands and software solutions closer to visitors
For the entire duration of the trade fair, the companies will present their products and solutions to an interested audience at the joint stand of the Nemetschek Group (Hall C5, Stand 121). The aim of this measure is to allow visitors to familiarise themselves with the strengths of the individual brands as well as those of the entire group. Presentations will be held daily from 10.30 to 17.00, on Friday 18.1.2019 until 16.30, and on Saturday 19.01.2019 until 15.00.

Here you will find detailed information about BAU 2019.

 

For further information about the company, please contact
Nemetschek Group
Tobias Rieger
Corporate Communication
+49 89 540459 251
trieger@nemetschek.com

 

About the Nemetschek Group
The Nemetschek Group is driving digitalization in the building sector. Our software helps architects, engineers, construction companies and building managers plan more proactively, exchange information securely and seamlessly, and collaborate more closely. This means that building and infrastructure projects can be executed more efficiently and sustainably. Thanks to the unique holding structure of the Nemetschek Group, its 16 strong brands can act as entrepreneurs close to the market, drive innovation and work closely with their 4 million customers worldwide. Founded by Prof. Georg Nemetschek in 1963, the Nemetschek Group today employs more than 2,500 experts. In Germany, the Group is the market leader for building information modeling (BIM) solutions. Listed on the stock market and noted in the TecDAX since 1999, in 2017 the company achieved revenues of 395.6 million euros and an EBITDA of 108.0 million euros.

 

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