Entrant details
Role or Job Title on the Project
Project Manager Construction Technology
Employer
Byggstyrning, Stockholm, Sweden
Employer Role
Full Service Company (Design-Construct-Operate)
Are you or your employer a member of buildingSMART?
No
Submission details
Submitting Party Company Name
Byggstyrning
Submitting Party Company Location
Stockholm, Sweden
Submitting Party Role on Project
Project & Construction Manager
Submitting Party Company Website
Full Project Name
Celsius
Project Location (Country)
Sweden
Project Objectives
Build a new 12000 square meter advanced laboratory to be used as headquarter for Swedish Food Agency. Building to meet LEED platinum certification. Not only to be focused on the environmental impact during the operation of the building, but also under the construction phase. Be brave and dare to use the latest of proven modern technology and solutions to help outperform budget, schedule and quality goals.
openBIM Achievements
- Manage to bridge the gap between office and the field by empowering all workers with an openBIM-platform.
- BIM in the field for all workers, no traditional drawings produced.
- openBIM-model as the legal construction documents.
- 80 % less rework orders compared to projects that do not use OpenBIM-models.
- Used openBIM-models for procurement.
- Ordered materials from openBIM-models to site reduced transports by 80%.
- Construction firms enriched the openBIM-model with as-built data and documents for facility management use.
- All issues, inspections and quality checks connect with location in the openBIM-model for future reference when export as openBIM BCF-format.
openBIM used
IFC 2x3, BCF
openBIM or open standards used other than those listed above
BIP, Building Information Properties (Swedish national open industry standard on naming IFC Property sets, attributes and values.)
Software used
Revit, Navisworks, Autocad, Civil3D, Tekla Structures, ArchiCAD, Solibri, Rhino, SimpleBIM, StreamBIM, BIMcollab, BIMeye, BIM360 Design, Miro, Holobuilder, InsiteVR, Unity, Twinmotion.
Highlights
IFC models as legal construction document
90% built from IFC-models in IFC tablet applications in the field (StreamBIM)
80% fewer rework orders
All issues and communication is related to locations in model by BCF.
Workers ranks the project extremely high in communication
Weekly automatical export of IFC-models from native application to aggregated IFC-model in cloud (StreamBIM)
No paper allowed on site - complete digitized jobsite.
Jobsite Wi-fi.
Project Website
Project Address
Dag Hammarskjölds Väg 36B
752 37
Uppsala
Project Type
Institutional
Size of Project
12000 square meter, 7 floors, 48 million euro
Detailed description of the project
Celsius is a new advanced laboratory building built by the leading property owner, ‘Vasakronan’, in Sweden. The building is located in Uppsala Science Park, an area which is known for being one of Sweden’s most research intense and innovative areas. The building will mainly house the Swedish Food Agency, which is doing heavy research and testing in laboratory. The building is an entirely new construction and consists of 12 000 square meters divided 7 on floors.
# Project delivery
The design work started in 2017. In collaboration with the project management the owner choose the delivery method CM, “Construction Management”, for the construction phase. This enabled the whole project team to start excavation and foundation work meanwhile the design was in progress. Thanks to that the preparing of the site could be done during the design work the construction phase could be initiated already in early 2018. Different construction packages where then purchased as the design where more and more complete. The building is set to be finished in October 2020 which is 3 months earlier than what was originally schedule. Additionally, the project is estimated to be under budget. While time and cost savings are good, there has been no comprimising with saftey on site.
Vision
The owner wanted the new Celsius building to contribute and strengthen the innovation cluster in the area. Celsius should be a house to be proud of for both facility management, tenants as well as for engineers, designers and builders.
Vasakronan is progressive in its project requirements regarding environmental impact and energy consumption and goes beyond the requirements set by the government. However, the Celsius project team set the targets even higher and also developed a strategic vision, emphasizing bravery, for all participant within the project;
“Being brave is about a positive attitude and the power to act. To dare to ask, to dare to try new solutions and not to do as we have always done. Celsius should be at the forefront of proven modern technology and solutions. To be brave is to dare to make difficult decisions if they lead to a better whole. Celsius should be a role model and inspire visitors.”
Goals
From the vision the projects goals formulated as follow:
Innovation goals
-Model-based work in BIM with an unbroken information chain from design to construction to management.
-All parts of the process must be handled with information sustainability. Information is going to be handed over so that next person can reuse and continue work without recreating information.
Sustainability goals
-Sustainability is in mind in all parts of the project such as economy, environment, information, design and quality.
-In addition to achieving an environmental rating according to LEED Platinum, visible sustainability and innovation should be sought.
-Celsius shall be 50% below government requirements in offices regarding energy use.
-Waste during construction phase should be reduced by 5% compared to the reference project Hubben in Uppsala Science Park.
-All materials within the construction phase is going to be logged with EPD-measurement in BIM-model.
Detailed description of openBIM on the project
Overview
To fulfill the vision of an unbroken information chain and break the silos everyone understood that we needed new processes. We needed to integrate, collaborate, and connect our softwares that produce the construction documents. Only then can we streamline and automate most of the work so that we can stop using people as a manual data processors and start leverage the computers instead.
Design phase
To enable real time exchange of BIM-models between different firms during the design phase we used Autodesk BIM360 Design to “live-link” all Revit-files. To exchange BIM-models with firms using Tekla and ArchiCAD we setup an automated script in Revit to do an export of IFC 2x3 once a week nightly. From Tekla and ArchiCAD we exported IFC and stored it in BIM360 for live-linking to Revit. In this way everybody could work on the latest design in 3 different native BIM-applications with almost no human interaction.
BIM-models. The IFC-models where to be viewed as a replacement for traditional construction drawings. Therefore, the design team put a lot of effort in producing high quality models with accurate and quality checked information. By focus on quality in early design phase, where the information is born, it is possible to create high value for participants downstream. To check the quality of the models and ensure that the information being provided compiled to national standard BIP, we used a combination of Solibri and webbased IFC-validators.
Communication. To enhance the communication between stakeholders and designers we connected issues to the model through the BCF-format. With BCF-server BIMcollab we handled all issues in one place. Issues could be created in both native applications as well as in clash/data checking software Navisworks/Solibri. Each participant could use their software of choice and still collaborate on the same issues on the same platform. Thanks to the ease of communication through BCF we could find and solve more issues in the design then previously. Only during the design phase, we resolved over 1000 issues found by designers themselves.
Bidding phase
To get the best offers from bidders the project created attractive bid packages. The packages consisted of IFC-models with both 3D and information that showed exactly what was going to be built. With a specific custom Property-Set in the IFC-models we stored all the quality checked data. We also provided quantities that had been extracted from the IFC-models into spreadsheets using Solibri. By using the packages, the owner could be certain of that all the bidders used the same material when creating their progress proposals. This made it easy for the owner to evaluate and compare the different proposals. The bid packages also eliminated a heavy workload from the bidding firms as they could focus on construction complexities rather than calculating quantities. To be able to have as many bidders as possible we used openBIM-format so that bidders could use whatever software they preferred and start processing the data we provided. Some of the bidders imported the provided IFC-model directly to their bidding-software and could leap-frog others, which were shown in their proposal.
Construction phase
The construction phase is the most intense phase in the project in terms of economy, risk, safety, and amount of people. However, there are two main big challenges when using BIM in this phase. The first challenge regards the legal documentation, which traditionally are 2D-drawings. 2D-drawings can be interpreted differently, hard to take measure from and are time consuming to keep updated. The Celsius construction management team recognized the value of using high quality openBIM-models and in order to avoid the challenges that arises from 2D-drawings, Project Celsius took the bold move to put the IFC-model as the top legal document. Thanks to the IFC data schema being an ISO-standard, we could trust the format as a legal document. Knowing that different applications could view the information. Initially, we even discuss to print the IFC-model as text on paper, but agreed it was not necessary.
The second challenge is to get BIM to work out in the field with harsh environment and not so technology experienced workers. Thanks to our focus in having openBIM IFC-files we could test different applications on the construction workers to get their feedback. Thanks to openBIM there is now a lot of applications built around the standard to use. After an evaluation period with feedback from site workers we choose StreamBIM. By using agile processes when implementing StreamBIM together with the construction crew, we made sure they were provided with the information that they needed. Furthermore, we were able to, over time, tailor our models so that they in a higher degree met the needs of the site workers. This development was possible thanks to the flexibility in the IFC-format. Both for information by highlighting data in property-sets and 3D-objects.
To keep our openBIM application updated with the latest models we developed an automated process. IFC where exported nightly from Revit using RTV Tools plugin. After export, the IFC where automatically opened in SimpleBIM to be colored, sorted, split up and cleaned. Having structured data in the IFC from the native applications we could develop templates in SimpleBIM that could run routinely. SimpleBIM saved all IFC-files on a Sharepoint-server for version-tracking and where then pushed to StreamBIM. In this way we saved hours each week in data managing. Thanks to openBIM we could use a mobile application suited for site workers and have it updated automatically from native BIM authoring software - without human interaction. Making workers trust the BIM-model and happily use it.
Enhanced communication. All the administration tasks in the field have been performed in the StreamBIM application. This includes quality inspections, safety issues, rework orders, as-built documentation, control checklists, markups etc. All issues are BCF-compliant and are able to be exported and used for data process in other preferred softwares. For example, we are visualizing all safety issues monthly in power-BI. With BCF it is possible to export issues related to locations for future facility management systems to use for backtracking.
Benefits from using openBIM
Satisfaction
The owner uses the “PQi - project quality index” which performs surveys several times a year on how their project portfolio performs compared to the industry. The index includes both site workers and project office workers. Project Celsius is outstanding and in top of this index in all categories. The one thing that stands out is the high ranking in the category “site workers involvement and communication”. In the industry index this is almost always low. But not in project Celsius. The comments from workers are that they thanks to the mobile openBIM-application StreamBIM now can better understand the whole picture. By being able to navigate in the BIM-model on site they can make better decisions, plan and discover potential problem areas. Through communicating in the models, and even in the specific area that the comment refers to, miscommunication can be greatly decreased and workers experience that they are being understood to a greater extent. By inviting all workers to take part of the openBIM-platform they feel treated with respect and that their opinions and knowledge can be communicated, according to the surveys.
Construction quality
When using 2D-drawings there is a lot of guessing and one only see a limited amount of information. But by using the openBIM-models as the top construction documents there have been 80% less rework orders compared to a similar neighbor building built by the same owner built from traditional 2D paper drawings. The field workers says that they thanks to the ability to view the openBIM-models out on the site can build things in the right place from the beginning.
Time
The project has been ahead schedule during all the construction phase. A lot of time savings have been achieved thanks to the use of the openBIM-platform. The workers could be more productive due to clearer construction documents with BIM. Also the possibility to preform the time consuming administrative tasks in the field has contributed to that the project is ahead of schedule. Quality checks, inspections, request for information, photos etc. can be logged in the openBIM-model and communicated with ease thanks to BCF back to the project management and design team.
Cost
Project Celsius has, by using OpenBIM-models in both the procurement packages and during the construction managed to save time, reach higher productivity and lowered the amount of rework. This resulted in lower costs. The cost savings are currently estimated to be 5-10% of the initial budget.
Site Logistics
To have the openBIM-model as a base for ordering material the project has been able to do just in time deliveries, smarter truck loading and drop-off at the production area inside the building. Resulting in a reduction of site transports by 80% compared to neighbor construction. With lean location-based tagging in the openBIM-model it was possible to export ordering lists per location from Solibri.
"We were able to innovate using openBIM."
We could handle changed scope and quantities from contractors in a new innovative way. By comparing the contracted IFC-model with the latest IFC-version we could see all the changes and automatically generate cost. Saving alot of administrative time.
"We were able to identify where we need openBIM to develop further."
I agree to be contacted about the project BIM uses outside of this awards program.
Stakeholders
Byggstyrning, Stockholm, Sweden,
https://www.byggstyrning.se, Project manager & construction manager, Johannes Ris
Vasakronan, Stockholm,
https://www.vasakronan.se, Owner, Thomas Boström
