Project Coventina: Part 2

Editors note: Chris is a Architectural designer at the UK based Architectural practice of Ellis Belk Associates ltd. and has over seen the BIM process of many large projects over his years as a professional in the AEC industry. He takes personal interest in the direction of BIM and is passionate about education and training in BIM to equip the future of our industry with valuable and desirable skills. You can connect with him on twitter where he often shares his thoughts on BIM as well as those around him.

Welcome to part two of the Coventina Project. In part one I started to explain the project in its entirety as well as some of the challenges to be expected at a modelling level. In part two I will explain the BIM delivery processes and associated problems, as well as what is driving the scheme onwards.

This project has a number of BIM delivery phases:

1) Planning Approval
2) Tender Stage One
3) Tender Stage Two
4) Bi-weekly model uploads
5) Construction finalisation
6) Handover phase

At the end of part one the project was being prepared for Planning submission. Understanding the requirements of the Planners was not too difficult, but their requests took communication and time. At the Planning submission/approval stages, the model was at a level of minimum detail; only showing rooms with associated data, generic sections, elevations, site level data, location and basic building details. One area of difficulty was the inclusion of curved roofs (requested by the Planners), however I have to say this is one of their better judgments. The curved roofs were simple in most places but proved challenging when curving in two directions. This requires some intermediate model authoring requirements, a basic roof element mixed with void cut extrusions in order to achieve the desired objective.

Had the project been undertaken in a years time, it would have been beneficial to apply the Construction Industry Councils (CIC)/BIM Task groups Digital Plan of Work (DPOW), but hindsight is a wonderful thing. DPOW is a way of bringing together all parties within a project in the digital sphere; it ensures information is delivered in accurate ways at the correct time. It is fair to say that this project has not been a smooth ride, due to the constantly changing understanding of what the buildings main objective is. When this project is finished many lessons will have been learnt which can will benefit similar/future schemes.

Completing a stage one tender and implementing the BIM process may not be familiar to many, however this is where team members must sit down and work out their design strategies. Knowing what information can be useful for contractors and providing clear design intent, will lead to accurate pricing compatibles.

Stage one tender is a process of co-ordination, consultation and production of information so that contractors can be invited to cost the project. In order for this to work for BIM, it is crucial that one must understand the required modelling methods. When I talk about modelling methods, I refer to what needs to be modelled in 3D, what is needed in hybrid (3D/2D), and what is needed in only 2D. e.g. Level of Development specification (LOD) 100-600.

There are very few times when you are lucky enough to work within an ideal situation if operating in the AEC industry, time, cost and various other restrictions will play a role in your project and therefore you must learn to work in an efficient manner. To combat this, the BIM process must include data drops, key information procurement and submission deadlines; the combination of these can help to ensure the team is kept up to speed.

A few days before the stage one submission process we acquired the Structural Engineers model, which enabled Ellis Belk to make some well-needed changes to the scheme.

See the image below for structural co-ordination model linked with architectural model.

In part three I will explain the benefits of weekly model uploads, stage two process and consultant co-ordination methodology and management.

To find out more about this project follow the link.

Until next time,
Chris.