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Construction<br />
Computing<br />
WWW.CONSTRUCTION-COMPUTING.COM<br />
MAY/JUNE <strong>2022</strong><br />
VOL 18 NO 03<br />
Enscape 3.3<br />
Site Context places Enscape<br />
models in real environments<br />
Late payments<br />
What's the real impact -<br />
and how can you tackle it?<br />
BricsCAD BIM<br />
Bricsys delivers AI-assisted BIM<br />
Vectorworks Embodied<br />
Carbon Calculator<br />
Counting the cost of carbon<br />
emissions in design<br />
ALICE's adventures<br />
overground<br />
ArtificiaL Intelligence Construction<br />
Engineering for complex projects<br />
@<strong>CC</strong>MagAndAwards
Duke Ellington School of the Arts<br />
Architect: cox graae + spack architects / LBA Joint Venture<br />
Photo © Chris Ambridge<br />
ARCHICAD 25<br />
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or call 01895 527590
CONTENTS<br />
MAY/JUNE <strong>2022</strong><br />
CONTENTS<br />
A HEALTHY OUTLOOK FOR BIM 12<br />
3D Repo models can now be used to furnish<br />
all of the non-CAD trained specialists on a<br />
project with federated data relating to their<br />
specific needs<br />
COUNTING THE COST OF CARBON 16<br />
The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator<br />
(VE<strong>CC</strong>) has been designed to help architects<br />
and engineers reduce carbon emissions on<br />
their projects<br />
ALICE TECHNOLOGIES 18<br />
ALICE (ArtificiaL Intelligence Construction<br />
Engineering) is being used to supplement the<br />
'optioneering' of planners and project managers<br />
working on the most complex projects<br />
ENCAPSULATING ENSCAPE 24<br />
The latest version of Enscape adds new<br />
features requested by the Enscape community,<br />
including Site Context, which surrounds your<br />
rendered models with the local infrastructure<br />
NEWS.................................................INDUSTRY NEWS.......................................................................................................6<br />
• HERITAGE SKILLS TRAINING TO MARK PLATINUM JUBILEE • RESCAN VIEWER BASED ON ITWIN PLATFORM<br />
INDUSTRY FOCUS.............................LATE PAYMENTS.................................................................................................10<br />
• WHAT IS THE REAL IMPACT OF LATE PAYMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY, AND HOW CAN YOU TACKLE IT?<br />
CASE STUDY......................................H2PORTO...........................................................................................................14<br />
• HOW OPORTO WATER UTILITY DEVELOPED ITS TECH PLATFORM FOR URBAN WATER CYCLE MANAGEMENT<br />
CASE STUDY.....................................MAKING A MARK ON BIRMINGHAM’S MULTICULTURAL LANDSCAPE..........20<br />
• ARCHICAD PROVES INSTRUMENTAL IN CREATING A MODERN TAKE ON ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE<br />
INDUSTRY COMMENT.......................AHEAD IN THE CLOUD......................................................................................22<br />
• THE CONUNDRUM BETWEEN OWNERSHIP AND RISK WHEN USING CLOUD SERVICES<br />
SOFTWARE FOCUS...........................AI-ASSISTED BIM...............................................................................................26<br />
• BRICSCAD ULTIMATE USES AI TO AUTOMATICALLY PRODUCE LOD 200 BIM FROM CONCEPT MASSING MODELS<br />
CASE STUDY......................................PAPERLESS CONSTRUCTION...........................................................................28<br />
• HOW THE PAPERLESS CONSTRUCTION APP WAS UTILISED ON THE VAUXHALL BRIDGE REFURBISHMENT PROJECT<br />
INDUSTRY COMMENT.......................PLAYING CATCH-UP..........................................................................................30<br />
• HOW TO ENSURE MIINIMAL DISRUPTION WHEN INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGY TO A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS<br />
TRAINING MAP..................................AUTODESK TRAINING........................................................................................32<br />
• YOUR GUIDE TO AUTODESK TRAINING<br />
CASE STUDY......................................TAKING COMMAND WITH DIGITAL TWINS........................................................34<br />
• IES WORK WITH ORKNEY ISLANDS COUNCIL TO CREATE A BESPOKE DIGITAL TWIN COMMAND CENTRE<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 3
COMMENT<br />
Editor:<br />
David Chadwick<br />
(cad.user@btc.co.uk)<br />
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(abby.penn@btc.co.uk)<br />
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ian.collis@btc.co.uk<br />
Circulation/Subscriptions:<br />
Christina Willis<br />
(christina.willis@btc.co.uk)<br />
Publisher:<br />
John Jageurs<br />
john.jageurs@btc.co.uk<br />
Published by Barrow &<br />
Thompkins Connexion Ltd.<br />
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or any resulting effects<br />
Comment<br />
How artificial is intelligence?<br />
by David Chadwick<br />
We attach the term AI to just about<br />
everything that involves a bit of<br />
high-powered computing these<br />
days, which probably debases the process<br />
for most of us. Throw in some complex<br />
algorithms to handle a problem deemed too<br />
complicated for the unaided human brain to<br />
handle and you end up with an application<br />
which is happily described as AI driven.<br />
It's a fascinating subject. Intelligence, that<br />
is. Human intelligence is not that much<br />
different to machine intelligence. We start<br />
out in life with a clean slate and absorb<br />
experiences when we interact with real life<br />
and learn to integrate ourselves into society.<br />
We apply these lessons as we evolve and<br />
grow older, and maybe learning a little bit<br />
more as we do so - or not. These are the<br />
human algorithms that constitute our<br />
character or behaviour.<br />
So-called artificial intelligence works by the<br />
same rules, but the capacity to interact with<br />
a machine's surroundings is governed by<br />
the algorithms that direct its behaviour,<br />
supplemented by the data fed into its<br />
system by external processors, sensors and<br />
associated applications. A common<br />
example would be the control of an<br />
autonomous vehicle, which would normally<br />
be described as an AI process, but which is<br />
in fact no more than machine learning.<br />
Given the power and performance of<br />
current computers, the limits of machine<br />
learning are only bound by the ability of<br />
human beings to compile the algorithms<br />
that drive them. (That's going to stretch a<br />
couple minds when they attempt to develop<br />
algorithms to leverage the power of<br />
quantum computers).<br />
At what point, therefore, is machine<br />
learning superseded by artificial intelligence -<br />
and should we, at that point, discard the<br />
term and call it 'autonomous intelligence'<br />
instead? Is this where the software outgrows<br />
its reliance on algorithms developed by<br />
humans and begins to make decisions<br />
based on its own calculations and research?<br />
I was tempted to consider the level of<br />
intelligence, artificial or otherwise, by talking<br />
to the two companies that feature the<br />
technology in this issue - Bricsys and ALICE<br />
Technologies. The Bricsys article looks at<br />
the benefits that AI has brought to the<br />
development of its architectural design<br />
software and the creation of fully articulated<br />
BIM models from basic 3D models.<br />
BricsCAD BIM uses AI techniques to<br />
automatically upgrade the properties of<br />
components in a model to attain BIM Levels<br />
of Development.<br />
In the early stages of its development, the<br />
software was given the task of 'learning'<br />
what buildings consist of - roofs, walls,<br />
windows, etc. - and how they interacted.<br />
After many iterations a series of steps were<br />
developed and applied in BriscCAD BIM.<br />
Using the techniques enables one<br />
command, BIMify, to attach properties to<br />
building elements on their way to becoming<br />
full BIM components. A couple of other<br />
unique routines within BricsCAD BIM<br />
leverage the model components aided by<br />
the software's other modelling tools to<br />
complete the process.<br />
ALICE Technologies uses AI at a different<br />
level. Preplanning for bidding or developing<br />
construction schedules on major projects is<br />
incredibly complex and involves a wide<br />
range of options that must be considered -<br />
way beyond the capabilities of planners or<br />
project managers. The job has been divided<br />
between human beings who build the<br />
'recipes' that define the options, and the<br />
computer that performs the huge numbers<br />
of calculations involved, using algorithms to<br />
compare the millions of options that have<br />
been specified and quantified, producing<br />
schedules and materials usage that satisfies<br />
the submitted criteria.<br />
In both cases, the AI element was used to<br />
supplement the human input. What level of<br />
intelligence would you ascribe to each?<br />
4 <strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
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INDUSTRY news<br />
HERITAGE SKILLS TRAINING TO MARK JUBILEE<br />
The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum<br />
Jubilee Commonwealth<br />
Heritage Skills Training<br />
Programme - the largest ever<br />
Commonwealth heritage project<br />
- has been launched by<br />
the Hamish Ogston Foundation<br />
and the Commonwealth<br />
Heritage Forum. The charities<br />
have been granted the rare<br />
honour of naming the five-year<br />
programme in honour of the<br />
Sovereign, thus recognising<br />
Her Majesty's seventy years of<br />
service to the peoples of the<br />
Commonwealth.<br />
The programme, which was<br />
launched at Marlborough<br />
House, home of the Commonwealth<br />
Secretariat, in the presence<br />
of Baroness Scotland,<br />
the Commonwealth Secretary-<br />
General, will help Commonwealth<br />
countries to develop<br />
the range of specialist skills<br />
needed to protect valuable<br />
heritage sites. Over an initial<br />
five-year period, the programme<br />
will build capacity<br />
across the Commonwealth by<br />
training up to 600 people in a<br />
wide range of heritage skills<br />
from stonemasonry and joinery<br />
to mud brick and thatch.<br />
Through targeted on-site<br />
training projects, it will help to<br />
secure the future of up to<br />
twenty important, but threatened<br />
buildings and places<br />
across the Commonwealth.<br />
With £4.5m in funding provided<br />
by the Hamish Ogston<br />
Foundation, the Commonwealth<br />
Heritage Skills programme<br />
will be delivered by<br />
both UK and international partners,<br />
including The Prince's<br />
Foundation, the World Monuments<br />
Fund India and an international<br />
network of educational<br />
institutions.<br />
One of the first initiatives will<br />
be bursaries at The Prince's<br />
Foundation Summer School<br />
enabling trainees from different<br />
Commonwealth countries to<br />
develop their knowledge and<br />
understanding of traditional<br />
architecture, design and building<br />
techniques, and how these<br />
can be applied in the 21st<br />
century to repair and conserve<br />
historic buildings at risk. Other<br />
opportunities will include MA<br />
scholarships at The Prince's<br />
Foundation School of Traditional<br />
Arts, Commonwealth<br />
training fellowships and online<br />
courses covering up to twenty<br />
core heritage skills.<br />
The initial focus will be on the<br />
Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent<br />
with countries including<br />
Antigua and Barbuda,<br />
Jamaica, Barbados and India<br />
benefiting in the first tranche of<br />
projects supported.<br />
www.commonwealthheritage.org<br />
CAUSEWAY TECHNOLOGIES ACQUIRES YOTTA<br />
Causeway Technologies<br />
has acquired Yotta, a<br />
global provider of connected<br />
asset management software<br />
and services, from AIM-listed<br />
Oxford Metrics plc. Yotta<br />
serves over 200 customers<br />
worldwide, providing software<br />
to assist in the management<br />
of more than 35 million physical<br />
assets and related services,<br />
including highways,<br />
street lighting and waste management.The<br />
acquisition<br />
marks another vital step on<br />
Causeway's journey to digitise<br />
XMAP, the municipal GIS,<br />
now includes ratings of<br />
property energy performance to<br />
help local authorities tackle climate<br />
change, improve housing<br />
standards and ensure private<br />
landlords comply with legislation.<br />
The Energy Performance<br />
Certificate (EPC) data layer,<br />
which uses a rating system<br />
similar to that used on new<br />
appliances, will also allow tenants<br />
and house buyers to make<br />
informed decisions helping<br />
them reduce household carbon<br />
emissions and respond to the<br />
escalating cost of living crisis.<br />
EPCs show how energy efficient<br />
a building is ranging from<br />
A (very efficient) to G (inefficient)<br />
and are a legal requirement<br />
when a property is built,<br />
sold or rented. In addition to a<br />
colour coded visualisation of<br />
the processes that underpin<br />
the construction and maintenance<br />
of infrastructure assets.<br />
Phil Brown, chief executive of<br />
Causeway, said: "Process and<br />
data integration is essential for<br />
all local authority contracts<br />
executed by contractors. With<br />
our new combined offering,<br />
data will flow seamlessly<br />
between local authorities and<br />
their contractors in one single<br />
end-to-end solution, ensuring<br />
the needs of all stakeholders<br />
are met without compromise."<br />
www.causeway.com<br />
NEW ENERGY PERFORMANCE DATA FOR XMAP<br />
current ratings, the XMAP EPC<br />
layer contains enhanced analysis<br />
including generalised ratings<br />
and the potential for<br />
improvement. Using XMAP<br />
users can also find out when a<br />
certificate was issued and possible<br />
enhancements that could<br />
be made to the property to<br />
improve its rating.<br />
Bath and North East Somerset<br />
Council is one of the first<br />
to embrace this resource.<br />
"There is a legal minimum<br />
standard that domestic private<br />
rented properties must meet<br />
so, using XMAP and the new<br />
EPC layer, we can identify<br />
properties that fall below this<br />
standard and work to support<br />
landlords to make improvements,"<br />
commented Martin<br />
Laker, GIS Manager.<br />
xmap.geoxphere.com<br />
6<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
Financial & Project Accounting Software<br />
'Built for Construction by Construction'<br />
WHO WE HELP<br />
CONTRACTORS HOUSEBUILDERS SERVICE &<br />
MAINTENANCE
INDUSTRY news<br />
NBS FINDS GREEN FUTURE STUCK ON AMBER<br />
NBS recently surveyed<br />
over 600 construction<br />
professionals on the sustainability<br />
of building projects in<br />
recent years. Surprisingly,<br />
considering the built environment<br />
is responsible for a<br />
quarter of the UK's carbon<br />
emissions, green achievements<br />
have gone backwards<br />
over the past decade, with<br />
only one in three construction<br />
professionals hitting ecofriendly<br />
targets on their projects,<br />
whereas ten years ago<br />
it was around half.<br />
One in five construction professionals<br />
never measure or<br />
report sustainability metrics<br />
on their projects. Related to<br />
this, more than half of respondents<br />
haven't worked on a<br />
net-zero project in the past<br />
year, and only 4% have only<br />
worked on net-zero projects.<br />
This findings may be<br />
explained by over half of professionals<br />
saying that key<br />
barriers to sustainability are<br />
lack of client demand and the<br />
perceived higher financial<br />
costs of sustainable projects.<br />
Around four in ten say there's<br />
a lack of clear government<br />
direction/regulation and a<br />
similar number say that<br />
greener products are more<br />
likely to be value engineered<br />
out at the contracting stage.<br />
When asked about drivers<br />
for green projects, almost<br />
nine in ten construction professionals<br />
said personal values,<br />
followed by half saying<br />
leading by example. Around a<br />
quarter of those surveyed<br />
said client demand, company<br />
policy and legislation had driven<br />
sustainable work.<br />
Not unexpectedly, professionals<br />
are frustrated, with<br />
three quarters saying they're<br />
personally upset that they're<br />
unable to make more of an<br />
impact. A major consideration<br />
is that 80% of the buildings<br />
likely to be around in 2050<br />
are already built, and so it<br />
should be expected that a<br />
focus would be on de-carbonising<br />
existing buildings.<br />
The findings also show that<br />
light refurbishment projects<br />
are less likely to achieve sustainability<br />
than new builds.<br />
Nine out of ten surveyed said<br />
they thought there should be<br />
more Government help to<br />
support existing buildings<br />
become net-zero. The move<br />
to cut VAT to 0% on energy<br />
saving materials is one such<br />
move, but it should be noted<br />
that new build projects are<br />
zero VAT rated, while refurbishments<br />
are not.<br />
The Sustainable Futures study<br />
is available to download at:<br />
www.thenbs.com/sustainablefutures-report-<strong>2022</strong>/<br />
SWATCHBOX PLATFORM LAUNCHES IN THE UK<br />
Using proprietary technology<br />
built by a team of architects<br />
and designers, Swatchbox<br />
addresses a common<br />
challenge faced by building<br />
professionals around the country:<br />
sourcing material samples<br />
from product manufacturers.<br />
The platform serves as an<br />
intermediary that stores product<br />
samples from top brands<br />
in its own fulfillment centers in<br />
order to provide automatic<br />
next-day shipping throughout<br />
the entire United Kingdom.<br />
Swatchbox Pro, the platform's<br />
intuitive web interface and<br />
mobile application, then<br />
equips professionals to<br />
browse samples, organize<br />
them into custom palettes, and<br />
Rescan has released the<br />
REscan Viewer, a spatial<br />
communication tool that provides<br />
a fully immersive site<br />
visit and revisit experience<br />
from a distance for property<br />
professionals. REscan rapidly<br />
digitises and annotates large<br />
indoor spaces from a human<br />
point of view. Its 3D digital<br />
copies provide remote<br />
access to distant locations,<br />
enhance professional workflows,<br />
and facilitate machine<br />
understanding of the world.<br />
request them to be delivered in<br />
a single Swatchbox for free the<br />
next day. Combining multiple<br />
sample requests into one box<br />
is able to dramatically reduce<br />
the carbon footprint of a<br />
designer's sample workflow.<br />
Additionally, every Swatchbox<br />
ships with instructions to sustainably<br />
return and recycle any<br />
materials no longer needed.<br />
Included in the launch of the<br />
new platform are product samples<br />
from the most notable<br />
brands in building materials,<br />
including Ibstock, Koskisen,<br />
Interface, PPG Architectural<br />
Coatings, Roca, Durasein,<br />
Lapitec, Envirobuild, Barrisol,<br />
and more.<br />
www.swatchbox.com/pro<br />
RESCAN VIEWER BASED ON ITWIN PLATFORM<br />
Powered by the Bentley<br />
iTwin platform, REscan Viewer<br />
enables users to check projects<br />
in the design and asbuilt<br />
phases on their mobile<br />
devices, share 3D walkable<br />
environments with colleagues,<br />
and discover, measure and<br />
annotate built and CAD<br />
spaces from first person and<br />
birds-eye views.<br />
"We are thrilled to join the<br />
Powered by iTwin program<br />
and to have the REscan Viewer<br />
featured within the iTwin<br />
ecosystem," said Robert Herman,<br />
CEO and co-founder of<br />
REscan. "For us as a startup,<br />
it gives a big boost to further<br />
reach out to commercial and<br />
government players and contribute<br />
to the ongoing developments<br />
of the digital twin<br />
era. We believe that with<br />
Bentley Systems, we will<br />
greatly contribute to making<br />
digital twins part of our daily<br />
workflow and multiply our outreach<br />
to new customers."<br />
www.rescan360.com<br />
8<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
INDUSTRYfocus<br />
Late payments: what's the real impact and how can you tackle it?<br />
David Chadwick looks at the challenge of late payments within the construction industry, with<br />
reference to a blog post by Carol Massay, Head of Access Construction<br />
An anecdote first, but very relevant. A<br />
couple of years ago we moved into<br />
a house that needed total<br />
renovation - rewiring, new gas boiler and<br />
associated plumbing, new kitchen and<br />
bathroom, a wall knocking down, and total<br />
redecoration - all in a short timescale. That<br />
meant up to five trades working shoulder<br />
to shoulder, and planning that allowed<br />
them to work almost simultaneously. We<br />
had the best local builder and they tuned<br />
up when we needed them because, they<br />
said, we paid regularly and on time. My<br />
wife handled Capex and the project<br />
management, not me.<br />
The moral of this is that in an industry that<br />
is rife with late payments - domestic as well<br />
as commercial - those workers at the end<br />
of the chain and suppliers will take their<br />
best endeavours to those who keep the<br />
cashflow on stream.<br />
Failure to do so compounds the issue.<br />
Keep your supplier waiting and they will<br />
deliver the materials that are in short supply<br />
to a contractor with a better payment. If the<br />
goods are delayed you may have to lay off<br />
one of your trades and hope they come up<br />
with a later slot for when the materials<br />
arrive. Associated work can't start and the<br />
overall project starts to slip, leaving the<br />
builder with the prospect of penalties for a<br />
delayed completion.<br />
In this article we will take a look at how this<br />
is impacting the industry and how there's<br />
construction technologies in the market that<br />
can transform the way you work.<br />
INCREASE IN OLDER DEBT<br />
In an industry that traditionally flies by the<br />
seat of its pants - or rather operates on<br />
slender margins - cashflow is the most<br />
critical element in its success or failure.<br />
That it is failing to be handled efficiently is<br />
evidenced by figures released recently by<br />
Experian, which indicate that insolvency<br />
rates in the industry are rising, as are<br />
County Court Judgments (<strong>CC</strong>Js), with<br />
monthly average insolvencies in <strong>2022</strong><br />
being 30% higher than pre-Covid figures in<br />
2019. In fact the number of <strong>CC</strong>Js incurred<br />
during the first 4 months of <strong>2022</strong> has<br />
already exceeded 50% of 2021's total.<br />
Experian's figures show a significant<br />
increase in businesses requiring Trade<br />
Credit over the last couple of years, but<br />
with a larger proportion of them showing a<br />
120-240 day delinquency in arrears.<br />
Delinquencies may have increased but the<br />
overall value has reduced slightly,<br />
indicating collections activity may have<br />
increased in this sector - hence the<br />
increased number of insolvencies and<br />
<strong>CC</strong>Js. With another disproportionate<br />
increase in the value of 30 to 90 day debt,<br />
Experian say that it is essential that<br />
contractors improve their risk assessment<br />
for new and existing customers by refining<br />
and improving their data intelligence.<br />
NAILING LATE PAYMENTS<br />
And it's only going to get worse. With<br />
inflation rising hugely, increasing material<br />
shortages at higher prices, skilled labour<br />
shortages and the fallout from the<br />
pandemic, it's going to be a tough year<br />
for companies that don't have control of<br />
their costs and liabilities. That<br />
responsibility falls entirely into the laps of<br />
the leading contractors. Like my anecdote<br />
at the top, they are paid by their clients on<br />
delivery - stage payments assessed by<br />
quantity surveyors who tot up the amount<br />
of work completed.<br />
If the project is behind schedule, or<br />
over-budget, the responsibility for<br />
covering up the shortfall lies with the<br />
contractor who provided the original<br />
tender to secure the contract.<br />
When the contractor starts to experience<br />
financial difficulties, it's the smaller<br />
subcontractors, SMEs and suppliers<br />
further down the chain who suffer too. One<br />
of the largest private sector firms in the<br />
South West, Midas, with projects from<br />
Penzance to Taunton, called in the<br />
administrators in January, going from a<br />
reported turnover of just under 300 million<br />
pounds, and with 500 employees,<br />
potentially causing the loss of twice that<br />
number of jobs. A Midas spokesperson<br />
cited all the above reasons for the<br />
collapse, explaining it all as ''cost inflation''.<br />
Should stakeholders, owners or clients<br />
come up with the extra cash to bail out the<br />
contractors? Only if you are working on<br />
prestigious and sensitive Government<br />
10<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
INDUSTRYfocus<br />
projects like HS2. The rest are financiers,<br />
who, like CJ at Sunshine Desserts, 'Didn't<br />
get where I am today by bailing out my<br />
contractors' (credit to The Fall and Rise of<br />
Reginald Perrin).<br />
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT<br />
Carol Massay, Head of Access<br />
Construction, suggested I look at the issue<br />
of late payments within the construction<br />
Industry. Much of the background that she<br />
provided came from one of her blog posts,<br />
relating to an IC Commissioned review,<br />
produced by Andrew McNaughton, chair<br />
of the Review Steering Group, which<br />
looked at an increase in the number of<br />
high-profile infrastructure projects suffering<br />
from severe delays and spiraling costs.<br />
The review pointed out that delivering<br />
complex infrastructure projects is<br />
becoming increasingly difficult as<br />
companies remain reliant on antiquated<br />
systems and processes. The report says<br />
that, in order to handle the mass of<br />
requirements for projects with many<br />
stakeholders, limited budgets, rapidly<br />
rising costs and remote or dispersed<br />
locations means, the speed of digital<br />
transformation within the industry must be<br />
increased to keep pace with demand.<br />
Exacerbating the process further,<br />
contractors - not owners or clients - have<br />
to ensure that projects are increasingly<br />
compliant with both H&S and<br />
sustainability issues.<br />
To be able to deliver such complex<br />
systems, and to bring together physical<br />
assets, technology and digital<br />
information, we now have a maturing<br />
Building Information Modelling<br />
system or a Digital Twin. Either of<br />
these can ensure an<br />
improvement in the delivery<br />
and operation of a project,<br />
the report says, but the<br />
processes are<br />
largely in the hands<br />
of traditionally<br />
trained<br />
engineers and<br />
builders who continue to use established<br />
construction methods. This can lead to<br />
projects being needlessly delivered<br />
beyond schedule and over budget.<br />
You can see we are in a loop here. Lose a<br />
bit of time here and raise some costs<br />
elsewhere and the effects ripple right<br />
through the project, and those in the most<br />
precarious situations fall out of the loop.<br />
Here's another corollary as well, as Midas<br />
may have discovered - you can't shore up<br />
one of your jobs by leeching funds from a<br />
more profitable project.<br />
Late payments, are symptomatic of a<br />
company that is unable to balance its costs<br />
against its liabilities, or to discern and react<br />
to escalating costs within the industry.<br />
THE BUSINESS HEALTH<br />
DASHBOARD<br />
Balancing such costs has now become<br />
somewhat more straightforward, as The<br />
Access Group has partnered with Experian<br />
to launch the Business Health Dashboard.<br />
The addition to The Access Group's<br />
construction<br />
management<br />
software is<br />
designed<br />
to help<br />
construction companies better assess<br />
credit exposure and the risks associated<br />
with outstanding debts. Users are now<br />
able to combine internal customer and<br />
supplier data with Experian's credit risk<br />
data to optimise credit terms.<br />
The intuitive dashboard provides an<br />
accurate picture of outstanding debt and<br />
associated payment risk within their supply<br />
chain in one single view, enabling<br />
construction firms to make more informed<br />
decisions about the strength, performance<br />
and creditworthiness of both new and<br />
existing customers and suppliers.<br />
Whilst being primarily designed to help the<br />
entire construction cycle run more efficiently,<br />
the dashboard also allows construction<br />
teams to identify where productivity could<br />
be improved on site, further reducing risk<br />
and boosting profit margins.<br />
It's also worth remembering that skilled<br />
construction workers don't just disappear<br />
when the company they work for fails to<br />
pay them on time or goes bust - instead<br />
they join other, rival companies or start up<br />
again with a different partner or workforce.<br />
The work is still there and the skills are still<br />
there; they just won't be available to<br />
businesses that fail to deliver.<br />
To find our more search: Access<br />
Construction:<br />
www.theaccessgroup.co.uk<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 11
SOFTWAREfocus<br />
A healthy approach to BIM<br />
3D Repo models can now be used to furnish all of the non-CAD trained specialists on a project with<br />
federated data relating to their specific needs<br />
We tend to lose sight of the fact<br />
that BIM is a specialist tool,<br />
and that many of the people<br />
who need to obtain information about a<br />
project are not architects or engineers.<br />
3D Repo put the ratio at about 2% who<br />
know what BIM is and how to use it<br />
and 98% who need help establishing<br />
what they are looking at and<br />
understanding the difference between<br />
things like a model and a federation.<br />
To this end 3D Repo has improved<br />
the usability of its 3D visualisation<br />
application, aimed at helping clients<br />
and owners, potential occupants,<br />
health & safety workers and others to<br />
extract the information they need. With<br />
no expertise in CAD, managers and<br />
their employees can communicate and<br />
access live BIM data throughout a<br />
project's design, delivery and<br />
operation, raising issues that have no<br />
immediate impact on the design or<br />
construction, but may relate to safety<br />
on site, material delivery and storage,<br />
the siting of temporary structures and<br />
other concerns.<br />
Project principals certainly fall within<br />
the latter category. Unconcerned with<br />
the minutiae of the design and<br />
construction methods, they may<br />
suggest modifications to a design to<br />
accommodate changing requirements,<br />
or they may wish to link the model to<br />
business analytics and dashboards, to<br />
enable them to visually monitor a<br />
project's progress.<br />
Focusing more on the actual needs<br />
of its users, 3D Repo's model now<br />
operates at a project level, giving<br />
users access to federated data more<br />
specific to their work, using the 3D<br />
model as a means to that end. This<br />
means that it can provide direct<br />
access to health & safety issues,<br />
specific construction requirements or,<br />
for the clients and owners, 3D lookaheads<br />
enabling them to monitor<br />
progress on the overall project, all<br />
regardless of what software the<br />
underlying CAD application used to<br />
create the model, or the construction<br />
methods, resource schedules and<br />
supply chains that it relies on.<br />
They might not possess any CAD<br />
skills, nor even be aware of which<br />
revision level of the model they are<br />
looking at, but they will be able to view<br />
and comment on areas of concern<br />
within the design or the progress of<br />
the project. This enables them to spot<br />
design issues or warning signs of<br />
imminent problems, enabling them to<br />
take timely action to mitigate or<br />
alleviate current or imminent problems<br />
and, if necessary, involve colleagues<br />
and other disciplines in the process.<br />
This is easily done without having to<br />
get involved with the CAD model,<br />
12<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
SOFTWAREfocus<br />
setting up model views or engaging in<br />
a series of email exchanges. To<br />
suggest a design modification, a client<br />
simply has to select the same view of<br />
the model and send it to the architect<br />
via a link with a unique URL. This is<br />
opened by the architect together with<br />
the data they need to make the<br />
changes. If the model has been<br />
developed within Revit, which has a<br />
3D Repo plugin, a two-way<br />
communication is established which<br />
enables the architects to be returned<br />
to update the model without the need<br />
for any email correspondence.<br />
The model can also be linked to<br />
business intelligence tools like<br />
Microsoft Power Bi, or accessed via<br />
custom-built dashboards to extract<br />
and view live project data. The<br />
platform has already helped hundreds<br />
of 3D Repo clients track progress and<br />
make informed decisions to deliver<br />
projects on time, managing and<br />
mitigating health & safety hazards and<br />
risks, and includes tools like Presenter<br />
Mode, which displays 3D Repo models<br />
in large format which can then be<br />
projected on to a wall to allow multiple<br />
people to easily view and work<br />
together on project issues. It can also<br />
be used to engage clients prior to<br />
construction, providing instant<br />
feedback and helping to improve<br />
general construction collaboration.<br />
SAFETIBASE<br />
To provide an example of the use of<br />
federated information within a 3D<br />
Repo model, a prominent<br />
pharmaceutical company with a major<br />
presence in the UK needed to provide<br />
its thousands of employees with a safe<br />
and efficient environment for ongoing<br />
research, development and<br />
manufacture. Because of the nature of<br />
its work, stringent rules regarding<br />
sterile environments and climate<br />
control govern the research and<br />
manufacturing processes - the site<br />
conducts between 60 and 100 projects<br />
each year - which are not easily<br />
conveyed during design meetings with<br />
architects and engineers.<br />
Because of the critical nature of the<br />
medicines and the conditions that they<br />
need to be manufactured and stored<br />
in, it is essential that any project works<br />
undertaken do not affect drug output<br />
and other business activities of the<br />
company, including building works.<br />
The company needed to add an<br />
extension to an archive and quality<br />
assurance building, where samples of<br />
medicines are kept in a secure and<br />
environmentally controlled area and<br />
where regular testing is carried out to<br />
ensure ongoing safety and<br />
compliance. With health & safety<br />
integral to all construction projects the<br />
company already has a thorough<br />
safety risk management process in<br />
place, which provides a detailed risk<br />
register which includes typical risk<br />
elements such as working with live<br />
services; excavation; asbestos;<br />
confined space; working at height etc.<br />
The pharmaceutical company is also<br />
a sponsoring member of the<br />
Construction Clients' Leadership<br />
Group, becoming involved in the<br />
Discovering Safety programme in late<br />
2019.The programme, run by Lloyd's<br />
Register Foundation and supported by<br />
the Health & Safety Executive, aims to<br />
improve safety by using data more<br />
efficiently. One element of the<br />
programme is to create a detailed risk<br />
and risk treatment library for<br />
construction projects with a view to<br />
improving construction risk<br />
management and safety throughout<br />
the industry.<br />
Running Discovering Safety in<br />
tandem with its established protocols<br />
to determine what additional benefits<br />
the new processes can offer, and to<br />
test the new processes and software,<br />
the team at the pharmaceutical<br />
company imported the usual risks and<br />
hazards into the 3D Repo SafetiBase<br />
platform and looked at them in more<br />
detail. They then worked through them<br />
together to check they hadn't left<br />
anything out.<br />
To use SafetiBase it was necessary to<br />
develop a 3D model of the building<br />
which enabled a number of changes to<br />
its design to be made early on, with<br />
SafetiBase providing a fuller view of<br />
the model - especially for potential<br />
users not accustomed to reading 2D<br />
drawings. As the data accompanying<br />
the model was federated to include<br />
recognised safety issues, the clients<br />
immediately spotted that the storage<br />
racking was too high.<br />
The extension involved creating five<br />
separate chambers to store the<br />
samples which need to be maintained<br />
at different temperatures. In the<br />
original plans, the plant for climate<br />
control was designed to be located at<br />
roof level. However, with the help of<br />
the 3D model, the team saw that this<br />
was going to cause a number of<br />
potential risks around working at<br />
height and the model was suitably<br />
modified and installed on the ground<br />
floor. Up to 40 risks were found on the<br />
project which wouldn't have been<br />
identified without recourse to<br />
SafetiBase.<br />
IMPROVED PROJECT<br />
COMMUNICATION<br />
SafetiBase enabled the company to<br />
bring project stakeholders into the<br />
process, helping them understand the<br />
risks and to understand the process<br />
and where any potential delays could<br />
come from. Communications with the<br />
client team and the team that will look<br />
after the facility once it's complete has<br />
also been improved - especially as<br />
they are able to walk through the<br />
project and make changes to designs<br />
early on.<br />
Because SafetiBase is stored in the<br />
cloud, all those working on the project<br />
can access it at the same time. With<br />
more people working remotely, using<br />
SafetiBase as part of project meetings<br />
and sharing it via Teams or Zoom<br />
eased collaboration with the wider<br />
team. Despite it taking some time to<br />
set everything up using SafetiBase and<br />
to bring everybody onboard, the<br />
pharmaceutical company found it was<br />
worth the initial time and effort spent -<br />
and that potential users should start<br />
as early as possible in the project, in<br />
order to get the full benefits of the<br />
Discovering Safety approach.<br />
www.3drepo.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 13
CASEstudy<br />
H2PORTO<br />
Oporto Water Utility develops a technology platform for integrated management of its urban water cycle<br />
Águas do Porto (Oporto Water Utility<br />
- AdP) is responsible for the<br />
sustainable and integrated<br />
management of the entire urban water<br />
cycle of the city of Oporto, Portugal,<br />
including water supply, wastewater<br />
drainage and treatment, stormwater<br />
drainage, surface waters, and coastal<br />
bathing water quality. AdP is one of the<br />
largest Portuguese companies in the<br />
sector with over 150,000 clients serving<br />
around 500,000 people. The company<br />
delivers an average of 45,490 cubic<br />
meters of water to the population daily<br />
and collects approximately the same<br />
amount for treatment.<br />
The density and complexity of the<br />
hydraulic infrastructure and water<br />
resources in Oporto drive the need for<br />
the integrated management of the urban<br />
water cycle, while also raising<br />
challenges in the integration of the vast<br />
number of existing systems throughout<br />
the company. To integrate the data<br />
gathered simultaneously from a wide<br />
range of systems and sources, spread<br />
over dozens of individual software<br />
systems, AdP decided to develop the<br />
"Technology Platform for the Integrated<br />
Water Management of the Urban Water<br />
Cycle - H2PORTO."<br />
The goal of H2PORTO is to promote a<br />
culture of innovation and Smart Water<br />
Management for the efficient usage of<br />
existing resources. H2PORTO integrates<br />
territorial information via geographic<br />
information systems (GIS), video<br />
surveillance of infrastructures, numerical<br />
modeling, remote data acquisition, and<br />
public reporting with the following firm<br />
objectives: (i) integration of all<br />
information from the different systems<br />
(water supply, wastewater, stormwater,<br />
natural channels and coastal areas); (ii)<br />
uniformisation of all data acquired<br />
through remote sensors; (iii) real-time<br />
display of all data in user-friendly<br />
dashboards; (iv) integration of online and<br />
offline numerical models for all systems;<br />
(v) modules for automatic alerts and<br />
warnings (based on data acquisition and<br />
numerical models); (vi) reporting and<br />
data mining; (vii) and publishing selected<br />
information for the general public.<br />
The implementation of H2PORTO was<br />
acquired by AdP through an<br />
international public tender, which has<br />
been won by the consortium of<br />
Aqualogus, Bentley Systems, and A20.<br />
The contract has a duration of five years,<br />
including 14 months for initial<br />
implementation and maintenance.<br />
H2PORTO IN THE SCOPE OF<br />
SMART CITIES<br />
The overarching goal of the Oporto water<br />
utility was to achieve the holistic<br />
management of the water cycle in a smart<br />
city context. The organisation sought to<br />
do this by developing an integrated<br />
solution for predictive operational<br />
analytics to help predict performance,<br />
identify failures early, and prescribe<br />
actions based on asset information. An<br />
online platform was built, combining all<br />
the data sources (GIS, real-time network<br />
sensors, household meters, SCADA,<br />
laboratory, billing, work orders and<br />
logistics, etc.), and integrating them to<br />
produce business intelligence in the form<br />
of indicators and dashboards. Added<br />
modeling ability to forecast network<br />
behavior for the entire urban water cycle<br />
(from precipitation to bathing waters) is<br />
beneficial as well.<br />
Bentley Systems was responsible for<br />
the implementation of the modeling and<br />
predictive capabilities of the project.<br />
Bentley software produced a digital twin<br />
model of the city's water supply,<br />
wastewater, stormwater, and bathing<br />
water systems, to forecast flooding and<br />
water quality issues, thereby improving<br />
city response and resilience.<br />
14<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
CASEstudy<br />
H20PORTO: REFRESHING RESULTS<br />
Águas do Porto improved the entire urban water cycle in the city of Porto,<br />
Portugal by commissioning a smart water management platform (digital twin)<br />
called H2PORTO based on Bentley applications. By unifying the data produced<br />
by formerly siloed systems, AdP has improved the accuracy of the data<br />
produced from sensor readings to nearly 99%.<br />
What was the outcome?<br />
Water service interruptions fell by 22.9%<br />
Number of sewer collapses decreased by 54%<br />
Repairs for pipe burst and sewer and service connections improved by 8.3%<br />
and 45.5%<br />
Volume of non-revenue water dropped by 3.5%<br />
Integration of real-time data and producing information available to teams in<br />
the field produced operational gains of 23%<br />
Remote access to H2PORTO allowed technicians to update digital twin<br />
information while in the field, resulting in operational gains of 23%<br />
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES<br />
Oporto water utility has been incrementing<br />
multiple layers of big data collection and<br />
generation over the last several years.<br />
Most of the time the data has been<br />
managed by isolated or noninteroperable<br />
user interfaces, which reduces productivity<br />
and makes it harder to achieve efficient<br />
data management. Moreover, the isolated<br />
management of all those available<br />
datasets reduces the possibility of<br />
generating added-value integrated<br />
analysis and forecasts.<br />
The main challenge in the implementation<br />
of the system was the city water cycle<br />
scale, which requires detailed resolution for<br />
many models and domains, including<br />
meteorology, water supply, sewer, and<br />
storm drainage. The city water scale also<br />
required the ability to consume large<br />
amounts of data from real-time sensors<br />
and consumers' telemetry and billing.<br />
The Implementation of H2PORTO AdP<br />
and the consultants from Bentley were<br />
responsible for the design, configuration,<br />
implementation, and automation of all the<br />
modeling and predictive capabilities. All<br />
predictive models automatically generate<br />
daily forecasts and publish the results in the<br />
project platform. Bentley developed further<br />
online services for on-demand online<br />
simulation analysis of network changes due<br />
to pipe burst, valve closure, and pumping<br />
stations' shutoff scenarios (e.g. run model<br />
with changes, compare with base solution,<br />
and return effected pipes and consumers).<br />
The main implementation points:<br />
Twenty-two DMA models (entire<br />
Oporto city)<br />
Three meteorological models in a<br />
nesting approach to have highresolution<br />
meteorology forecast at 1-<br />
kilometer scale (e.g. precipitation<br />
driving factor for drainage and wind<br />
patterns in coastal areas)<br />
Combined sewer and storm model<br />
for the sea front part of the city (1/3<br />
of the city where infrastructure data<br />
was reliable)<br />
Estuary, coastal area, and wave models<br />
for the detailed description of the<br />
bathing area circulation and water<br />
quality (coliform bacteria)<br />
Calibrated/validated results for all the<br />
domains with the automated network<br />
sensors and historical data<br />
Models were configured to run<br />
operationally daily and produce<br />
forecasts for the next three days,<br />
automatically updating boundary<br />
conditions from water consumption and<br />
network sensors<br />
Bottom-up approach for IWA water<br />
balance for all DMA's using network<br />
sensors and consumers' telemetry for<br />
real losses estimation<br />
Network scenario analyses for pipe<br />
bursts and valve and pump shut-downs<br />
Results published via web map services<br />
(e.g. flows, velocity, water level,<br />
meteorology, and currents) and RESTful<br />
API (e.g. time series of the same<br />
properties and requests for online<br />
services as IWA water balance or online<br />
scenarios) to the project interface.<br />
Bentley also developed online services to<br />
compute on-the-fly DMA IWA water cycles,<br />
at request, using billing, real-time network<br />
sensors, and consumer telemetry.<br />
THE FACTORS FOR SU<strong>CC</strong>ESS<br />
Implementing all the modeling domains and<br />
the plug-in-based server capabilities were<br />
the main factors that contributed to the<br />
success of the implementation at the city<br />
scale. This eased the integration of new<br />
models, data sources, and tools, as well as<br />
helped to seamlessly put these components<br />
into operation and publish the results.<br />
www.bentley.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 15
SOFTWAREfocus<br />
Counting the cost of carbon<br />
The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator (VE<strong>CC</strong>) has been designed to help architects and<br />
engineers reduce carbon emissions on their projects<br />
As an architect you only get one<br />
chance to reduce the carbon<br />
emissions in your projects - and<br />
that's when you design it. After that, it's up<br />
to the occupiers who are responsible for<br />
maintaining it to suit their personal<br />
requirements, but who could throw caution<br />
to the winds and install the most inefficient<br />
and carbon costly air-conditioning system<br />
they can find.<br />
Every building component that is<br />
incorporated in a building has an<br />
associated or embodied carbon cost, both<br />
in its manufacture and its delivery to the<br />
building site. Every task that is performed<br />
comes with an additional release of carbon,<br />
and that includes the use of peripheral<br />
equipment and other activities associated<br />
with the construction process. At the end of<br />
a building's lifecycle there are further costs,<br />
whether you re-use building materials or<br />
dispose of them in landfill, and each of<br />
these activities has an additional associated<br />
carbon emission level.<br />
These are all calculable, and to help you do<br />
the sums, Vectorworks has developed the<br />
Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator<br />
(VE<strong>CC</strong>) a custom worksheet that's preformatted<br />
to help calculate the embodied<br />
carbon levels of a project. Divided into<br />
different sections, it can be used to provide a<br />
percentage of embodied carbon emitted by<br />
a building's materials and construction<br />
processes. Important? As embodied carbon<br />
is responsible for about 11% of global CO2<br />
emissions, and rising, every attempt should<br />
be made to minimise it.<br />
Embodied carbon is different from<br />
operational carbon, which concerns in-use<br />
operations like heating, cooling, lighting,<br />
and ventilation. The key here is that<br />
operational carbon can be reduced after a<br />
building is constructed by modifying the<br />
processes involved. Embodied carbon, on<br />
the other hand, is locked in once the<br />
structure is built. It's 'embodied' in the<br />
building itself.<br />
THE VECTORWORKS EMBODIED<br />
CARBON CALCULATOR (VE<strong>CC</strong>)<br />
The VE<strong>CC</strong> tool is a pre-formatted worksheet<br />
available for Vectorworks Architect and<br />
other Vectorworks products that has built-in<br />
formulas to calculate material embodied<br />
carbon emissions, based on your inputs<br />
and model quantities of materials. To keep it<br />
simple, the VE<strong>CC</strong> is live linked to the<br />
Vectorworks model - it derives its volumes<br />
& quantity data directly from the model's<br />
BIM objects.<br />
It's organised into columns corresponding<br />
to the different stages of a project's<br />
lifecycle, except its operational period. The<br />
Product Stage tracks embodied carbon<br />
emitted from the supply, raw material<br />
transport, and manufacture of selected<br />
building materials. The Transportation Stage<br />
tracks carbon emitted from the<br />
transportation of prepared or fabricated<br />
products from the manufacturing plant to<br />
the project site. The Construction Stage<br />
tracks carbon emissions from any on- or<br />
off-site construction-related activities.<br />
The theory is that having calculated the<br />
carbon emissions for each part of the<br />
construction process, any that seem<br />
excessive, can be replaced with a lowerlevel<br />
carbon emitting alternative to bring the<br />
overall score down. The second benefit is<br />
that architects and engineers are made<br />
more aware of less sustainable materials<br />
and processes.<br />
The process is repeated for the<br />
dismantling and disposal of a building,<br />
using the second group of four stages in<br />
the VE<strong>CC</strong>. The Replacement Stage tracks<br />
carbon emissions associated with<br />
anticipated replacement of building<br />
components, whilst the Deconstruction &<br />
Demolition Stage tracks carbon emissions<br />
arising from any on- or off-site<br />
deconstruction and demolition activities.<br />
The following two stages are useful for<br />
comparing either the Recovery or Recycling<br />
of materials and components that are<br />
intended to be recovered and reused after<br />
the end of the built asset's lifecycle, or their<br />
ultimate disposal for materials and<br />
components not expected to be recovered<br />
and re-purposed but incinerated or<br />
disposed of at a landfill.<br />
MARIONETTE CHARTS<br />
Vectorworks' Marionette based algorithmsaided<br />
design tool allows users to extract<br />
data from the VE<strong>CC</strong> to visualise it into a<br />
chart connected to the data sheet. The<br />
VE<strong>CC</strong> uses data from Energos to<br />
calculate energy demand and is already<br />
set up to complete a holistic carbon<br />
emissions assessment.<br />
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SOFTWAREfocus<br />
How comprehensive is the data? A prime<br />
example is a window, which consists of a<br />
glazed area of varying thicknesses, the<br />
frame material and jamb depth, the density<br />
of each at kg/m3 and the source of the<br />
data. The total weight of the glazing or<br />
frame timber can then be entered to get an<br />
EC factor in kgCO2e/m2 for the glassed<br />
area or kgCO2e/m2 for the frames, and a<br />
final embodied carbon for the total.<br />
Materials used are based on materials in<br />
the Resource Manager, with EC data<br />
supporting each material provided by the<br />
University of Bath, which, using similar<br />
calculations to those above, provide<br />
embodied carbon data for the quantity<br />
used. Transportation costs from the<br />
manufacturer to the site include the<br />
average laden HGV vehicle to be used, or<br />
average container ship figures. The EC<br />
calculations work on the carbon emissions<br />
per kilometer.<br />
The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon<br />
Calculator provides you with the ability to<br />
assess embodied carbon emissions<br />
through a project's lifecycle. The analysis<br />
looks at individual materials, a project's<br />
lifecycle stages, and benchmarks for set<br />
targets. With the Vectorworks Embodied<br />
Carbon Calculator, you'll have the power to<br />
gather metrics and make informed<br />
decisions as you look to achieve carbonreducing<br />
targets.<br />
ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT<br />
DECLARATION<br />
The EPD is produced on the basis of Life<br />
Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations and<br />
provides a quantitative basis for<br />
comparison of products and services. It is<br />
normally provided by the product<br />
manufacturer and must be verified by an<br />
independent expert.<br />
Its basis is the norm ISO14025. In that<br />
document, EPDs are called Type III<br />
environmental declarations and must be<br />
produced according to a specific set of<br />
Product Category Rules (PCR) which<br />
provide calculation rules and guidelines to<br />
ensure that all Environmental Product<br />
Declarations under the same category<br />
report the same type of information. The<br />
range of existing PCRs is wide, from<br />
clothing to food and chemicals, with a<br />
specific advanced range for the<br />
construction industry with PCR (EN15804)<br />
providing detailed instructions for the<br />
performance of LCA calculations. EPDs are<br />
often required in green public procurement<br />
(GPP), tenders by private companies, and<br />
in building assessment schemes such as<br />
LEED, BREEAM, and GreenStar.<br />
An extensive EPD program also operates<br />
in other countries in an international<br />
collaboration called Ecoplatform to ensure<br />
that construction EPDs are comparable<br />
between countries.<br />
VE<strong>CC</strong> USERS SPEAK OUT<br />
Colin Davis of Studio Partington, one of the<br />
earliest adopters of the VE<strong>CC</strong>, said:<br />
"Studio Partington is passionate about<br />
designing buildings that take a conscious<br />
effort to minimise their impacts on the<br />
environment. The awareness of embodied<br />
carbon and the contribution it makes to a<br />
building's overall carbon footprint is a new<br />
field to all designers. The VE<strong>CC</strong> gives us<br />
the opportunity, from the earliest stages of a<br />
project, to quickly understand and analyse<br />
the amount of material and likely embodied<br />
carbon impacts of our proposals. This can<br />
feedback into the design process to lead to<br />
better and more responsible solutions."<br />
There are a few ways to reduce a project's<br />
embodied carbon levels. Colin suggests reusing<br />
buildings instead of constructing new<br />
ones. "Construction processes have a high<br />
carbon footprint. Renovating what's already<br />
there instead of tearing everything down<br />
and starting over can greatly reduce a<br />
project's embodied carbon levels. A<br />
renovation project can let you be just as<br />
creative as with a ground-up build."<br />
The motto of 2021 Pritzker Prize-winning<br />
firm Lacaton & Vassal is "Never demolish,<br />
never remove - always add, transform, or<br />
reuse." Here are a couple of guidelines from<br />
them to help you decrease the amount of<br />
CO2 emissions for your next project:<br />
1. Limit use of high-carbon materials like<br />
plastic, concrete, and metal. Wood is<br />
growing more popular as a building<br />
material due to its lower embodied<br />
carbon levels.<br />
2. Use recycled materials. Especially for<br />
high-carbon materials like aluminum, as<br />
the carbon required to manufacture<br />
those materials has already been<br />
accounted for.<br />
3. Source materials locally. Look to source<br />
from your immediate area. This reduces<br />
carbon emissions from lengthy<br />
transportations.<br />
4. Create modular systems where<br />
possible, as they are easier and faster<br />
to construct, reducing carbon<br />
emissions from the construction<br />
process.<br />
A word about air-conditioning systems, my<br />
own private beef. If we can design more<br />
efficient buildings, we wouldn't have to<br />
install so many power-hungry external AC<br />
units - like barnacles on a ship's hull - to<br />
keep buildings cool in summer and hot in<br />
winter! The VE<strong>CC</strong> is a good starting point.<br />
Use it as a catalyst towards designing<br />
better performing buildings, as well.<br />
www.vectorworks.co.uk<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 17
TECHNOLOGYfocus<br />
ALICE's adventures overground<br />
ALICE (ArtificiaL Intelligence Construction Engineering) is being used to supplement the 'optioneering'<br />
of planners and project managers working on the most complex projects<br />
Construction projects are getting larger<br />
and more complex, and the range of<br />
factors that have to be addressed to<br />
improve their efficiency, save money and<br />
shorten schedules, etc. have also increased<br />
over the last few years. Whereas earlier<br />
projects had to potentially contend with<br />
difficult site locations, specialised equipment<br />
and construction technologies, local building<br />
constraints and even historical preservation<br />
requirements, current issues that have to be<br />
taken into account include global labour and<br />
material shortages, constrained resource<br />
supply chains, increasingly stringent<br />
construction requirements regarding health<br />
and safety and, of course, sustainability.<br />
This is especially relevant in heavy civil<br />
construction projects, which often<br />
encompass large or linear footprints,<br />
above and subsurface construction, and<br />
which may span many miles - a typical<br />
example is HS2. These challenges also<br />
apply to industrial projects, which typically<br />
involve complex engineering and<br />
procurement challenges.<br />
Even more straightforward large<br />
commercial, residential, or mixed-used<br />
projects in high-density environments have<br />
problems to work around, especially when it<br />
comes to access to sites, which can be<br />
constrained by traffic, space, or other<br />
factors, and some geographic locations are<br />
also weather-constrained.<br />
CONSTRUCTION OPTIONEERING<br />
Exploring the vast number of<br />
options that could be assessed<br />
both prior to construction in<br />
the pre-planning phase and<br />
the<br />
preparation of bids, and in the construction<br />
management phase as well, are beyond the<br />
resources of any surveyor or project<br />
manager without the assistance of<br />
specialised software.<br />
I use the word 'could' advisedly, for those<br />
involved in considering the broad range of<br />
potential solutions, alternatives, and options<br />
that ensure a given solution aligns with<br />
project objectives and makes the best use<br />
of resources, only have limited capacity to<br />
do this task. And tools like an Excel<br />
spreadsheet or Gantt Chart would hardly<br />
touch the interaction or interdependency of<br />
the issues involved.<br />
Optioneering, however - a technique used<br />
in other industries - is able to streamline the<br />
process. That is where ALICE Technologies<br />
(ArtificiaL Intelligence Construction<br />
Engineering) comes in, with AI capabilities<br />
developed specifically for construction<br />
optioneering.<br />
ALICE TECHNOLOGIES<br />
ALICE is the brainchild of civil engineer, René<br />
Morkos, who followed his father and grew<br />
up in the construction industry working as a<br />
project manager in Afghanistan, building an<br />
underwater pipeline in Beirut, driving<br />
automation-led engineering on a $350<br />
million gas refinery expansion project in Abu<br />
Dhabi, and leading the development of a<br />
virtual design and construction model for<br />
Amsterdam's cruise ship terminal.<br />
Recognising the inefficiencies on<br />
construction projects, with<br />
very poor labour,<br />
material resources and space usage<br />
(typically only around 3% of the average<br />
construction site was worked on at any<br />
time), he used his experiences for his PhD at<br />
Stanford University to find an algorithm for<br />
the link between space usage on a<br />
construction site and sequencing<br />
schedules. The result is ALICE, which can<br />
be used during pre-construction and as a<br />
live management tool during construction,<br />
enabling costs to be reduced on most<br />
projects by an average of 11% and build<br />
time by 17%.<br />
ALICE is at its most powerful when being<br />
used on major infrastructure projects, as<br />
the savings that can be made are in billions<br />
and years when it comes to cost and<br />
timescales. And with the UK planning to<br />
use infrastructure as a way of driving the<br />
post-pandemic recovery, now is the perfect<br />
time for a tool like this to be introduced to<br />
the market.<br />
PRE-PLANNING AND BIDDING<br />
ALICE helps construction companies to bid<br />
more accurately and with more confidence.<br />
Using ALICE Preconstruction they can plan<br />
design/build or alternative delivery projects,<br />
calculating the thousands of options<br />
available to create the detailed, resourceloaded<br />
schedules that they need to manage<br />
complex projects, reduce costs and build<br />
faster. Users<br />
start by<br />
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TECHNOLOGYfocus<br />
uploading a 3D model of the project, or logic<br />
diagram to ALICE before adding key pieces<br />
of information, such as labour, rates,<br />
materials, equipment and construction<br />
methodology.<br />
They then build a 'recipe' - essentially, a list<br />
of core tasks to deliver a certain element of<br />
the build. These are specific to the<br />
organisation and can be ordered and<br />
arranged to fit the user's needs. They can<br />
also be reused or adapted for future<br />
projects. Each time a user plans with<br />
ALICE, the work therefore becomes quicker<br />
and easier.<br />
When complete, ALICE automatically<br />
creates a 4D construction schedule that<br />
includes every key milestone for the project,<br />
fully resourced - telling you how long it will<br />
take, what it will cost and what is needed to<br />
deliver it. Used for feasibility studies,<br />
production planning or scheduling, ALICE<br />
enables users to quantify the impact of<br />
different scenarios, helping them to make<br />
informed decisions and get to the best plan,<br />
optimising resources such as labour,<br />
equipment and materials, and ensuring that<br />
all major contingencies have been<br />
accurately modelled to assess the feasibility<br />
of the bid schedule and reduce risk.<br />
Users can also see the effects of changes<br />
to the design visually by connecting the<br />
design to schedules and estimates to<br />
visualise all aspects of the construction<br />
project - creating, in effect, a variable 4D<br />
modelling environment.<br />
Because these 'recipes' are built in, any<br />
changes to the project can be input easily<br />
and a new schedule will be prepared with<br />
the updated information, using ALICE to<br />
help mitigate delays by generating corrective<br />
schedules automatically. No need to spend<br />
weeks modifying your schedule when<br />
circumstances change - ALICE can update<br />
plans and schedules in a few clicks to<br />
instantly get projects back on track.<br />
THE AI ASPECT OF ALICE<br />
Because construction scheduling is so<br />
complex with many variables involved, each<br />
of which has a ripple effect on others and<br />
ultimately the schedule, it is very difficult for<br />
humans to predict the exact effects of<br />
purchasing more equipment, adding an<br />
extra crane, or hiring another crew, and we<br />
base our decisions on imperfect<br />
assumptions and information. It's small<br />
wonder that projects end up over budget<br />
and behind schedule.<br />
Artificial intelligence has already proven<br />
itself in answering complex questions, and<br />
ALICE was created to help produce<br />
construction schedules that are much more<br />
efficient and have more due diligence than<br />
ever before. Supplemented by your existing<br />
construction knowledge, you can set up<br />
simple rules for your projects, and then use<br />
ALICE's scheduling engine to analyse<br />
millions of simulations, looking for the best<br />
schedules according to your rules. This<br />
takes about 10 minutes.<br />
For example, informing ALICE which<br />
tasks require which crews and equipment,<br />
ALICE can easily process countless<br />
options and calculate the effect that hiring<br />
an extra crew or adding a second crane<br />
will impact a schedule.<br />
ALICE was designed to be a tool to assist<br />
planners and project managers, who make<br />
the rules and create the "what if" scenarios to<br />
be analysed, using their experience in the<br />
field to tell ALICE what's possible and what<br />
isn't. Once created in ALICE, then can be<br />
reused elsewhere in the same project, or<br />
future projects.<br />
ALICE TECHNOLOGIES FOR HS2<br />
ALICE Technologies was used for the Align<br />
Project, part of HS2. Together with Align JV<br />
(a joint venture of Bouygues Travaux<br />
Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, and<br />
VolkerFitzpatrick) they worked on an<br />
innovation project for HS2.<br />
Align is delivering the C1 package of the<br />
high-speed railway, which comprises a<br />
21.6km stretch of railway in a rural<br />
environment that includes a 3.37km viaduct,<br />
and 16.04km twin-bored tunnel, with five<br />
ventilation shafts. Able to simulate millions of<br />
scheduling options in minutes, the Align<br />
team ran a pilot with ALICE to test their<br />
programme for the viaduct substructure and<br />
look for improvements.<br />
The team spent four weeks getting up to<br />
speed with ALICE and building 17 'Recipes'<br />
to analyse (ALICE's instructions which break<br />
down elements including the specific<br />
construction tasks that are required.) These<br />
recipes included 642 separate operational<br />
factors that would need to be considered for<br />
scheduling purposes. ALICE generated six<br />
million potential options in ten minutes.<br />
The remaining two weeks of the trial was<br />
spent analysing the simulations and<br />
exploring the "what if" scenarios. Examples<br />
included testing the optimal mix of teams<br />
required on the substructure in order to<br />
increase the utilisation of their crews and<br />
minimise downtime for labour and<br />
equipment.<br />
PLANNING FOR THE NEXT<br />
GENERATION OF BUILDERS<br />
In addition to serving as CEO of ALICE<br />
Technologies, René Morkos is an adjunct<br />
professor at Stanford University, working<br />
with the construction engineering<br />
department and teaching the next<br />
generation of construction talent a whole<br />
new approach to scheduling complex<br />
projects - leveraging, I would assume, the<br />
latest techniques and opportunities<br />
emerging with Artificial Intelligence.<br />
www.alicetechnologies.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 19
CASEstudy<br />
Making a mark on Birmingham's multicultural landscape<br />
Midlands-based MADE Architecture was tasked with<br />
designing a mixed-use development comprising school,<br />
community centre, Mosque, commercial and residential units,<br />
and basement car park. The building complex is located in<br />
the heart of Sparkbrook, at the edge of Birmingham City<br />
Centre. The aim of this project was to create a community<br />
hub that is safe, welcoming, and provides multiple facilities<br />
for the local community. Graphisoft's Archicad was<br />
instrumental in turning this concept into reality.<br />
The new development, which was<br />
commissioned by a local charity,<br />
started with the early design<br />
stages in January 2018. The client<br />
wanted a Mosque, a school,<br />
community centre, retail and<br />
restaurant spaces, as well as<br />
apartments. Initially, only six one- and<br />
two-bed apartments were planned, but<br />
thanks to support from the local<br />
authority who offered additional space,<br />
a total of 12 apartments were created<br />
in the end.<br />
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CASEstudy<br />
"We were lucky enough to get the<br />
support of the local authority for this<br />
redevelopment," explained Nayan<br />
Padhiar, Project Architect. "We were<br />
offered a gateway site that could vastly<br />
improve the local area if redeveloped.<br />
"Given the cultural and civic<br />
importance of this project, we were<br />
extremely pleased to see positive<br />
feedback from the community and the<br />
local media who followed our story<br />
from the beginning. The extra<br />
apartments will breathe new life into<br />
the complex and turn it into a lively<br />
hub for the community."<br />
A MODERN TAKE ON ISLAMIC<br />
ARCHITECTURE<br />
The contemporary style of the Mosque<br />
was designed with future generations<br />
in mind and is representative of British<br />
Islamic architecture trends. The<br />
complex design of the Mosque was<br />
achievable with the help of tools and<br />
features in Archicad. The concept was<br />
derived from a spiral and an eggshaped<br />
form that would wrap around<br />
the development and rotate on each<br />
floor to face the direction of prayer on<br />
the top floor.<br />
"The design of the mosque was very<br />
ambitious in its aesthetics and creating<br />
the curtain wall was a complex<br />
endeavor," reminisced Nayan. "The<br />
curtain wall tool was very useful in<br />
Archicad, as it enabled the concept to<br />
be achieved as per the design intent.<br />
The wand and the panel design was<br />
manipulated to achieve the desired<br />
geometric pattern of hexagons and<br />
triangles, which are a key Islamic<br />
design feature.<br />
"The cladding on the curtain wall<br />
included clear glazing, frosted glazing,<br />
grey and bronze panels, which would all<br />
be placed throughout the Mosque to<br />
create atmospheric and spiritual lighting<br />
within. Archicad allowed us to refine the<br />
hexagonal form and break it down to<br />
create various triangular forms."<br />
Whilst the Mosque was designed with<br />
contemporary curves and glazing, the<br />
other buildings such as the school and<br />
retail and residential units were<br />
finished in facing brickwork that match<br />
their surroundings.<br />
"Our goal was to ensure that the<br />
modern design concepts were present<br />
throughout the development, and to<br />
that end we used high-quality<br />
brickwork for a contemporary touch,"<br />
added Nayan. "In addition, the large<br />
fenestration along the building provide<br />
ample natural light and ventilation to<br />
the residential and the retail units, with<br />
deep reveals to create a game of<br />
shadows.<br />
"The double-height glazed retail units<br />
provide an active street frontage to<br />
create a lively atmosphere and safer<br />
environment in the local area. Archicad<br />
gave us the possibility to design to the<br />
highest standard whilst keeping our<br />
unique aesthetic throughout the project.<br />
Another benefit of using Graphisoft's<br />
software came from Archicad's morph<br />
tool which allowed the team to create a<br />
sort of linear Islamic text and scripture<br />
which would normally be placed on a<br />
mosque frontage."<br />
GREEN DEVELOPMENT AND<br />
SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS<br />
As the development was meant to<br />
reflect modern-day technology and<br />
environmental concerns, sustainability<br />
was at the heart of the design. MADE<br />
Architecture proposed rainwater<br />
harvesting that allowed them to reuse<br />
as much surface water as possible for<br />
the facilities, in all the buildings in the<br />
complex. The existing site does have a<br />
relatively high-water table, so the<br />
rainwater harvesting method helps to<br />
address and take advantage of this for<br />
the development.<br />
Other technologies that are currently<br />
being explored are the façade cladding<br />
where the glazing can be manipulated<br />
to control the amount of sunlight and<br />
solar gain within the Mosque. This<br />
helps prevent overheating, as the site is<br />
mostly south facing.<br />
ARCHICAD - AT THE HEART OF IT ALL<br />
"Archicad was particularly useful for us<br />
because we were able to work in 3D<br />
and at the same time visualise the<br />
buildings and show them to the client<br />
so they can understand the design",<br />
said Nayan. "We wanted to be able to<br />
show them how the form is developing<br />
and to be able to describe the design<br />
process in great detail - and Archicad<br />
is extremely good at helping us<br />
achieve that unequivocal<br />
communication with the end user."<br />
Through progressive design,<br />
motivation, creativity and close<br />
working relationships with the local<br />
authority, MADE Architecture is now in<br />
the process of turning its client's<br />
dream into a reality that will benefit the<br />
local community and the city for<br />
generations to come. Construction<br />
works are expected to start in the<br />
summer of <strong>2022</strong> and finalise within 24<br />
months.<br />
www.graphisoft.co.uk<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 21
INDUSTRYcomment<br />
Ahead in the cloud<br />
<strong>May</strong> Winfield, Global Director of Commercial, Legal and Digital Risks, Buro Happold discusses the<br />
conundrum between ownership and risk when using cloud services<br />
News headlines and data articles<br />
seem to assume all our data<br />
now lives in the cloud - and<br />
increasingly it does. McKinsey 5<br />
August 2019 Insights, 'Unlocking<br />
business acceleration in a hybrid<br />
cloud world', observed that "The<br />
companies we surveyed (in Spring<br />
2019) currently have around 50<br />
percent of all workloads running on<br />
public- and private-cloud platforms. By<br />
<strong>2022</strong>, that share is projected to rise to<br />
75 percent, with roughly two-thirds of<br />
that workload housed in shared public<br />
platforms within data centres built out<br />
by the major cloud-service providers."<br />
This is likely to be much higher than<br />
predicted in the unprecedented times<br />
in which we currently find ourselves.<br />
Indeed, cloud-based platforms and<br />
cloud computing services (such as<br />
Software as a Service or SaaS) have<br />
become ubiquitous with digital<br />
working, and<br />
as far back<br />
as 21 July 2020, McKinsey had<br />
already pointed out that "Leaders need<br />
to accelerate their journey to the cloud<br />
in order to digitise quickly and<br />
effectively in the wake of COVID-19".<br />
There is a danger in using such<br />
platforms by simply moving your local<br />
storage and applications into the<br />
cloud (some commentators term this a<br />
"lift and shift"). Due to the collaborative<br />
nature and additional functions of<br />
cloud systems, implementation goes<br />
beyond changing to a nicer looking,<br />
more organised virtual folder system.<br />
Perhaps a good comparable may be<br />
the previous move from the drawing<br />
board to CAD - there were a lot of<br />
knock-on effects to rights, duties and<br />
resulting risk of liability.<br />
When implementing or incorporating<br />
cloud-based platforms, some key<br />
issues and concerns spring to mind,<br />
which can be dealt with at the outset.<br />
Cloud-based platforms by their very<br />
nature are intended to<br />
facilitate collaboration and better<br />
exchange of information between<br />
parties, enabling cost and time saving<br />
and improved efficiency. However, this<br />
fundamental aspect can lead to<br />
disagreements about copyright or<br />
ownership of documents and data<br />
uploaded to these platforms.<br />
Generally speaking, you should not<br />
lose ownership of your documents or<br />
data simply by giving access to others<br />
or storing them in a particular location.<br />
The devil will be in the contractual<br />
detail (or lack thereof). Contracts<br />
between parties for design services or<br />
construction works will invariably<br />
contain clauses dealing with copyright<br />
of documents and deliverables, i.e.<br />
specifying if copyright is retained by<br />
the authoring party (with licence to use<br />
to the client) or transferred to the<br />
client. If parties want some or all<br />
documents or data stored on the<br />
cloud-based<br />
22<br />
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INDUSTRYcomment<br />
platforms to be dealt with differently,<br />
they should set this out expressly in<br />
the agreement to avoid<br />
misunderstanding. Similarly, contracts<br />
with providers of cloud computing<br />
services, for example software<br />
providers and storage providers,<br />
would normally confirm that your<br />
documents and data remain owned by<br />
you regardless of the use of their<br />
services. You may want to double<br />
check however whether the relevant<br />
contractual provisions give the<br />
providers rights of use for research or<br />
other purposes, and if that is<br />
agreeable to you.<br />
The story doesn't end with copyright,<br />
however. When you upload documents<br />
and data onto a cloud-based platform,<br />
who has access? Are you happy for<br />
them to rely on what you have<br />
uploaded - and to what extent? What if<br />
they amend your documents or data?<br />
Can they share them with other<br />
parties? Who bears responsibility for<br />
delay or additional costs in the event<br />
of a lack of access to the platform for<br />
a period of time? All of these<br />
questions could broadly be captured<br />
under the heading of Risk and Liability.<br />
In parties using, and collaborating<br />
via, a cloud-based platform, is it clear<br />
who can (and must) do what, when<br />
and how? Arguably many<br />
misunderstandings occur when there<br />
is a lack of clarity or there is a gap in<br />
obligations and rights leading to<br />
differing interpretations and unwanted<br />
positions if issues arise. Whilst no one<br />
wants excess paperwork or legal 'red<br />
tape', don't underestimate therefore<br />
the importance of agreeing and clearly<br />
setting out the roles, rights and<br />
responsibilities in the use and access<br />
of the planned cloud-based platform<br />
or application within documentation.<br />
For ease of reference, this may be<br />
best placed in a separate procedural<br />
or technical document that then forms<br />
a schedule or appendix within all<br />
project parties' contracts.<br />
Alternatively, or in addition, one could<br />
utilise splash screens and notes on<br />
documents to specify their intended<br />
status or use, to deal with that aspect<br />
of the risk equation. Some parties also<br />
require acceptance of standard waiver<br />
or disclaimer forms by other parties of<br />
the project with whom they may not<br />
have a direct contractual relationship -<br />
containing confirmation on what each<br />
party's responsibility is regarding<br />
access to the platform and its<br />
contents, how they should be used<br />
and who bears responsibility for each<br />
obvious or likely risks.<br />
In some cases, your legal or<br />
professional advisor drafting your<br />
agreements may be unfamiliar with the<br />
functioning and processes of the<br />
cloud platform you use or intend to<br />
use. They may rely on you to instruct<br />
them on the real issues and risks that<br />
need to be dealt with and clarified, so<br />
they can then incorporate this into the<br />
contractual documentation.<br />
But how do you work out the likely or<br />
probable risks and issues? One of my<br />
favourite methods in such situations is<br />
to start with a blank piece of paper (or<br />
empty text document) and list out all<br />
the things that could realistically go<br />
wrong, as well as all the things you are<br />
really concerned to protect yourself<br />
against or not take liability for. This<br />
can then form the basis of that<br />
important discussion with your<br />
professional advisor.<br />
One particular risk or issue that bears<br />
mentioning is whether a party can<br />
withdraw others' access to the cloudbased<br />
platform at its convenience, as<br />
occurred in the UK court case of Trant<br />
v Mott Macdonald [2017] EWHC 2061<br />
(T<strong>CC</strong>). In that case, the BIM<br />
Information Manager, Mott Macdonald,<br />
withdrew the contractor, Trant's access<br />
to the shared cloud-based platform,<br />
known as the Common Data<br />
Environment in BIM process, due to a<br />
payment dispute. It is understood that<br />
the contract documents were silent on<br />
this issue, leading to an expensive,<br />
and time consuming, court case to<br />
resolve the point.<br />
None of the above issues should<br />
however cause one to refrain from<br />
using cloud-based platforms and<br />
applications. As with all new ways of<br />
working and complex processes, it is<br />
simply that the legal and contractual<br />
issues and risks must not be ignored<br />
and brushed under the carpet, as to<br />
do so may eventually negate all the<br />
collaborative benefits that the<br />
technology has to offer.<br />
In this short article I have only been<br />
able to touch upon a few of the key<br />
risks or issues, and ways to mitigate<br />
them. For a more extensive<br />
discussion, you may find my paper on<br />
this topic useful:<br />
www.autodesk.com/autodesk-<br />
university/class/Sharing-Data-Cloud-<br />
Based-Platforms-Avoiding-Risks-<br />
Liability-Disputes-2020<br />
This article is provided for general<br />
information only. It is not intended to<br />
amount to advice on which you should rely.<br />
You should obtain professional advice<br />
before taking, or refraining from taking, any<br />
action on the basis of this paper.<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 23
SOFTWAREreview<br />
Enscape 3.3<br />
The latest version of Enscape adds new features requested by the Enscape community,<br />
including Site Context, which surrounds your rendered models with lhe local infrastructure<br />
designers can spend more time making<br />
the right decisions and less time<br />
gathering the data needed to do it. We<br />
will also continue to improve our core<br />
visualisation and sharing platforms<br />
based on community feedback."<br />
Enscape has seen a 50 percent<br />
annual growth despite the pandemic,<br />
demonstrating that designers have<br />
realised the value and potential of<br />
integrating new technology into design<br />
workflows.<br />
Enscape users can now set their<br />
models within an actual 3D<br />
environment, enabling them to<br />
gauge its impact and positioning on the<br />
project's surrounding buildings. thanks<br />
to the Site Context module within the<br />
latest release, Enscape 3.3. Simply by<br />
entering an address, or setting site<br />
coordinates, users can choose to<br />
import all surroundings, buildings and<br />
landmarks, streets and sidewalks, or<br />
topography. This is just one of the latest<br />
tools that Enscape has incorporated in<br />
the latest version of their popular realtime<br />
visualisation software.<br />
The new release will help architects<br />
and designers improve their design<br />
workflow even further to create even<br />
more impressive real-time visualiaations<br />
and immersive experiences. Other new<br />
features allow users to improve<br />
visualiaations of glass and water<br />
surfaces, add new educational assets<br />
and materials into scenes, and more.<br />
"We're always looking for new ways to<br />
support our customers' design<br />
workflows," said Petr Mitev, VP<br />
Visualisation Product Group at<br />
Enscape. "With today's release, we've<br />
automated some processes so<br />
OPENSTREETMAP DATA<br />
The Site Context module is a popular<br />
enhancement to the software. It allows<br />
users to import a project's surroundings<br />
into renderings by utilising<br />
OpenStreetMap data, a free-to-use<br />
global GIS 2D mapping tool containing<br />
data supplied by its users, presented in<br />
layers, that cover transport links, a cycle<br />
map with contours, local information<br />
which users can annotate and other<br />
overlays - plus sufficient vector<br />
information about local infrastructure<br />
and buildings to enable them to be<br />
recreated as 3D mass models using the<br />
appropriate software.<br />
Enscape comes within that category.<br />
Integrated within Enscape 3.3,<br />
accessing the Site Context icon enables<br />
24<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
SOFTWAREfocus<br />
selected areas of an OpenStreetMap to<br />
be imported together with the model<br />
view, allowing the local 3D infrastructure<br />
to be displayed alongside the Enscape<br />
rendered model. The benefits are<br />
substantial. Architects can see if their<br />
designs are appropriate and correctly<br />
scaled for given areas, or whether site<br />
lines are occluded by nearby buildings.<br />
The OpenStreetMap information is<br />
maintained within Enscape and is not<br />
capable of being rendered using<br />
Enscape's visualisation tools. Enscape,<br />
however, has a number of refinement<br />
tools to select and manipulate the<br />
imported OpenStreetMap segment.<br />
These allow the Site Context tool to<br />
resize, rotate, centralise and otherwise<br />
reposition the Enscape model within the<br />
selected zone. You can, for instance,<br />
raise and lower the imported view to<br />
accurately line up adjacent pavements<br />
and roads. You can also hide or<br />
deselect local buildings if their<br />
representation hinders proper viewing<br />
of the model.<br />
HANDLING TRANSPARENCY<br />
Transparency in visualisations is a<br />
fascinating subject. Paradoxically it has<br />
more to do with opacity than<br />
transparency - the amount of light that<br />
can pass through an object. The more<br />
light that can pass through an object<br />
the lighter and more see-through it is.<br />
The higher the opacity, the more solid it<br />
is. So in other words the lower the<br />
opacity, the more transparent an object.<br />
Enscape has added another layer of<br />
complexity by enabling transparent<br />
materials to appear in reflections,<br />
improving visualisation of rendered<br />
glass and water surfaces. To handle<br />
the complex and massively increased<br />
ray-tracing it requires, and to achieve<br />
it in real-time rendering, users will<br />
have to use a graphics card that<br />
supports hardware-accelerated ray<br />
tracing, such as NVIDIA RTX series<br />
and AMD RX6xxx series.<br />
A quite different transparency effect is<br />
available with the Alpha Channel Export,<br />
which allows users to render an image<br />
with a transparent or neutral<br />
background automatically applied. This<br />
export feature allows users to then add<br />
their own background to the rendered<br />
images - perhaps swapping cloud<br />
imagery with a mountain backdrop, or<br />
setting the rendered model in an<br />
alternative environment.<br />
PINNING AN ENSCAPE WNDOW<br />
How do you take further advantage of a<br />
real-time renderer? Activating the Pin<br />
Enscape on Top function brings up a<br />
second window on a single screen that<br />
pins the renderer on top of the<br />
modelling screen together with access<br />
to the rendering menus. This allows<br />
users to work on their modeling<br />
software and immediately see any<br />
changes in the overlayed Enscape<br />
window. The window can be moved<br />
around the screen and placed in its<br />
most convenient position. The benefits<br />
become immediately apparent when<br />
used with another of Enscape 3.3's<br />
releases, Material Overwrite.<br />
Material Overwrite enables materials to<br />
be exchanged within a rendered scene<br />
much more easily, and without having to<br />
import or export them. This is one of<br />
Enscape's users most frequently<br />
requested enhancements and saves<br />
time when post-processing renders or<br />
when experimenting with different<br />
effects and the look or feel of a scene.<br />
EDUCATION ASSETS AND<br />
MATERIALS<br />
The Material Overwrite feature naturally<br />
includes the additions to Enscape's<br />
Materials and Asset Libraries, with over<br />
30 new education based materials, and<br />
another 280 education-themed assets<br />
being added, to include classroom<br />
furniture, toys, musical instruments,<br />
playground equipment, acoustic<br />
panels, and more to use in education<br />
scenes. The asset package also<br />
includes a large collection of new 3D<br />
people, all of which can be placed<br />
directly in projects and renderings.<br />
UPLOAD MIGRATIONS<br />
An Enscape Account offers an efficient<br />
way to manage your uploads and<br />
licenses online. It also provides<br />
additional functionality such as creating<br />
Panorama Galleries and the sharing<br />
and unsharing of links. This can all be<br />
managed within a user-friendly webbased<br />
interface.<br />
Enscape has become a popular<br />
addition to the toolsets of architects<br />
and designers, allowing real-time<br />
rendering features to be accessed<br />
throughout the design process, neatly<br />
outlined by one of its users, Joe Tubb,<br />
Senior 3D Visualisation Specialist at<br />
ASD|SKY: "Enscape is simple and<br />
approachable," he says, "while at the<br />
same time offering deeper levels of<br />
creativity, furthering design expression<br />
and overall visual communications. It's<br />
remarkably fast and enables designers<br />
to be more confident in their design<br />
choices while allowing them to explore<br />
and experiment multiple solutions."<br />
https://enscape3d.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 25
SOFTWARE focus<br />
AI-assisted BIM<br />
BricsCAD Ultimate uses AI to automatically produce LOD 200 BIM from concept massing models<br />
Working on the definition that you<br />
should leave computers to do<br />
what they are good at - giving<br />
architects the freedom to do what<br />
humans do best, which is to be creative -<br />
BricsCAD has been developed to<br />
automatically progress models from<br />
initial concept designs to fully classified<br />
BIM at LOD 200.<br />
Using standard CAD tools such as draw,<br />
extrude, push/pull, filleting and so on, a<br />
basic design can be laid out without<br />
having to worry about classification,<br />
elements and layers until BricsCAD BIM is<br />
applied to the model. The application then<br />
takes over the workflow to convert your<br />
basic concept into a BIM that can be used<br />
to create elevations, viewports, schedules,<br />
takeoffs, BOMs and the rest of the<br />
documentation that you would expect<br />
from a BIM model. The accelerated BIM<br />
workflow is fully automated using artificial<br />
intelligence, giving users the opportunity<br />
and freedom to focus on the design and<br />
technical issues instead.<br />
In addition, leaving computers to do the<br />
complex and tedious manual tasks<br />
shortens the learning curve for architects<br />
wanting to move from 2D and 3D<br />
modelling to full-scale BIM.<br />
BRICSCAD ULTIMATE<br />
You will already know about BricsCAD, the<br />
series of CAD tools developed by Bricsys,<br />
as they have been around for 20 years or<br />
so. Bricsys are known as suppliers of<br />
budget priced, DWG-based CAD<br />
applications, competing against<br />
Autodesk LT and similar<br />
packages. The company has<br />
develop a global status, and is<br />
in use in over 110 countries,<br />
The Belgium-based company, part of<br />
Hexagon AB, has spent that time<br />
developing a complete range of solutions<br />
covering CAD, BIM and MCAD, at different<br />
levels: BrisCAD Classic for CAD drafting;<br />
BrisCAD Pro, which can be used for 2D/3D<br />
CAD; BrisCAD Platinum, which introduces<br />
parametric and deformable modelling, and<br />
BrisCAD BIM, a total design-centric<br />
approach to creating BIM models.<br />
All of these are available individually, but<br />
the complete bundle, including MCAD, is<br />
available within BricsCAD Ultimate, which<br />
gives users access to the total package,<br />
backed up by BricsCAD 24/7, the<br />
software's Cloud-based support. As you<br />
would expect, collaboration and model<br />
sharing apply throughout.<br />
BRICSCAD BIM<br />
The principal aim of Bricsys was to<br />
maintain the software's affinity with open<br />
file formats and users existing 2D/3D<br />
workflows. The former is achieved with<br />
BricsCAD open systems format, based on<br />
IFCs, and on AutoCADs DWG format. This<br />
ensures that Files and data are<br />
compatible with other systems and not<br />
corralled into proprietary file formats.<br />
Users start with solid mass modelling,<br />
ignoring the need to create families and<br />
classify components, and once the basic<br />
design is created, BricsCAD BIM takes over,<br />
using tools like 'BIMify' to convert model<br />
elements into digitally correct BIM objects,<br />
'Automatch' to find and uphold design<br />
standards and reuse the fields across a<br />
project, and 'Propagate' to repeat a detailed<br />
design across instances where it can be<br />
applied across an entire project. The end<br />
result is the creation of a digitally accurate<br />
virtual twin of a virtual environment.<br />
Bricsys stresses that the BricsCAD BIM<br />
workflow is a continuous level of<br />
development, progressing with minimum<br />
manual effort, but capable of extracting<br />
consistent drawing specifications<br />
regardless of where you open the model,<br />
and still associated with the model so that<br />
modifications made within a drawing are<br />
reflected back in the model.<br />
AI-ASSISTED MODELLING<br />
The design tools within BricsCAD BIM can<br />
develop complex 3D BIM classified<br />
models but in the early stages of the<br />
design the model browser merely<br />
displays a list of 3D model solids and not<br />
much else, and no BIM information. You<br />
can add windows, drag and drop doors<br />
from libraries, and parametrically<br />
rearrange the design.<br />
You can add BIM information manually,<br />
but in a large project that would be<br />
tedious. BricsCAD provides some<br />
assistance here - if you define an object<br />
as a 'roof' and then look at its properties,<br />
you will find that standard roof properties<br />
have been added to the object.<br />
With one click, all that can be done for<br />
26<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
SOFTWAREfocus<br />
you. BIMify looks at and recognises all the<br />
solid objects in a model - walls, windows,<br />
roofs, slabs and even columns, beams and<br />
rooms - and converts them into BIM<br />
objects. BIMify can also detect structural<br />
elements and MEP, block references,<br />
buildings, stories and external walls.<br />
How does it work? It uses machine<br />
learning techniques to build a classifier, and<br />
is then trained on a number of buildings<br />
and structural and MEP models. It learns<br />
how to classify geometry by itself, enabling<br />
it to automatically identify and classify solid<br />
objects in a model. Having identified a<br />
profile in a solid it then goes to the profile<br />
library to find a match, and adds all of the<br />
elements of that profile to the model.<br />
AUTOMATCH<br />
The next step in the BIM workflow is to<br />
increase the LOD by applying BIM<br />
compositions and automatically created<br />
sets of standards to walls etc. - the<br />
materials that make up the walls.<br />
Predefined compositions can be dragged<br />
and dropped into the model or created on<br />
the fly and applied across a number of<br />
adjoining elements.<br />
Once a section of a model has been<br />
created, it can be used throughout the<br />
model to save time, using 'Automatch',<br />
which searches the whole model for similar<br />
patterns of design and applies the LOD<br />
results, including relevant restraints and<br />
standards as well, ensuring compatibility<br />
throughout the model. Automatching also<br />
enables BIM information to be retained and<br />
used on entirely new projects.<br />
PROPAGATING MODEL DETAILS<br />
Detailing is another feature that, once<br />
done, needs to be repeated many times.<br />
In a typical timber framed building the<br />
design of the joist may show that they<br />
merely butt onto the wall, with no<br />
precise details of the connection. Users<br />
can use the 3D modelling tools of<br />
BricCAD BIM to redefine the connection,<br />
extending the joist into the wall. Once<br />
this has been done, Propagate scans<br />
the entire model to see where similar<br />
modifications need to be made and<br />
indicates their position, requesting a<br />
decision on whether the modification<br />
needs to be applied or not.<br />
Similarly with structural steel elements<br />
which need finishing off. Once the detail<br />
has been added, with its nut/bolts,<br />
flanges and so on, Propagate will find<br />
other instances where it could be<br />
applied. Propagate, like the other BIM<br />
tools, will also work with other imported in<br />
IFC format. It also works parametrically. If<br />
the angle of the structural steel joint<br />
differs in some sections, the Propagation<br />
can be set up to apply to different angles<br />
and thicknesses.<br />
What about MCAD, How does that fit<br />
in? If you want to include an escalator in<br />
a building project, you don't need to<br />
add all the nuts and bolts, but you will<br />
then be able to specify an envelope to<br />
fit it in. Designing it in BricsCAD's<br />
MCAD module provide users with the<br />
detail they need to BIMify their<br />
mechanical designs so that they can<br />
add them to the BIM.<br />
SCHEDULES AND LAYOUTS<br />
Once a Project is BIMified users can<br />
then create a complete project from the<br />
BIM model in the Project browser,<br />
which can include models and section<br />
plans and the 3D documentation<br />
created from them, schedules, and<br />
viewports. There may still be some<br />
tidying up to do, such as changing the<br />
hashing on a model feature to improve<br />
its visibility.<br />
Annotations and dimensions can be<br />
applied to a sheet at this stage - and ss<br />
everything is still associated with the<br />
BIM model, changes made at this<br />
stage can still be made in 2D or in the<br />
3D model drawings that will be<br />
reflected in the model.<br />
If, for instance, a wall needs to be<br />
moved - it can be selected and<br />
dragged to a new position, and the<br />
attached dimension labels amended<br />
accordingly and all associated BIM<br />
elements adjusted as well.<br />
A COMPLETE PRODUCT<br />
It looks as if BricsCAD Ultimate can<br />
accommodate everything required of<br />
an architect aiming to expand into BIM,<br />
and the flexibility of the solution is<br />
reflected in the cost of using it - still a<br />
value option compared to other BIM<br />
software suppliers. It comes with more<br />
than I could include here, but to get a<br />
flavour, take a look at the extent of its<br />
capabilities at:<br />
https://youtu.be/YTwJV-aFXx8<br />
www.bricsys.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 27
CASEstudy<br />
Paperless Construction<br />
How the Paperless Construction app supported Eurovia Contracting on the Vauxhall Bridge<br />
Refurbishment Project in Central London<br />
Eurovia Contracting provides onestop-shop<br />
engineering solutions<br />
across the UK, from feasibility and<br />
design through to Construction and<br />
maintenance, using best practice<br />
procurement and project management<br />
principles. The company is committed to<br />
creating an environment that makes a<br />
lasting difference to environmental,<br />
social and economic sustainability. They<br />
adopt best environmental practice<br />
across their operations by reducing<br />
consumption of non-renewable<br />
resources, investing in green<br />
technology, materials and processes,<br />
and managing their carbon and water<br />
footprint for the benefit of future<br />
generations.<br />
Eurovia Contracting began working on<br />
a design and build project to refurbish<br />
the top side of the 116 year-old Vauxhall<br />
Bridge for Transport for London (TfL),<br />
with the preliminary design phase<br />
starting in October 2019. They went into<br />
the detailed design in the spring of 2020<br />
with the building phase commencing in<br />
August the same year.<br />
Constructed mainly of concrete and<br />
steel, the current Vauxhall Bridge is<br />
historically significant and is a Grade II<br />
listed structure. It was authorised by an<br />
Act of Parliament passed in 1895 and<br />
was the first bridge in London to carry<br />
a tramway - its predecessor was the<br />
first iron bridge erected over the<br />
Thames in London.<br />
The project consisted of stripping the<br />
bridge back down to the concrete deck<br />
(parapet to parapet) carrying out<br />
concrete repairs to the deck section,<br />
improving drainage on the bridge<br />
(including additional attenuation by<br />
using in kerb drainage units) providing<br />
additional sections to the service<br />
trenches, reconstructing the footways,<br />
and water proofing and resurfacing the<br />
carriageway.<br />
THE PROBLEM<br />
This prestigious refurbishment project in<br />
central London was not without its<br />
challenges on several fronts. In addition<br />
to the historical significance of the<br />
bridge, it is situated in a sensitive area<br />
of London at Albert Embankment,<br />
Vauxhall. This site's sensitivity made site<br />
access control a top priority, and<br />
Eurovia Contracting was acutely aware<br />
they had to ensure access control was<br />
robust enough only to allow authorised<br />
users onto the site.<br />
Traceability was critical, and Eurovia<br />
Contracting had to know who was onsite<br />
at all times, for how long, their<br />
anticipated movements and location. A<br />
directional closure over a main artery<br />
over the Thames, such as the Vauxhall<br />
Bridge, was a challenge that required<br />
precise planning, as any unforeseen<br />
delays would have had severe<br />
consequences for stakeholders and<br />
road users alike. The "forensic" planning<br />
involved in a closure like this needs to<br />
be initiated months, if not years ahead<br />
of time.<br />
Another challenge was that the<br />
refurbishment project took place amid<br />
the COVID-19 pandemic and Eurovia<br />
Contracting had to put a solution in<br />
place that complied with social<br />
distancing imperatives (minimum 2<br />
metres) as well as minimising physical<br />
contact between employees whilst<br />
undertaking inductions, safety briefings,<br />
toolbox talks, permits and more.<br />
Despite the many challenges involved<br />
in this project, planned deadlines had<br />
to be met, and constraints were<br />
extremely tight.<br />
THE SOLUTION<br />
Eurovia Contracting turned to Paperless<br />
Construction's cloud-based compliance<br />
management software app to digitise<br />
time and attendance records and their<br />
health and safety processes to address<br />
some of these challenges, by removing<br />
the need for paper-based health and<br />
safety training records and automating<br />
compliance management.<br />
The app's functionality meant paper<br />
could be eliminated almost entirely from<br />
the site, providing a cloud-based<br />
solution where records could be shared<br />
and accessed irrespective of location<br />
and delivering accurate traceability to<br />
who is trained. This dovetailed precisely<br />
with Eurovia Contracting's commitment<br />
to environmental sustainability.<br />
When interviewed, Eurovia<br />
28<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
CASEstudy<br />
Contracting's Operations Manager,<br />
Duncan Jenkins, summed up the<br />
situation before the Paperless<br />
Construction app was rolled out:<br />
"When we were working with paper, we<br />
had daily briefings on a sheet of paper<br />
in the canteen, and the guys would<br />
come in, have a briefing with the<br />
Foreman and sign the document. There<br />
were ring binders of paper everywhere,<br />
making it very difficult to track<br />
compliance".<br />
Duncan went on to say that the COVID-<br />
19 situation accelerated the uptake of<br />
the Paperless Construction app on the<br />
Vauxhall Bridge project and across<br />
Eurovia Contracting. Eurovia<br />
Contracting were always looking for<br />
digital solutions to remove the physical<br />
paper from the site, and the app left<br />
them with no excuses for not doing so.<br />
He added, "Our ambition has always<br />
been for this project to be paperless. We<br />
have been looking to remove the paper<br />
from the project and the site. Eurovia<br />
Contracting's rollout of Paperless<br />
Construction across the business has<br />
supported this ambition. The Vauxhall<br />
Bridge Project has been a flagship<br />
project for our business this year and<br />
therefore, for me, it was a prime<br />
opportunity to demonstrate being as<br />
close as possible paperless."<br />
RESULTS<br />
With Paperless Construction's all-in-one<br />
timekeeping, briefing and compliance<br />
management application, Eurovia<br />
Contracting had a robust access control<br />
solution to record the time and<br />
attendance of all workers and visitors<br />
entering the project. This provided<br />
Eurovia with the control needed to<br />
maintain site security.<br />
All briefings were recorded on the<br />
same application, whether daily<br />
briefings, toolbox talks, permits or<br />
inductions, providing an instant audit<br />
trail of all their employees' competency<br />
and training records - putting their<br />
mind at rest that all employees on the<br />
project were trained, competent and<br />
well-rested.<br />
Duncan Jenkins also summed up<br />
some of the major benefits the<br />
Paperless Construction app delivered to<br />
Eurovia Contracting, for example saying<br />
"Because the tool is very intuitive and<br />
easy to use, uptake was quick and<br />
simple, with the team immediately<br />
seeing the benefits - which drove its<br />
use. Initial training was provided, and<br />
strengthened by Eurovia Contracting's<br />
Digital Construction team.<br />
"Prior to Paperless Construction, there<br />
was a risk of losing records; there was a<br />
risk of people not doing what they were<br />
supposed to do and not storing<br />
documents appropriately. But if that<br />
happens now, it's obvious to everyone<br />
because there's an immediate gaping<br />
hole in the audit trail.<br />
"For example, if a briefing does not<br />
happen, it's apparent that it hasn't taken<br />
place, and if people aren't signed into<br />
sites, management can see immediately<br />
via the web or the app that they're not<br />
signed in."<br />
Duncan also explained that the<br />
completeness and quality of records<br />
overall had been improved. "Before the<br />
Paperless Construction app was rolled<br />
out, poor quality record-keeping could<br />
go unseen. For example, if someone<br />
didn't sign a piece of paper, it could<br />
easily go in the file and not be noticed,<br />
whereas with the app in place, you have<br />
a record that's live, visible, and<br />
transparent - it's effortless to see who<br />
has done what, and when.<br />
"We clearly saved cost in terms of<br />
paper, printing, processing and storage.<br />
There was an investment in the<br />
hardware required, but that's a<br />
worthwhile one to take as we move<br />
further into a digital world."<br />
And, as Duncan neatly summed it up,<br />
"I can sit in my office, log into Paperless<br />
and know immediately what is<br />
happening on the project. I can do it on<br />
my tablet or any device because it's<br />
synced across all devices. It's<br />
accessible from anywhere - all of which<br />
means we're achieving our digital<br />
objectives".<br />
By deploying the Paperless<br />
Construction app on the Vauxhall Bridge<br />
Refurbishment Project, Eurovia<br />
Contracting achieved their paperless<br />
site objective and solved their strict<br />
access control and COVID-19 social<br />
distancing needs whilst also meeting<br />
their legal and contractual obligations.<br />
www.paperlessconstruction.co.uk<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 29
INDUSTRYfocus<br />
Can construction catch up?<br />
Ibrahim Imam, CEO of construction management platform PlanRadar, explains how to ensure minimal<br />
disruption when introducing new technology to your construction business<br />
The fact that digital adoption is<br />
gathering pace within the<br />
construction industry is well<br />
documented. However, less discussed is<br />
how to best ensure the smooth<br />
implementation of new technology within<br />
a business, the common pitfalls to avoid<br />
and the importance of taking an<br />
employee-led approach.<br />
Construction is no longer a stranger to<br />
digital ways of working. Whilst uptake<br />
over the last decades has been sluggish,<br />
external events, particularly the<br />
pandemic lockdowns and the resulting<br />
proliferation of remote working, have laid<br />
the ground for digitisation to flourish. As<br />
a result, many businesses are now<br />
reassessing their digital strategy or<br />
introducing one, opting for new ways to<br />
streamline their business whilst collecting<br />
valuable performance data.<br />
However, the ability to successfully<br />
implement these new tools and the<br />
processes behind seamless integration<br />
are often overlooked. Done well, tech<br />
implementation has the potential to<br />
boost performance, executed poorly and<br />
it can mean time and money wasted, as<br />
well as hindering any future digital<br />
development.<br />
PLAYING CATCH-UP<br />
First, why has it taken construction so<br />
long to embrace digital adoption,<br />
especially when compared with other<br />
heavy industries such as automotive and<br />
aviation? One theory is that it all comes<br />
down to money, with many companies<br />
apprehensive to make the large financial<br />
investment traditionally needed to<br />
implement new technology infrastructure,<br />
including extensive training programmes<br />
for staff who need to evolve working<br />
practices to use the new software and<br />
hardware introduced.<br />
However, almost overnight, the industry<br />
has found ways to innovate quickly,<br />
removing the need for the expensive<br />
30<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
INDUSTRYfocus<br />
monolithic systems that once dominated.<br />
Technology can now be introduced<br />
piece-by-piece, and it's also more<br />
affordable than ever, with lower financial<br />
risk. Today's new technology is designed<br />
to work alongside current practices,<br />
rather than trying to replace them.<br />
An ageing workforce has also had an<br />
influence. Many people working in<br />
construction are seen as practical types,<br />
favouring a more traditional approach<br />
over digital formats. But as we've seen<br />
with the rise of huge tech conglomerates,<br />
the next generation are now entering the<br />
workforce, bringing with them more<br />
efficient and accurate ways of working. In<br />
short, times have changed.<br />
DEVELOPING A DIGITAL STRATEGY<br />
Although implementing technology<br />
throughout a construction business is<br />
now easier than ever, it's still important to<br />
understand and develop a digital<br />
strategy before making any investment.<br />
For example, a company may be<br />
looking to condense the amount of<br />
reporting needed each month, or plug<br />
gaps in data collection as a result of too<br />
many siloed programmes or platforms.<br />
Communication may also be a key driver,<br />
to improve the way that teams share<br />
information and record completed work.<br />
Perhaps it's all of the above. Identifying<br />
what you want (and don't want) from your<br />
tech in these early stages will help you<br />
pinpoint the right tools that your specific<br />
business needs.<br />
Focusing only on the essentials will also<br />
help to avoid any gratuitous changes.<br />
Many companies feel pressured to<br />
switch up their working style in line with<br />
industry changes without thinking<br />
carefully about their decision<br />
beforehand. Forward planning will help<br />
you get the most bang for your buck and<br />
avoid any unnecessary waste.<br />
CREATING A DIGITAL CULTURE<br />
Fostering a digital-first mentality amongst<br />
staff is also crucial when it comes to<br />
implementing new tech. How your team<br />
is first introduced to new technology will<br />
influence how they respond to it. This is<br />
especially important if staff are<br />
apprehensive about the idea of working<br />
digitally. Creating a positive culture<br />
around innovation and an appreciation<br />
for new technology can help overcome<br />
these hurdles.<br />
One way to achieve this is through a<br />
'soft but slow' approach. Starting small<br />
can give employees time to get to grips<br />
with the new tech and understand how<br />
it can benefit them personally. The<br />
beauty of the latest systems and<br />
devices are their ease of use. This is<br />
especially true of ConTech<br />
(Construction Tech), which can often be<br />
used on existing hardware such as<br />
phones or tablets. As a result, it's easy<br />
to test and trial without the financial<br />
pressure of a complete digital overhaul.<br />
It also means that if it's successful,<br />
workers are more open to upgrading on<br />
a larger scale and throughout different<br />
areas of the business.<br />
This 'ground up' rather than 'top down'<br />
approach allows time for staff to<br />
familiarise themselves with tech,<br />
making it a much more organic<br />
process. This is also a helpful way to<br />
dispel myths around job security -<br />
particularly amongst older members of<br />
staff who may feel these new<br />
introductions are signs of 'phasing them<br />
out' rather than making their work lives<br />
easier and more efficient.<br />
IN WITH THE OLD AND WITH THE<br />
NEW TOO<br />
Of course, one of the key benefits of a<br />
digitally focused workforce is that it can<br />
drive new talent to the industry. Younger<br />
generations, who are comfortable using<br />
technology in all areas of life, can also<br />
influence the speed and scale of digital<br />
uptake. It's no secret construction is<br />
facing a skills gap, caused by an ageing<br />
workforce and less access to skilled<br />
labour from Europe. Digital has the<br />
potential to 'fast track' learning, training a<br />
new breed of tech-savvy built<br />
environment professionals.<br />
However, we shouldn't understate the<br />
importance of older employees. Without<br />
their skills, experience, knowledge and<br />
industry know-how, a generation of<br />
mentors and teachers of core<br />
construction skills will be lost. High levels<br />
of apprehension around using new<br />
digitals tools are in abundance in this<br />
age group. A recent study found that<br />
53% of over-60s learning a new device<br />
find it more stressful than going to the<br />
dentist. Yet with the right training and<br />
patience this can quickly be overcome.<br />
A recent study also found that 90 per<br />
cent of workers consider training as vital<br />
to their career. There was also a greater<br />
connection between training and happy<br />
workers for those aged 55 and over, with<br />
90 percent agreeing or strongly agreeing<br />
there was a link between regular training<br />
and content workforces.<br />
So you can see, it's entirely possible,<br />
and indeed essential, to teach old dogs<br />
new tricks - as long as you undertake it in<br />
the right way.<br />
UNDERSTANDING THE BALANCE<br />
The good news is that modern<br />
technology, particularly constructionspecific<br />
platforms, are developed to be<br />
as intuitive as possible. 'Phygital' tools<br />
that bridge the digital and physical world,<br />
are becoming particularly popular. Online<br />
documentation has also been designed<br />
to replicate day-to-day paperwork,<br />
including worksheets and key assets<br />
such as site diaries or health and safety<br />
audits, meaning users who are already<br />
familiar with the offline forms and<br />
processes, can quickly get up and<br />
running on the digital counterparts with<br />
minimal training.<br />
Ultimately, the way that companies<br />
choose to implement technology will<br />
dictate its success. If proper thought and<br />
justification is given as to why specific<br />
digital tools are right for the business<br />
then it will make any roll-out a much<br />
easier process. It will also impact the<br />
response and take-up from staff who are,<br />
after all, the heart of the business and<br />
those who will use it day-to-day.<br />
A careful, considered and people-first<br />
approach means that companies will be<br />
able to win over the hearts and minds of<br />
staff, regardless of age, ensuring working<br />
methods can digitally evolve in years to<br />
come. Hopefully, taking these steps will<br />
also make the industry a more attractive<br />
prospect to the construction<br />
professionals of tomorrow.<br />
www.planradar.com<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong> 31
YOUR GUIDE TO<br />
5<br />
7<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3<br />
21<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24 20 25 26<br />
27<br />
29<br />
SCOTLAND<br />
FIFE 1<br />
GlenCo Development<br />
Solutions<br />
Contact: Jack Meldrum<br />
Tel: 01592 223330<br />
Fax: 01592 223301<br />
jackm@glenco.org<br />
www.glenco.org<br />
ACMK<br />
ABERDEENSHIRE* 2<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
ABERDEEN 3<br />
30 28<br />
19<br />
15 11/16<br />
6<br />
13<br />
17<br />
9/10<br />
18<br />
12/14<br />
*Location guide<br />
not 100% accurate<br />
TMS CADcentre<br />
Contact: Craig Hamilton<br />
Tel: 01224 223321<br />
info@thom-micro.com<br />
www.tmscadcentre.com<br />
ACELHO<br />
IRELAND<br />
DUBLIN 5<br />
Paradigm Technology Ltd<br />
Contact: Des McGrane<br />
Tel: +353-1-2960155<br />
Fax: +353-1-2960080<br />
dmcgrane@paradigm.ie<br />
www.paradign.it<br />
ACMGKL<br />
SOUTHWEST<br />
NEWBURY 6<br />
RWTC Ltd<br />
Contact: Richard Willis<br />
Tel: 01488 689005<br />
Fax: 01635 32718<br />
richard@rwtc.co.uk<br />
www.rwtc.co.uk<br />
A M<br />
N.I<br />
BELFAST 7<br />
Pentagon Solutions Ltd<br />
Contact: Tony Dalton - Training<br />
Services Manager<br />
Tel: +44 (0) 2890 455 355<br />
Fax: +44 (0) 2890 456 355<br />
tony@pentagonsolutions.com<br />
www.pentagonsolutions.com<br />
ACDEGKL<br />
TRAINING COURSES OFFERED KEY:<br />
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FM DESKTOP:<br />
GIS/MAPPING:<br />
REVIT:<br />
VAULT FUNDAMENTALS<br />
AUTODESK VAULT FOR INVENTOR USERS<br />
A<br />
B<br />
C<br />
D<br />
E<br />
F<br />
G<br />
H<br />
I<br />
J<br />
VISUALISATION:<br />
AUTIDESK CIVIL:<br />
INVENTOR SERIES/MECHANICAL:<br />
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K<br />
L<br />
M<br />
N<br />
O<br />
P<br />
Q<br />
R<br />
S<br />
T<br />
X<br />
For further information about authorised CAD training or to advertise on these pages please contact:<br />
Josh Boulton on 01689 616 000 or email: josh.boulton@btc.co.uk
SOUTH/EAST<br />
HERTFORDSHIRE 9<br />
Computer Aided<br />
Business Systems Ltd<br />
Contact: Gillian Haynes<br />
Tel: 01707 258 338<br />
Fax: 01707 258 339<br />
training@cabs-cad.com<br />
A C D E K H<br />
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 10<br />
Causeway<br />
Technologies Ltd<br />
Contact: Sue Farnfield<br />
Tel: +44 (0)1628 552134<br />
Sue.Farnfield@causeway.com<br />
www.causeway.com<br />
A C D E K<br />
BERKSHIRE 11<br />
Cadpoint<br />
Contact: Clare Keston<br />
Tel: 01344 751300<br />
Fax: 01344 779700<br />
sales@cadpoint.co.uk<br />
www.cadpoint.co.uk<br />
A C D E K<br />
ENFIELD* 12<br />
TRAINING<br />
BERKSHIRE 16<br />
Mass Systems Ltd<br />
Contact: Luke Bolt<br />
Tel: 01344 304 000<br />
Fax: 01344 304 010<br />
info@mass-plc.com<br />
www.mass-plc.com<br />
A E F<br />
HAMPSHIRE 17<br />
Universal CAD Ltd<br />
Contact: Nick Lambden<br />
Tel: [44] 01256 352700<br />
Fax: [44] 01256 352927<br />
sales@universalcad.co.uk<br />
www.universalcad.co.uk<br />
A C M E K H<br />
MILTON KEYNES 18<br />
Graitec - Milton Keynes<br />
Contact: David Huke<br />
Tel: 01908 410026<br />
david.huke@graitec.co.uk<br />
www.graitec.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
CAMBRIDGE 19<br />
THE NORTH<br />
MANCHESTER* 20<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
NEWCASTLE* 21<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
YORKSHIRE 22<br />
Graitec Bradford<br />
Contact: Isobel Gillon<br />
Tel: 01274 532919<br />
training@graitec.co.uk<br />
www.graitec.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
NORTH EAST 23<br />
Graitec - Durham<br />
Contact: Isobel Gillon<br />
Tel: 0191 374 2020<br />
training@graitec.co.uk<br />
www.graitec.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
LANCASHIRE 24<br />
QUADRA SOLUTIONS<br />
Contact: Simon Dobson<br />
Tel: 01254 301 888<br />
Fax: 01254 301 323<br />
training@quadrasol.co.uk<br />
www.quadrasol.co.uk<br />
A C M K<br />
YORKSHIRE* 25<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
SOUTH YORKSHIRE 26<br />
THE JUICE GROUP LTD<br />
Contact: Sarah Thorpe<br />
Tel: 0800 018 1501<br />
Fax: 0114 275 5888<br />
training@thejuice.co.uk<br />
www.thejuicetraining.com<br />
A C D E K R<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
SOUTHHAMPTON 13<br />
Riverside House, Brunel Road<br />
Southampton, Hants. SO40 3WX<br />
Contact: Isobel Gillon<br />
Tel: 02380 868 947<br />
training@graitec.co.uk<br />
www.graitec.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
CONTRAL LONDON* 14<br />
Symetri Ltd.<br />
Tel: 0345 370 1500<br />
info@symetri.co.uk<br />
www.symetri.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
OXFORDSHIRE 15<br />
MIDLANDS<br />
NOTTINGHAM 27<br />
MicroCAD - Nottingham<br />
Contact: Isobel Gillon<br />
Tel: 0115 969 1114<br />
training@graitec.co.uk<br />
www.graitec.co.uk<br />
ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQSTX<br />
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 28<br />
AIT Spatial Ltd<br />
Contact: Philip Madeley<br />
Tel: 01933 303034<br />
Fax: 01933 303001<br />
training@aitspatial.co.uk<br />
www.aitspatial.co.uk<br />
A C D E F G K L<br />
BIRMINGHAM 29<br />
CHESHIRE 30<br />
Excelat CAD Ltd<br />
Contact: Vaughn Markey<br />
Tel: 0161 926 3609<br />
Fax: 0870 051 1537<br />
Vaughn.markey@ExcelatCAD.com<br />
www.ExcelatCAD.com<br />
B N<br />
Man and Machine<br />
Contact: Robert Kenny<br />
Tel: 01844 263700<br />
Fax: 01844 216761<br />
training@manandmachine.co.uk<br />
www.manandmachine.co.uk<br />
A D I J M N O P Q X<br />
Armada Autodesk<br />
Training Centre<br />
Contact: Steven Smith<br />
Tel: 01527 834783<br />
Fax: 01527 834785<br />
training@armadaonline.co.uk<br />
www.armadaonline.co.uk<br />
A D E M K H
CASEstudy<br />
A Digital Twin Command Centre<br />
IES have been working with Orkney Islands Council to create a bespoke Digital Twin Command Centre<br />
to help optimise operational performance, energy efficiency and air quality across its building portfolio<br />
The project grew from Orkney<br />
Islands Council's desire to<br />
centralise its building data from<br />
across its portfolio into a single platform,<br />
allowing them to quickly identify issues<br />
and manage their buildings remotely from<br />
a single interface. As is the case for many<br />
local authorities, they were grappling with<br />
vast amounts of building data from<br />
various disparate systems across their<br />
portfolio and, with many of the buildings<br />
being geographically dispersed over a<br />
wide area, analysing and translating the<br />
data into actions to improve building<br />
performance was proving time<br />
consuming and inefficient.<br />
While many of the buildings in their<br />
portfolio already had some form of<br />
Building Management System (BMS)<br />
installed, all of the systems were separate<br />
and required multiple logins across the<br />
various sites in order to access and<br />
interrogate the data.<br />
The council decided to focus initially on<br />
seven sites within their portfolio. Working<br />
closely with their IoT subcontractor,<br />
Danalto, and IES, the council began<br />
setting a process in place to gather all<br />
the data from the existing systems across<br />
these sites, while adding in some<br />
additional metering in the form of heat<br />
meters, oil meters and electricity meters.<br />
This also included the installation of<br />
additional indoor and outdoor<br />
temperature sensors, allowing the council<br />
to gather more data than ever before,<br />
such as wind directions and speeds.<br />
With this more robust metering<br />
infrastructure in place, the next step was<br />
to enable the data to be transferred into<br />
IES' iSCAN cloud-based data analytics<br />
platform. This provides a central user<br />
interface, which can be accessed via web<br />
browser, complete with bespoke building<br />
level dashboards and alerts, to help the<br />
council see what is happening across the<br />
portfolio, identify and prioritise faults and<br />
see where operational improvements can<br />
be made.<br />
Being a local authority, the council's IT<br />
network has to be completely separated<br />
from the outside world through layers of<br />
firewalls and various other security<br />
measures, which made getting the data<br />
through and into the cloud a challenge.<br />
However, by working collaboratively, the<br />
council, Danalto and IES were able to<br />
create a secure connection to transfer the<br />
data from the building's IoT sensors into<br />
Danalto's web service, then in to the<br />
iSCAN platform where it is analysed and<br />
translated into actionable intelligence<br />
communicated via dashboards.<br />
The dashboards have been instrumental<br />
in allowing the council to understand in<br />
detail exactly what is happening in and<br />
around their buildings, allowing them to<br />
take informed actions towards improving<br />
building performance across many areas<br />
including occupant health and wellbeing,<br />
comfort, energy efficiency and costs.<br />
Even in the early project stages, the<br />
council were able to achieve some quick<br />
wins through the monitoring of Indoor Air<br />
Quality (IAQ) within the buildings.<br />
Through the iSCAN platform, they were<br />
able to identify areas where the CO2<br />
concentrations in certain rooms was<br />
higher than they would like or expect -<br />
something that was particularly important<br />
to the council during the ongoing<br />
pandemic when air quality is a top priority<br />
- and advise on simple operational<br />
measures to improve ventilation.<br />
On the heating side, they have also<br />
been able to identify areas of<br />
overheating, representing significant<br />
opportunities to make savings across<br />
energy, cost and carbon savings.<br />
Crucially, the approach eliminates many<br />
of the frustrations typically associated<br />
with managing large building portfolios,<br />
with the aggregated metrics, building<br />
alerts (classed by severity) and ability to<br />
change room schedules remotely from a<br />
single interface, being just a few<br />
examples of the significant opportunities<br />
the council are now realising to help<br />
deliver savings and be more efficient in<br />
its portfolio management approach.<br />
"The IES Command Centre has<br />
provided us with a central user interface<br />
to see what is happening across our<br />
portfolio; giving us a better idea of how<br />
things are performing, where there are<br />
issues and how we can make<br />
improvements," said Steven Bruce,<br />
Project Officer (ReFLEX), Orkney Islands<br />
Council. "We have already earmarked two<br />
more sites to be added (in addition to the<br />
existing seven) that are currently either<br />
having an upgrade or extension done, so<br />
they're ideal candidates for us to install<br />
additional metering and sensors at the<br />
same time. In an ideal world we ultimately<br />
would hope to include all of our buildings<br />
that have some form of BMS or controls<br />
in them so we can manage the entire<br />
portfolio from this one system."<br />
www.iesve.com<br />
34<br />
<strong>May</strong>/<strong>Jun</strong>e <strong>2022</strong>
NOMINATIONS OPEN<br />
7TH JULY <strong>2022</strong><br />
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