Game change 2021: How Service, Offsite, and New Technology Will Change Construction

With the number of construction projects dwindling as a result of the pandemic, many companies are reimagining their business models to secure their future. While how to increase productivity remains one of the major hurdles that the industry needs to overcome, construction and engineering companies must also look to servitization — the idea that construction organizations compete on full lifecycle support offerings rather than simply the tasks associated with initial build — to attract new business.

In this article, Kenny Ingram, Vice President of Engineering, Construction & Infrastructure at IFS summarizes some key trends that he believes will color 2021 and beyond, including lifecycle management, offsite construction, and 5D BIM.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2021/issue_97.html

Merdeka 118: Project Profile

Fender Katsalidis describes the implementation of AEC technology on the “Merdeka 118” project, a 118-storey, mega-tall skyscraper under construction in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon completion, it will become the tallest building in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and the second-tallest building in the world.

Designing a building as complex as Merdeka 118 required inputs from many different engineers in their individual fields. As architects, we orchestrated and coordinated meetings with an assembly of consultants contributing to the full project model using processes like BIM and software applications including Archicad, Solibri, and Aconex.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/profile/2020/ProjectProfile-Merdeka118.html

Autodesk University 2020

This article captures the key AEC industry updates that were shared at the recent Autodesk University, including some new products, most notably Autodesk Tandem for digital twins and Autodesk Build for construction, the acquisition of Spacemaker for generative design in urban planning, and updates to existing products including generative design in Revit and site optimization in Civil 3D.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2020/issue_107.html

Managing BIM Technology in the Building Industry

On November 11, 2020, the AEC Technology industry lost one of its leading figures, Chuck Eastman. In memoriam, AECbytes is reprinting this Viewpoint article from 2008 that was authored by Chuck Eastman and his co-authors of their seminal work, the “BIM Handbook.”

Chuck Eastman was a Professor in the Colleges of Architecture and Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and Director of the College of Architecture PhD Program where he led research in the area of Building Product Models and IT in building construction. His career was spent making building models a practical reality, starting in the 1970s. He held positions at UCLA and Carnegie-Mellon University, and was funded to advise industry associations on their development and deployment of BIM, including AISC, PCSC, NIBS and FIATECH. He authored 5 books and over 70 journal papers.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2020/issue_96.html

Studio Ma: Firm Profile

Studio Ma, an internationally recognized architecture and planning firm that is laser-focused on sustainable and environmentally responsive design, shares its perspective on AEC technology in this Firm Profile.

On the whole, wInterestingly, the software and technology we are using to work remotely has helped us to work together better, because our language has become more precise and our habits more consistent and conscientious. We now have a better quality-control protocol, because we can’t make assumptions and we have to check in with each other. This has only increased since the onset of the pandemic because the lack of in-person engagement necessitated even greater precision and more deliberate engagement.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/profile/2020/FirmProfile-StudioMa.html

Bentley Year in Infrastructure 2020 Conference

This article discusses key topics from Bentley’s annual Year in Infrastructure (YII) conference that kicked off last week, including digital twins, digital cities, Bentley’s upcoming iTwin Platform and its strategic partnership with Microsoft, and the many updates to Bentley’s existing applications for design integration and project delivery.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2020/issue_106.html

Seven Generations Architecture + Engineering: Firm Profile

Seven Generations Architecture + Engineering, a leading tribally-owned architectural, engineering, and design firm that specializes in the federal, state, municipal, commercial and tribal markets and has a singular dedication to environmental stewardship, shares its perspective on AEC technology in this Firm Profile.

At 7GAE, we try not to say, “Well, we’ve always done it that way!” We embrace change and growth, so we are continually looking to expand our knowledge and incorporate new hardware and software into our workflow. As the AEC industry changes, we aim to keep our staff educated and enthusiastic about embracing that change. Our desire is to stay on the cutting edge of AEC technology by adding new tech to our standard workflow and processes as we work toward the common goal of providing unique solutions to unique projects. 

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/profile/2020/FirmProfile-7GAE.html

Digital Twins and Smart City Impact on Design, Build, and Manage

How will Digital Twins and Smart City programs change the way projects are designed, built, and managed?  Ron Perkins, who has more than three decades of experience in the AEC technology industry, explores this question.

Smart Cities have been discussed for many years now.  The concept of connecting IoT, sensor data, cameras, and other edge devices to a physical structure, campus, city, or town has a lot of promise.  Managing assets remotely while capturing analytics and leveraging that information to make predictive decisions suggests efficiency and sustainability at levels not otherwise realized. 

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2020/issue_95.html

Visualization in Digital Construction

In this article, Erik Hultgren of Tech Soft 3D, discusses the advances made in visualization within the AEC space that keep making it taking quantum leaps forward, unlocking exciting new use cases and capabilities.

The combination of hardware, software, and computing resources that is now available means that everything has scaled up tremendously, enabling the AEC industry to venture into some exciting areas, starting with the ability to ensure that buildings are being built as designed.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/viewpoint/2020/issue_94.html

BEXEL Manager

This review explores BEXEL Manager, a sophisticated application for construction planning and scheduling with a wide range of capabilities including coordinating the multiple disciplinary BIM models in IFC format (3D BIM), construction planning and scheduling (4D BIM), quantity take-off and estimating (5D BIM), and finally, extending the use of the model to FM (6D BIM). In particular, it provides an integrated 4D/5D platform, which means that the scheduling and the costing are not done separately but in conjunction with each other.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/BEXEL-Manager.html