BIM FOR BUILDING ENGINEERING
Queens Square
coordination, allowing exact coordinates to
be extracted directly from the project model.
Clarke Nicholls & Marcel
The £ 9 million redevelopment of The
National Hospital for Neurology &
Neurosurgery (NHNN) involves the proposed demolition of an existing building and
the redevelopment of the site up to a height
corresponding to that of the adjacent
buildings. The accommodation is organized
over nine levels.At the basement level is the
proposed 200 seat lecture theatre, and the
ground and upper levels will provide
accommodation that will be used by both
the NHNN and the Institute of Neurology.
Design decisions could be made by leveraging the inherent knowledge capture associated with the BIM data, making a more complete dataset of information available to the
team at every stage of the design process.
Critical decisions were better-informed and
could be thoroughly cross-checked against
the relevant parties’ documentation as an
integral part of the information production,
not as a disparate workflow. ;
The expanded design plane and removal of
restrictions on the Solids Working Area meant
that data could be produced accurately and
to a level of tolerance far beyond the project
requirement, at no additional effort or cost,
and well within the predicted time-frame.
Immediate coordination with the civil and
public health 2D models improved
BIM FOR BUILDING ENGINEERING
OpTIC Centre
Capita Percy Thomas
The Business Support Unit comprises meeting rooms, a restaurant, and a library. The
Incubator is office and R&D spaces. Their orientation along the façade provides the
desired north light with a pleasant aspect
onto landscaped gardens. The Technical
Centre houses dedicated optoelectronic
clean rooms, laboratories, and R&D facilities.
The project was designed to achieve a
Building Research Environmental Assessment
Method Consultancy (BREEAM) rating of
excellent. The project includes
photovoltaic power generation,
rainwater harvesting, and
enhanced insulation. The orientation and massing of the building
was arranged to maximize natural
light to the solar cells, and the
building is naturally ventilated
where possible.
The building collects water run-off
from the roof in an underground storage tank, using a vortex rainwater
filter to remove particles larger
than 380 microns. The tank is adequate for dual flush cistern capacity and watering the landscape area.
MicroStation V8 was used as the
design software, and was well-suited for alternate design options,
structural and wind studies, and
high-quality renderings. ;
