BIM FOR BUILDING ENGINEERING
Houses of the
Future–Concrete House
NSW Department of Commerce
sequences were generated concurrently with
detailed modeling.
Once animation sequences, material selec-
tions, and the degree of modeling detail were
agreed to by the client, final animation ren-
dering over eight networked computers was
carried out over a three-week period. The 3D
visualization allowed full appreciation of the
design’s form and spaces. ;
One of six houses in Australia’s Houses of the
Future exhibition, the Concrete House
designed by Peter Poulet and Michael Harvey
of the New South Wales Government
Architect’s Office features a solid mass of
curvilinear concrete shells on the south side
of the house. On the north side, curtain-like
screens can be opened in summer for ventilation and light, or closed to create the feeling
of warmth and enclosure that only the thick
massing of concrete can provide.
This project involved the 3D modeling, visualization, and animation of the final design.
3D modeling was based on 2D MicroStation
data. Because of the short five-week time
frame for completion, quick decisions had to
be made regarding animation sequences.
To obtain client approval, several draft
BIM FOR BUILDING ENGINEERING
Toyota Motor
Manufacturing Texas
aggressive 60-day design schedule mandated
that decisions about utility routing be made
as early as possible in the design process.
SSOE, Inc.
The 2,000,000 million-square-foot Toyota
Motor Manufacturing Texas assembly plant
will contain stamping, welding, plastics,
paint, and final assembly shops. Breaking
with traditional design, each shop will be
enclosed with low-slope shed roofs. The shed
roofs terminate at penthouses containing all
required HVAC units. Utilities for the HVAC
systems will be generated at a central plant
and distributed through an internal distribution network, as will manufacturing process
support utilities.
Drawings are the traditional way to present
these relationships, but are often very
abstract and complicated. Deciphering drawings would have taken valuable design time
from the project team. New tools and workflows were needed
to clearly present
design possibilities
that could easily be
converted to contract documents.
sketch models to senior engineers and
project managers. These literal representations of building systems allowed quick decisions. Suitable solutions were refined,
detailed, reviewed, and used to create contract documents. In the case of inadequate
proposals, senior staff could quickly see
alternative options. ;
Routing of these utility distribution networks
was a critical design constraint. Utility ducts
needed to be placed in specific locations to
avoid interfering with the manufacturing
process, both of which needed to exist in har-
mony with the structural steel systems. An
Using building infor-
mation modeling
(BIM) tools, design-
ers and engineers
sketched prelimi-
nary ideas about
routings and interac-
tions, presenting the
