Optimizing Effort and Decision-Making in Pragmatic Architectural Competitions Using BIM

"Less is more!" This quote from the famous architect Mies van der Rohe was meant for the architecture itself, it can be applied to the workflows and the way we create architecture - especially in early design stages and in competition.

Lately, I have seen the trend that architectural competitions need more and more time and effort. When I worked as an architect, we calculated 500 hours. Now, it can be 2000 hours, according to an article I read - a whole working year of a person.

This is due mainly to more and more formal client requirements! You can do the math on what this means in analogy to this previous article by yourself.

So I do not believe that in a digital age, we need to do more manual work till we can make decisions - the selection of the best fitting architecture and, correspondingly, the architect. There are more intelligent ways to do so!

The basic principle should be:

• The architect should focus on the design quality and the best presentation, so the client understands the design intent.
• The client's focus is on making decisions and comparing the project. Formal requirements to make this possible should be reduced to the max.

Recently at abstract, we automatically prepared models from a competition for Manuel Frey from Gruner . They developed the early stage designer, an automated workflow to quickly benchmark different projects in terms of cost, lifecycle cost, shading, energy use, area economics and comfort. They created these benchmarks in only a few days because of intelligent workflows.?

To me, this is the best proof that with less effort on the side, if the architect, more can be done to make decisions on a better foundation. We don't need the architects to do more. They only need to do the right things!

10 simple modeling guidelines for competitions?

When preparing a competition, ask the architects to deliver models according to these ten rules and do the formal checks automatically on your side:

1. Export an IFC file with the whole project but without surrounding, as IFC2x3, in the model view definition?"Coordination View 2.0". This guarantees that the client could easily fix some small issues, like missing room geometry, before analyzing in SketchUp .
2. Make sure that the structure of the IFC file contains an IfcProject, IfcSite, IfcBuilding(s), and IfcBuildingStorey(s). All elements must be on the correct floor (just like in reality). This guarantees that the file can be viewed in ordinary BIM viewers without post-processing.
3. Use the predefined surrounding model as a basis for your modeling. Do not manually turn the site, but define a user-defined view. When exporting the IFC, use the provided coordinates. This guarantees that the project can be easily viewed with augmented reality on-site and placed in an overall model of the surrounding.
4. The void between walls and ceilings must be filled with exactly one 3D volume. I.e., no overlapping rooms and no "empty" voids.... The rooms must be exported as "IfcSpace". This guarantees that the client (rep) can create an abstractBIM for further analysis.
5. The room name from the competition program must be in the attribute "LongName" (e.g., kitchen), and the assignment to the consecutively numbered housing unit must be in "Description". e.g., 2.5 room apartment number 1, 2.5 room apartment number 2, etc. This guarantees that the client can easily compare the different projects and saves the architect the hassle of doing an area classification. (On a side note, this area calculation is usually delegated to the intern one day before the deadline. The intern has no clue of the classification system and did not sleep enough in the past days. So guess how trustworthy his calculations would be...
6. Use generic room names and precisely the terms from the competition program, e.g. "Office" instead of "Office Max Mustermann". If you need additional room names, specify them and ensure they are consistent in the IFC export. So the elevator is always called an elevator and not sometimes lift. This helps the client rep to quickly classify the spaces.
7. Also model exterior spaces such as balconies, terraces, and finished surfaces like IfcSpaces. Name these in the LongName attribute as well. And set the attribute InteriorOrExteriorSpace to "EXTERNAL". This helps when automatically creating the abstractBIM for analysis.
8. For the windows and doors, make sure they are exported as IfcDoor and IfcWindow. Again a formal requirement for the abstractBIM.
9. Check that the file conforms to these rules before submitting. Please hand in a check protocol. With this, the client can check the architect's BIM competency.
10. For the rest, model the way you like it and how you think it best conveys the design idea and serves the project.

When clients get models like that, they can use intelligent automated workflows to benchmark the projects, view them on-site with augmented reality, and get a feel for the overall architect's BIM competency.

The (professional) client's job - a checklist

1. Prepare a design brief with all the necessary information to understand the project goals and requirements.
2. Provide a model from the surrounding where the architect's tools can be placed and viewed in context. The best practice is to model the building lines as a volume already. Look at Nomoko or LUUCY AG in Switzerland.
3. The model should include the model entry point with the geo-referenced coordinates.
4. Provide a room program with the defined room names.
5. Inform which analysis you will perform with the models and encourage the teams to already optimize the design according to your goals.
6. Provide the modeling guidelines - the 10 points from before and the quality check rules. This can be very pragmatic as BIMcollab ZOOM ruleset or more formalized with server solution e.g., The qualifier from control ag.
7. Set up the workflow to check and benchmark the models. This can be very pragmatic by checking the design areas in Excel. Or very sophisticated by simulating the different solutions and even finding potential for optimization with a minute Carlo simulation e.g. in IDA-ICE from EQUA Solutions AG .

As always, the client does not need to do this by themself. The client is only responsible for it. The leverage in these early design stages is enormous!

Summary

The benefits of this workflow are:

1. The architect can focus on designing instead of fulfilling complicated BIM requirements.
2. The different projects can be compared and benchmarked to enable better decisions.
3. The overall effort for competition and the economic impact is reduced. Therefore they can still be a useful tool for purchasing design services and keeping the quality of the built environment high.

Contact me when setting up the next competition, and I can put you in touch with qualified client reps to support you in the competition design according to this intelligent workflow with BIM.