Dominik Holzer

Parametric Design and Structural Optimisation for Early Design Exploration

The investigation presented in this paper focuses on the following questions: How can engineering and architectural expertise, assisted by a process of digital optimisation, promote structural awareness regarding design alterations in the conceptual design stages? Can building geometry be set up computationally to render it sensitive to structural input? Which software tools are required to foster this interaction and what kind of decision support is needed to allow both architects and structural engineers to interact concurrently in this optimisation process? The authors of this paper form a team of researchers and practitioners from architectural and structural engineering background who combine their efforts to address the issue of interconnecting design intelligence across disciplines and advancing revised work methodologies in practice assisted by academic research. The research has shown that an integrated transfer of design information between architectural and structural designers in the early stages is beneficial to the collaboration if experts from both professions agree on common goals and define suitability rules that guide optimisation processes from the very beginning. To enable this, software tools are required that provide ad hoc decision support to create a wider array of informed design alternatives from which to choose.

BIM's Seven Deadly Sins

This paper aims at exposing seven prevailing problems that have emerged in the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in design practice. The paper provides a reality check between an idealistic view on BIM and the way it is currently applied in daily use. In order to reflect on the issues at hand, the author draws from three years of doctoral research in multidisciplinary design collaboration, followed by more than two years experience as Design Technology director in a large scale architecture practice. In addition to the above, his current role as the chair of the BIM and IPD Steering Group of the Australian Institute of Architects and Consult Australia exposes the author to a broad range of cultural implications of BIM. The findings presented here illustrate that, despite major advances in the development of BIM, there are predominantly cultural roadblocks to its implementation in practice.

Optioneering in Collaborative Design Practice

The discourse about computational support of collaborative architectural design has in recent years mainly focused on the topic of Building Information Modeling (BIM). In this paper, the method of ‘optioneering’ is presented that, in contrast to current BIM capabilities, assists designers and consultants to resolve design problems through integrated analyses across disciplines in the early stages of design. Although the method of ‘optioneering’ has only recently been adapted in building practice, it has been preceded by manifold efforts by researchers in the field of design and computation over the past two decades. At the end of this paper the computational framework ‘DesignLink’ will be discussed. ‘DesignLink’ supports ‘optioneering’ in the design stages before BIM becomes effective and it is currently being developed and used to support performance optimisation of building projects in practice.

Developing a Framework for Linking Design Intelligence from Multiple Professions in the AEC Industry

The research presented in this paper addresses the issue of bridging conceptual differences between the theories and practice of various disciplines in the AEC industry. The authors propose an application logic that works as a framework in assisting the evaluation process of multidisciplinary design. Parametric design templates assist in channeling and integrating information generated during the design process.

Fostering the Link from PLM to ERP via BIM

This paper investigates approaches for linking Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) via structured data stemming from Building Information Modeling (BIM) to information systems that get applied for Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) across Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). The author highlights key pathways for such integration, with a particular focus on the hurdles contractors, suppliers and manufacturers need to overcome to master their transition to BIM-enabled PLM and the associated ERP. Based on a case-study (Hickory Group), the paper analyses the opportunities for the strategic repositioning of a construction and manufacturing firm who combines PLM with BIM and ERP within its organisation.

BIM-PIM-CIM: The Challenges of Modelling Urban Design Behaviours Between Building and City Scales

This paper discusses the challenges that designers face when modelling the anticipated behaviours of people: their movement and transactions around and within precinct scale development. Building Information Modelling (BIM) software philosophy contrasts with that of City Information Modelling (CIM)—the route by which we consider how precinct scale development, being somewhere between the two (BIM and CIM), requires a wholly different approach to information and behaviour modelling. The authors offer evidence of the value of augmenting the planners’ analytical approach with the architects’ synthesis from data leading to meaningful speculations on otherwise unanticipated future scenarios for the precinct far beyond expectation. Novel approaches to modelling behaviour at precinct scale suggest alternative readings of precincts, which require a wider set of approaches to Precinct Information Modelling (PIM) software development than simply an expansion of BIM.

BIM and Parametric Design in Academia and Practice: The Changing Context of Knowledge Acquisition and Application in the Digital Age

This paper explores the consequences of the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Parametric Design on contemporary architectural practice and associated changes to the roles and responsibilities therein. Knowledge changes associated to new skill-sets of young graduates and their positioning among experienced professionals will be analysed. On one hand the paper will scrutinise how the use of BIM and Parametric design challenges design and delivery of projects, on the other hand the paper will reflect on the extent academic institutions can or should respond to the challenges. What are the opportunities inherent to these changes in practice? How should they influence current academic curricula that include computational design and digital architecture? Based on targeted interviews with recent graduates who entered practice, a number of responses to the challenges and opportunities will be presented by the author for further consideration.

The Turning Point: MEP Contractors as the Key to Achieving Lifecycle BIM

Developments in the construction industry across a number of countries over the past decade suggest that the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming the norm for the design and delivery of projects. As BIM increasingly enters a broad range of domains within the built environment, the importance of Specialist Contractors - and in particular MEP Contractors - as part of these developments begins to show. MEP Contractors form a crucial link in the information-chain to achieve life-cycle BIM. This paper investigates the shift to the role of MEP Contractors in the context of BIM. It analyses the structural changes within the contracting professions, and it highlights the impact of BIM enabled MEP Contractors on the construction industry as a whole. The paper scrutinises this development by example of the BIM-MEPAUS initiative of the Australian Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA). Accounts from BIM-MEPAUS illustrate the raise of the BIM-enabled MEP Contractors and thereby act as a reference for other international industry groups who may wish to follow their example.