According to recent studies, the productivity of the construction industry grew by only one percent annually over the last 20 years. As a result, the industry lags far behind other sectors. In addition, cost or time overruns occur in a large majority of projects. The lack of productivity gains and the inefficiencies are partly due to the loose connection between the different professions, who typically work on their own dataset separately. In the design process of a building, currently 30 percent of the time is spent on coordination between architects, structural and MEP engineers, energy experts, and others.
“We must challenge the traditional processes of our industry to improve. Our vision is to help design professionals move from an asynchronous, data-protective way of working to agile cross-disciplinary teams, where they share all essential project information in real-time,” said Viktor Várkonyi, Chief Division Officer of the Planning & Design Division and member of the Executive Board of the Nemetschek Group, at the Building Together digital event. “For instance, instead of perfecting collision detection, why not invent processes that avoid those collisions occurring? Our technology will enable our customers to spend the majority of their valuable time on the creative design process.”
Led by GRAPHISOFT, RISA and SCIA, numerous brands of the Nemetschek Group have been involved in the development of this multidisciplinary teamwork environment. “Our Group approach of putting customers first and driving open standards and interoperability has formed the basis for this innovation,” Viktor explained.
“With this new integrated approach, architects, structural engineers, and MEP engineers can work together on design processes, in a more cross-functional, interactive, and collaborative manner,” explained Huw Roberts, CEO of GRAPHISOFT. “It is exciting to see how the Nemetschek Group brands joined forces in developing this next-generation tool.”
With the BIM working method as a joint database, all disciplines work on their own tasks and parameter sets in a centralized model. “Model duplication should be a thing of the past,” said Amber Freund, CEO of RISA. “Architects and engineers can work as one integrated multidisciplinary team and with real collaboration. This will allow them to present fast decisions focusing on customer needs,” added Hilde Sevens, CEO of SCIA.
“The Integrated Design workflow will significantly change the way architects and engineers work together,” says Viktor. “The result will be great buildings delivered on time and on budget – a novelty for the building Industry.”
