Imagine a construction project where architects, engineers, craftsmen, and administrators speak their own language and use work drawings in their own scale and with their own color codes. Things can quickly become chaotic. To address this, for nearly twenty years, it has been a requirement for all state construction projects in Denmark that all data regarding materials and methods must be documented using openBIM standards.
Accessible to everyone
openBIM stands for open Building Information Modeling. As the name suggests, it is an open standard that can be used and read by everyone – regardless of the software platform or company. Although openBIM is neither new nor revolutionary, the Femern project is the largest project to date to utilize these open standards:
– openBIM has been tested on several other projects, but here we are talking about Northern Europe’s largest construction project. We work with data consistency, classification, and standardization to harness the value of what we already incorporated into our procurement materials, says Kim Smedegaard Andersen, Technical Deputy Director at Femern project under the state-owned company Sund & Bælt, in a press release.
Efficient and less error prone
The open formats of openBIM mean that data can be accessed and shared seamlessly across different programs from the design phase and construction to the operation and maintenance of a building. The open standard reduces errors and improves work efficiency by eliminating the misunderstandings that often occur when information must be transferred between different types of software. It’s a bit like ensuring that all construction workers are reading from the same set of building plans without confusion.
– The Femern project offers an opportunity to develop a practice that everyone can benefit from. openBIM can increase productivity because it makes it easier to deliver and exchange information about, for example, geometry and materials and their properties, says Ole Berard, head of buildingSMART Denmark and digitalization manager at Molio – the construction knowledge center.
The simplified information exchange also makes it much easier to prepare LCA’s (Life Cycle Assessment) of, for example, CO2 footprints, which are required to develop ESG accounts (Environment Social and Governance).
– The most time-consuming aspect of preparing LCA’s is collecting information, and this becomes much easier with openBIM, says Ole Berard.
Global sustainability
The learning that can be gathered by using open standards on the Femern project has great value – also far from the Femern Belt region.
– The Femern project provides enormous value in many ways, both in terms of the benefits the connection will bring to Denmark and Europe, but also due to the legacy the project will leave with its innovative approach to digital delivery. We are excited to work closely with Sund & Bælt, so we can demonstrate together how open data streams are so important for improving global productivity and sustainability,” says Clive Billiald, CEO of buildingSMART International.
