Smart Building

Product modelling technologies have now sufficiently mature for use in the building and construction industry, where they go under the title “BuildingSMART”. The objective is to arrange for seamless exchange of electronic data between all users through all the phases of adding value to a building or construction – from the first concept throughout the its entire lifetime. Arranging necessary information in such an exchangeable way enables considerably more effective construction and operational processes.

Product modelling technologies have now sufficiently mature for use in the building and construction industry, where they go under the title “BuildingSMART”. The objective is to arrange for seamless exchange of electronic data between all users through all the phases of adding value to a building or construction – from the first concept throughout its entire lifetime. Arranging necessary information in such an exchangeable way enables considerably more effective construction and operational processes.

The building and construction industry is now facing a paradigm shift which entails completely new approaches to project management for all involved actors. The process of modelling creates the framework within which different branches, each with their own specialised software, are enabled to exchange digital information with confidence as to is reliability. Ideally, all of these various software systems will be able to access the same data sets which are held and stored at only one location.

So far at GUC, the Geomatics, Building and Construction, and Technology Design and Management groups have become involved. The Geomatics Group leader, Bjørn A. Godager, is project leader for BuildingSMART at GUC, explains that there is work being done in a number of parallel areas:

“We have already completed some student projects and there are more coming up soon. We have had a meeting with Statsbygg and agreed to work together on modelling the buildings on campus that fall within Statsbygg’s responsibility. Statsbygg are most interested in our competence in the areas of geomatics, GIS, building and construction, technical design and management, electrical engineering, energy engineering and information technology. Therefore there will be many opportunities for expanding GUC’s interests in BuildingSMART, not least because of GUC’s concentration on data security issues and on universal design.”

GUC has now been given access to the information that is available about the campus buildings. The aim is now to check and enrich this older information so that the results can be used both by Statsbygg staff and to support the college’s internal planning requirements. This in other words represents a unique, multidisciplinary opportunity for different technical groups and students to work together.

The Norwegian building and construction industry and the software industry are quick to implement international standards for data interchangeability between their associated processes. There are many opportunities arising out of this, even for the college.

“It is urgently necessary to build up competence in this area, and we are now developing concrete plans for new courses on intelligent building modelling, with the first course starting hopefully in Autumn 2009”, says Godager.

Read more:

• BIM at Gjøvik University College

• http://www.statsbygg.no/en/FoUprosjekter/BIM-Bygningsinformasjonsmodell/
• http://www.buildingsmart.no/