113 Architecture questions - How do several people work together on a project?
How do several people work together on a project?
Many different parties are involved in the planning of a building. As the coordinating body for the planning, the architect has to integrate the work of the structural engineer, building services engineer, building physicist, cultural engineer, landscape planner, etc. into his plans and check them at the same time.
What used to involve a lot of paper, razor blades to scratch out the ink and waiting time has been transferred to the digital world since the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it is common practice for each planner to draw their project plans in their own CAD programme and send them in a standard transfer format (usually a 2D dwg file) to all other contributors, who in turn import this file into their programmes. Usually, however, the architect imports all the files into his programme and then distributes a complete file to everyone for further processing. For coordination purposes, recorded meetings are held almost weekly between the people involved in order to prevent misunderstandings.
The description alone shows that this system is suboptimal. It takes time, is not always up to date and is prone to errors. This system is no longer sufficient for complex construction projects, especially when curved elements and a lot of building services dominate the project. This is why the BIM model (Building Information Modelling) was developed. A 3D project file is stored centrally on a server and all participants enter their data directly via an interface. A programme checks that the components used do not collide with each other and that there are no other problems. However, this method requires an additional specialist to monitor and coordinate these processes - the so-called BIM manager.
Within an office, several colleagues work together in a similar way. In our office, for example, we work together on projects using ArchiCad Teamwork. Architects can reserve and exclusively work on individual building elements, project areas and even entire storeys or building sections of a project. The programme recognises the dependencies of the individual elements and issues warnings to those involved. The prerequisite for this is that an organised file structure is set up beforehand. As in real life, everyone must then use the same pen, the same colours, the same font, etc. so that the plan remains in a legible format.
The future will go one step further and allow authorities to participate in and review projects using BIM technology. The City of Vienna is working intensively on soon submitting finished BIM models instead of printed plans, which will then be checked semi-automatically for compliance with building regulations. Residents will be able to view the building as a layperson using augmented reality (AR).
