BIM & Substantial Design, Building Analysis

BIM can be defined as an integrated process built on coordinated, reliable information about a project from design through construction and into operations. While BIM is widely accepted in architecture and construction, its benefits are just as relevant for civil engineering projects

BIM covers geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, quantities and properties of building components. It can therefore be used to demonstrate not only the entire building lifecycle, but also the impacts it can have on the surrounding environment

Sustainable design means “good design” for building projects of all types and sizes. We can make construction more sustainable by using a series of construction-oriented building information models to reduce the energy waste that occurs because of time lags – people waiting for construction materials to be delivered, or waiting for other contractors to finish tasks

Recently when hearing about sustainable design or green building we also hear about BIM technology. Sustainable analysis is just one of the things you can do with the data set from a BIM. You can’t do this with a graphical 2D approach to design.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of BIM in sustainable building design is building analysis. Sustainable building design hinges on the ability to gain insight into a building's performance through design analysis and optimization. But evaluating building performance based on the building representations produced by conventional computer-aided-design (CAD) or object-CAD solutions requires a great deal of human intervention and interpretation and makes the analyses unduly time-consuming and costly.

With BIM, much of the data needed to support performance analysis is captured naturally as design proceeds. With BIM, designers can analyze how a building will perform, even in the early stages of design. Armed with this information, they can evaluate design alternatives quickly and make better decisions for greener designs. By streamlining design and analysis, BIM facilitates the calculations needed to optimize building performance.

We think anyone designing a building in any capacity should have the ability to perform energy analysis on buildings, or to test the building for sustainability. Sustainable design is one of a number of things that must be done to create a true digital prototype around a building. So if you want to create solar or energy analysis or to understand the right material to put into a building, to achieve sustainable goals, it’s much better to do that on a data set that you have created to form the basis of BIM, because then you can run the analysis. Sustainable design in our view is taking BIM and applying appropriate analysis methodology to the BIM that are focused on green building so that you can come out with a digital prototype that when it is built, achieves your green building requirements.”

A BIM-based design model carries a wealth of information necessary for many other aspects of sustainable design. For example, the ability to create drawings and details directly from a model (and have the software automatically coordinate these drawings and details with the model) improves the efficiency and accuracy of green certification. Schedules of building-material quantities can be obtained directly from a model to determine percentages of material reuse, recycling, and salvage. Various design options for sustainability can be pursued in parallel and automatically tracked in a model. Advanced visualization techniques can be used for solar studies and to produce 3-D renderings and construction animations of a green project. A digital 3-D model supports better understanding and collaborative communication among the various stakeholders in a green partnership (the architect, owner, consultants, review bodies, etc.).

Internationally, the trend toward sustainable-building design also is strong. Governments around the globe are implementing new building regulations that mandate sustainable design. Many countries already require performance assessments to comply with building regulations.

The sustainability of a new building is based on many factors, including water savings, energy efficiency, and materials selection. These factors are influenced heavily by a building's architectural, site, and building-systems design and supporting civil infrastructure. Mechanical engineers can support sustainable design by providing input about green approaches early in the design process, designing more efficient and better-sized mechanical systems, and producing metrics and supporting documentation for evaluation and green certification when needed.

For most people, the environment impact of buildings is startling, In the United States commercial and residential buildings consume close to 40% of our total energy, 70% of our electricity, 40% of our raw materials and 12% of fresh water supplies. They account for 30% of greenhouse gas emission and generate 136 millions tons of construction and demolition waste.

Sustainable design seeks to mitigate this negative impact through the use of environmentally sensitive design and construction practices. The goal of sustainable design is to produce green building that are environmentally responsible profitable and healthy places to live and work.

Today Revit Building customers are using building information modeling for a variety of sustainable design activities including design optimization, visualization, daylighting, energy analysis, quantity takeoffs and specifications management to name a few.