Integral BIM-Based Planning

The focus of the contribution is the integral design of buildings by means of interdisciplinary cooperation between architecture and structural engineering. This interdisciplinary cooperation is enabled through a BIM-based platform, where all technical departments, beginning from architecture and structural design but also house technic and electrical engineering participate in the process and work as a single central work team. In particular, the opportunities of a BIM-based planning for an early planning stage involvement of structural engineers in the practice are analysed. The aim is hereby a better load flow representation and more precise regard of soil structure interaction in early planning stages by using a preliminary 3D analysis model derived from the existing BIM model at that time. In addition, the contribution discusses the opportunity of a quality increase of the BIM model itself due to involvement of structural engineers at the early planning stages, which results in neater and simpler planning and construction stages. Based on an actual project, some examples are presented to illustrate how early coordinated structural planning minimizes considerably the effort in further construction stages, for instance, the elaboration of formwork and reinforcement plans as well as position plans, reducing in consequence the risk of making typical mistakes during the design. Finally, the possibility of applying new sustainable concepts in the early stages of the project is presented as an advantage for the structural optimization and reduction of construction costs.