Digitisation.
Our excellent project management is aided by digitisation, which enabled us to surpass the BIM standard long ago: with our own programs, with our plug-in developments, and with our close ties to teaching and research.
For us, digitisation does not mean more standardisation, but quite the opposite: more creative possibilities. This is because robotics and automation on the construction site, three-dimensional simulations of heat losses for the structural physics, and simulations for hot measurements in fire protection expand the range of architectural options. We are thus able, for instance, to make traditional ecological construction methods cost-effective again.
Parameterised planning allows countless alternatives during the planning phase, and achieves absolute optimisation of geometry and static loading for the support structure, facade and underground engineering. The material savings realised via digitised processes and methods are immense. That is why we consciously use digitisation as a tool for sustainable construction.
Zurich Children’s Hospital
We implemented digital working methods early on. We have been working three-dimensionally since the VitraHaus in 2006. When the project for a new Zurich Children’s Hospital building began in 2012, we planners explicitly requested that BIM be used, so that a project of such scale and complexity could be developed with modern working methods.
The support-structure model was primarily created for the ‘production’ of the building, enabling hundreds of plans and lists to be generated semi-automatically. A total of 725 formwork plans and prefabricated-element plans were thus created and assessed in just one year, which would have been almost impossible with traditional two-dimensional planning.
With the aid of a specially programmed plug-in, more than 3,500 voids and drilled holes were evaluated, coordinated, adjusted and approved, and several thousand reinforcement plans and lists were created.