Final Report Summary - HOLISTEEC (Holistic and Optimized Life-cycle Integrated SupporT for Energy-Efficient building design and Construction)
Executive Summary:
The HOLISTEEC project started in October 2013 responding to the measures, put in place by the European Commission, for the promotion of buildings energy efficiency in Europe towards the achievement of ambitious climate and energy targets and to pave the way for further energy efficiency improvements. The project run for 4 years and ended in September 2017. The concept behind HOLISTEEC was the development of a BIM-based, on-the-cloud, collaborative building design software platform featuring advanced design support for multi-criteria building optimization. Specifically, the platform is composed by 9 functionally integrated tools (via APIs) to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. The main features of the platform are presented in the following list:
• Based on a layered architecture;
• Based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF);
• Provided with a modular and open design supporting multiple interfaces: all components interact through well-defined (published) REST APIs;
• Provided with a KPI management system based on the duality between requirements (at the specification level) and foreseen performances (at the design/evaluation level). This is a new development, not available in any other software, inspired and compatible with the COINS methodology that could be at the basis of future standardization;
• Enables collaborative working;
• Allows taking into account the influence of the neighborhood on building design;
• Involves simulation experts in successive design loops, from the very beginning of the construction project;
• Integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs;
• Supports multi-criteria simulation and verification of predicted performances (based on available information at each design stage) against predefined performance targets (which may be set contractually between designers and future building owners);
• Based on data repositories to centralize information and data that are progressively generated and updated along building design process by multiple stakeholders.
The preliminary step towards the definition of such a platform has been the definition of a comprehensive building design methodology to be implemented and supported by the HOLISTEEC collaborative software platform. This methodology is a BIM based design methodology that connects ICT tools to the process to help to implement integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. The focus of the methodology and tools in this project is in design phases. Simulation tools are possible to use also in construction and operation phase, but the need is greater in design phases.
Validation and testing activities for both HOLISTEEC design methodology and software platform have been carried out through five demonstration projects either as replay of design activities completed earlier or as extra activities parallel to on-going construction projects. Benefits from the use of the HOLISTEEC methodology and tools have been assessed in terms of time savings, process streamlining, value added to the process, value added to the end product (i.e. the buildings under design) and support for learning and continuous development. Exploitation strategies towards the commercialization of project results have been identified as well and particularly remarkable is the goal to have the first commercial version of HOLISTEEC platform available at the end of 2018.
Project Context and Objectives:
Significant changes and shifts are required in the AEC sector to improve the efficiency of building design and construction processes and meet the environmental and sustainable targets posed by stringent regulations in the field of Energy Efficiency and Buildings Energy Performance.
Buildings use 40% of world energy, emit 40% of world carbon footprint, and use 1/5th of world available water . In response, Europe as a whole and the Member States have committed their construction sector to reduce drastically the environmental impacts of buildings and have adopted new, stringent regulations to boost the transition to zero energy buildings, as part of their National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAP) , and in response to the requirements set by the Directive 2010/31/EU of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD). In 2016 the EC published the “Clean energy for all Europeans a package of measures boosting the clean energy transition in line with its commitment to cut CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030, modernise the economy and create conditions for sustainable jobs and growth The proposal for a revised directive on the EPBD (COM/2016/0765) puts energy efficiency first and supports cost-effective building renovation .
These commitments can be met only if a significant shift occurs in the design and construction processes.
Current practices tend to consider separately design activities on one side and assessment ones on the other, where assessment basically starts at the very end of the design stage. The fact that minor changes and corrections in one domain may have an important impact on other domains is generally ignored. This becomes even more significant when considering buildings as part of their neighbourhood, where partial optimization of multi domain requirements often leads to conflicting solutions (e.g. acoustic-focused vs. thermal-focused design). These issues, and others such as increased competition in the AEC sector, have fostered innovation in the construction industry, convincing its stakeholders to push forward an innovative digital and software-intensive design paradigm: the Building Information Model (BIM). BIM is now widely recognized as a cornerstone of future tools and practices in the construction industry.
Despite recent evolutions of tools/practices in the Architecture Engineering, Construction and Facility Management have already resulted in considerable advances some limitations remain, related to the complexity and variability of building life cycles, addressing building end user awareness and participation, lack of new business models, life cycle fragmentation, limited interoperability of the ICT supports. The concerns listed above call for a global and multi domain building design approach, based upon interoperable digital tools, upon shared and updated information, enabling highly collaborative workflows and featuring advanced design optimization support, for both new buildings and retrofitting design.
In this framework, the HOLISTEEC project proposed the development of a BIM-based, on-the-cloud, collaborative building design software platform, featuring advanced design support for multi-criteria building optimization and based on the following assets:
• An innovative feedback/loop design workflow;
• A multi-physical, multi-scale simulation engine;
• A unified data model for Building and Neighbourhood Digital Modeling;
• A full-fledged software infrastructure for building design tools interoperability leveraging available standards.
HOLISTEEC project was launched in October 2013 and after four years, on 30th September 2017, came to an end. The project has been articulated within three different project phases corresponding to the project reporting periods - Such can be summarised as follows:
• 1st Reporting Period - Early Project Phase - From the kick off to month 18
• 2nd Reporting Period – Software Development Phase - From month 19 to month 36
• 3rd Reporting Period – Demonstration and Validation Phase - From month 37 to month 48
During the early phase of the project activities were addressed to the development of the methodology, its initial validation and then to the creation of a framework where it is possible to define business models that can enable partners to exploit the methodology. The end of the Second Reporting Period corresponded to the release of the first integrated prototype of the HOLISTEEC software platform, namely, a set of tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact on and from the surrounding neighbourhood. The platform enables collaborative processes based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF), which goes beyond traditional design coordination since it involves simulation experts in successive design loops.
During the Third Reporting Period, the focus has been on demonstration and validation activities to consolidate and optimize the aforementioned prototype by testing its effectiveness on real case studies. Specifically, the suitability of HOLISTEEC tools to support AEC stakeholders while performing building design tasks has been assessed in order to verify that:
Tools are technically able to perform the activities targeted by their development without technical errors;
• Tools are suitable in the sense that they can handle real life building process data and perform relevant actions in building process;
• Tools’ usability is good enough to add value to building process.
Parallel activities have been performed to finalize the process of validation of HOLISTEEC building design methodology developed in the first project phase and already started during the Second Reporting Period through dedicated validation workshops.
Validation and testing activities – finalized in the third reporting phase - have been carried out through five demonstration projects either as replay of design activities completed earlier or as extra activities parallel to on-going construction projects.
New ENGIE Group (former GDF Suez) headquarters in Brussels is used as demonstration project played by ENGIE third Party Tractebel. The large office building, subject to HQE and BREEAM certifications, is located close to the Gare du Nord, and has a total office area of 75 000 m² with an auditorium of 300 seats and a restaurant for 700 people.
Leidsche Rijn Centrum Noord is a block of buildings at a railway and a ring road in Utrecht. The block is planned to be a highlight of the entrance to Utrecht city. Property development project of BAM contains multiple buildings for multiple purposes. Main building used in the demonstration is the so called ‘Well building’ (under development at the moment). Also the whole block is used for testing neighbourhood scale tools.
Kösk residential project is a multi-use residential complex that contains commercial, hotel, vacation and permanent living type of buildings. The complex is supplied with geothermal water energy source, takes advantage of ambient conditions and includes a common green space. The design is already developed and as a demo project for validation, the design process is recreated using the Holisteec platform and tools to validate both the methodology, tools and design itself.
The Vuorela boarding school is a care and education unit for young people under custody- A number of teenagers in need of special support live and go to school in the institution’s four housing units. The new constructed building provides accommodation, common areas and a class room for 11 persons, and offices and social spaces for staff. The institution is located in countryside outside of Helsinki.
NTUST in the Taipei City, is accommodating 450 staffs and 10,000 students. To cope with the increasing dormitory needs, the university has decided to tear down the old First Student Dormitory building, and build a new student dormitory on the same site. The dormitory building is a 14- floor building with two levels of basement. It accommodates 2,000 students in two types of units: one for four students; the other for six students in each unit, In the basement floors, it offers car & motorcycle parking spaces.
Each project demonstration was organized and planned by the respective demo responsible. Each demo team made a BIM execution plan as part of the methodology implementation, namely, a plan specifying the tasks and information exchange for the BIM process in each demonstration case.
The starting point for validation and testing activities has been handing over the developed tools from software developers to partners involved in validation and testing phase, i.e. potential end-users. Each tool composing the HOLISTEEC software platform was handed over in dedicated sessions (either in training sections, in conference calls or physical meetings) during which detailed information about related functionalities and usage have been presented. End-users then started testing the developed tools while maintaining a continuous dialogue with the software developers in order to communicate newly identified issues, unattended behaviour and potential improvements. According to this feedback, the platform prototype has been adapted and improved both with respect to the BIM infrastructure and information framework as well as the related calculation engines.
Benefits from the use of the HOLISTEEC methodology and tools have been assessed in terms of time savings, process streamlining, value added to the process, value added to the end product (i.e. the buildings under design) and support for learning and continuous development. According to the results of validation and testing activities (carried out with stakeholders internal and external to the consortium) the concept of independent software components that can communicate and cooperate through well-defined public APIs is very good achievement and is showing the way to the future for the tools that the users would like to use in the near future. The fact that the software is modular and does bind end-users with a single providers and huge software systems that intends to covers each and every need is clearly identified as a positive factor, being able to connect different specialised tools, each bringing a necessary functionality to the whole business process. The philosophy of Open BIM and the benefits from an open, configurable software platform offering a breed toolset were well demonstrated. Also from the business process point of view several positive aspects have been identified. This kind of multi-user project platform clearly enables collaboration of all stakeholders and management of complex data in a more structured/orchestrated way. The platform supports KPI based, performance driven design methodology that has potential to improve the final performances of the buildings under desing. Finally it is remarked that the prototype developed achieved the required level of technology readiness (TRL7) and that further developments are required to place it on the market.
With reference to non-technical activities:
• The project website (http://www.holisteecproject.eu/) has been continuously updated, by publishing various technical documents, reports and news and events session have been regularly tracked. Dissemination documents (brochures, posters and videos) have been revised and widely disseminated among academic institutions, research institutes, international organizations and the industry;
• With regard to dissemination events, during the Third Reporting Period, partners have taken part to twenty dissemination events targeting different stakeholders related to the AEC sectors in different European Countries. Specifically, Industry and the Scientific Community composed by researchers, designers, and technology providers have been reached. Moreover, three workshops have been organized to present project results.
• Periodic project newsletters have been produced and distributed by e-mail to 252 subscribers selected among relevant contacts of HOLISTEEC partners. One HOLISTEEC related publication (“Automatic BIM filtering using Model View Defintions”) has been prepared by one of academic partners of the Consortium and presented in the framework of CIB W78 conference;
• Last but not least, the Exploitation Plan already refined within the Second Reporting Period has been finalized within the Third Reporting Period, in order to establish and maintain mechanism for effective exploitation, coordinate it and encourage interactions/networking among stakeholders.
Project Results:
The Holisteec project was aiming at supporting the AEC sector in the renovation processes needed in order to be more close to implementation of solutions to meet EC policies and recommendations such as the EPBD. To comply with requirements included in the EPBD, Member States have to adopt actions to exploit energy savings from the building sector who requires to ensure that by 2020, all new buildings are nearly zero- energy buildings (after 2018 for new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities) - while in 2011 renovation rate of building stock was around between 0.5% and 2.5% and less than 1% of existing space was nearly zero energy
KEY CONTEXT ASPECTS
To improve the efficiency of building design and construction processes and meet the environmental and sustainable targets posed by stringent regulations in the field of Energy Efficiency and Buildings Energy Performance, significant changes and shifts are required in the AEC sector. At this purpose, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now widely recognized as a cornerstone of innovative tools and practices in the AEC industry. Specifically BIM could be seen as the transfer to the AEC sector of acknowledged practices from other industrial sectors (e.g. automotive and aerospace) where digital prototyping is a key to rapid integration of new products and processes on the market. BIM is a process involving the creation and management of digital representations of buildings (but also infrastructures and utilities) to facilitate the collaboration and information exchanges (cross domain dependencies, restrictions, boundary conditions and normative compliance) required for successfully accomplishing buildings design and construction phases. Using the BIM process for gathering the right data at the right time and giving it to the right people can be very challenging. At this purpose the HOLISTEEC project has defined a comprehensive building design methodology to be implemented and supported by a BIM-based collaborative software platform developed and demonstrated in the framework of the project.
At the beginning of the project a review of the state of the art in terms of technologies and procedures applied within the AEC sector, as well as relevant standard have been done following a three levels approach:
• Analyzing practices for building design, focusing on the identification of requirements to substantially improve the design phase, taking into account the whole lifecycle of the building;
• Analyzing existing methodologies and recommendations for low energy and sustainable building design at international, national and regional level, benchmarking them and detecting the barriers that prevent their widespread use;
• Analyzing reference projects within the partners’ portfolio with regards to new building design and construction in order to establish a summary of lesson learnt about the methodologies applied to those building projects.
The assessment highlighted that buildings have to meet higher level of requirements in terms of sustainability, functionality, usability and aesthetically aspects for different profiles of clients and end-users. The diversity of these requirements strongly influences the complexity of buildings as well as the construction process to follow. The construction process may become too complex due to the large number of actors involved, tasks required, fields of responsibilities and changing scenarios during the different phases of the process. These developments have been resulted in fragmented building design processes, disconnected communication channels between the project partners, and discontinued responsibility lines. This segmentation in the building design process has negatively influenced the optimisation of project delivery from the project management perspective resulting, in many cases, in cost overrun, late project delivery and lower level of building quality.
Moreover, attempts for design optimisation become inefficient and ineffective as only parts of the project could be optimised instead of optimising of the design as a whole. The construction sector has responded on these developments by introducing new building design methodologies that cover those discontinuity issues. In addition, decision making and design optimisation tools have been introduced to support those new building design process. The aim of these novel methodologies and computer-aided tools is to effectively optimise and efficiently design buildings taking into account multi-criteria approach and based on the whole lifecycle of the building. Although these methodologies and tools promote the integration building process, some common shortcomings in the current processes still impede the integration of those tools. The most common shortcomings are related to the computing infrastructure and the bottlenecks in the building processes causing imperfect information exchange and significant delays as the missing information and data need to be re-produced in each sub process.
In addition to the analysis of Technical SoA at the beginning of the project, an assessment of stakeholders needs has been performed. The interviewees, coming from different EU countries, represented different stakeholders and were selected in such a way that they represented experienced users of BIM. The target of the interviews was not to get the largest possible sample of all kinds of users but to concentrate on advanced users to get knowledge and priorities of the leading edge and insight to research forward.
The profiles of stakeholders interviewed correspond to: Owner / design manager representing the client; Construction manager; Designer / Architect; Structural engineer; HVAC/MEP engineer; Contractor and Facility manager, Building permitting authority and Advisor.
Different aspects have been analysed and the main wishes requested were:
• The platform should show and provide access to effective tools and methods. The most important issue is the compatibility.
• Big benefit would be to receive good and simple tools for use in project preparation and early design stages.
• The platform should provide data and data should be accessible for all (like CF data, geographical data etc., product data).
• The platform should help decision making with the help of good visualization:
• Better visualisation of performance assessment results is important also for clients and users.
• Visualisation of results of multi-criteria assessment and optimization.
• The platform should show the way towards the development of common software for all and compatible tools.
• The platform should support multi-criteria optimization with the possibility to weigh with KPIs.
• Automatically transfer the as-designed model to maintenance model, capturing the building evolution and providing access to maintenance information etc.
• As design, construction and operation cover long time period it is necessary to keep a correct data flow and avoid gaps and data incoherencies.
• The platform should implement an interdisciplinary version control system.
• Multidisciplinary analyses need to be based on cohesive design (model) versions. Hence version control needs to be trivial in order to make effective use of the platform.
• The platform should also support the development of business with the help of different simulation tools.
• The platform could be a powerful communication channel between different actors.
• The platform should achieve a huge number of users.
• The need of extra software for interfaces might be a big problem from the view point of usability.
• The platform should help to solve the question of maintenance.
• The tools should not be heavy / slow to use.
• Reliability and security issues are important.
Finally also business model aspects have been considered in an early stage of the project for both the methodologies and the HOLISTEEC BIM-based platform. In particular, two different business models have been discussed with regards to the HOLISTEEC building design methodology. Two approaches have been proposed: on one side the creation of a new company (NEWCO) that will provide consultancy services on design and construction management; on the other side, the commercialization of professional services by HOLISTEEC partners under specific bilateral (or multilateral) strategic agreements or as strategic alliances. In both cases, the methodology is offered for free in order to maximise the uptake and spread of the proposed solutions and results. These business models focus on the free distribution of the HOLISTEEC Methodology, but synergies with the platform exploitation are also considered. These connections will be further explored by the partners involved in the HOLISTEEC platform commercialization.
Regarding the HOLISTEEC BIM-based platform, two options of Business Models have been taken into account which investigate the possible exploitation of the platform as open or closed system. Since the project developments are proceeding towards an open platform model, where the service layers of the architecture are defined by public standards, the second option is the most suitable option for the HOLISTEEC Consortium.
MAIN S&T RESULTS/FOREGROUNDS
All what above considered HOLISTEEC developed a design methodology- a BIM based design methodology - that connects ICT tools to the process to help to implement integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. The focus of the methodology and tools in this project is in design phases. Simulation tools are possible to use also in construction and operation phase, but the need is greater in design phases.
The methodology is articulated within two parts:
The first part corresponds to the description of all design activities required to successfully implement a building design process highlighting for each project phase: objective, checklist for design activities, check list for performance assessment, checklist for BIM executions. In order to label the different project phases in a consistent manner and by using an international recognized classification system, RIBA terminology is used thus relevant phases are: Preparation and Brief, Concept design, Developed design, Technical design, Construction, In use.
The second part describes how the tools that constitute the HOLISTEEC software platform could support AEC stakeholders along the process of building design.
In addition HOLISTEEC project has been developed to provide a set of tools, integrated in a collaborative platform capable of swiftly relate with existing software for building design. The main Scientific and Technical results achieved in the platform, running in parallel with the HOLISTEEC methodology, are presented in the following list:
• It is based on a layered architecture;
• It is based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF);
• It provides users with a modular and open design supporting multiple interfaces: all components interact through well-defined (published) REST APIs;
• It provides with a KPI management system based on the duality between requirements (at the specification level) and foreseen performances (at the design/evaluation level). This is a new development, not available in any other software, inspired and compatible with the COINS methodology that could be at the basis of future standardization;
• It enables collaborative working;
• It allows taking into account the influence of the neighbourhood on building design;
• It involves simulation experts in successive design loops, from the very beginning of the construction project;
• It integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs;
• It supports multi-criteria simulation and verification of predicted performances (based on available information at each design stage) against predefined performance targets (which may be set contractually between designers and future building owners);
• It is based on data repositories to centralize information and data that are progressively generated and updated along building design process by multiple stakeholders.
Specifically the platform is composed by 9 functionally integrated tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. Within the following list, a brief description of each tool is presented:
• The Dashboard is a project management and collaboration tool. It provides a user interface that adds to and enhances the functionality available in the BCF collaboration tool BIM-it. The focus of the Dashboard UI is on organizing and filtering workflow information and communication between all stakeholders in the design process. Is the central access point to each HOLISTEEC project being the main BCF-based collaboration client which supports all the BCF message types defined for the HOLISTEEC workflows. The focus is on organizing and filtering workflow information and communication, organized in projects, variants and versions. All the interactions are supported by BCF standard. Different ways of associating documents have been introduced: direct upload and external links. Once uploading a model, the MVD filter and checking tool was automatically triggered through a service. The result would be visible in the dashboard UI once the service has completed. Additionally a new concept about the snapshot was introduced to guarantee consistent data for classification, simulation and showing the result in the scoreboard.
• The Model browser allows the user to interface between the design models (provided by designers and stored on the server) and the HOLISTEEC performance/requirement data which is created during the design workflow and stored on the KPI server. Most importantly the model elements can be classified using any published (e.g. OmniClass) or user-defined classification system. Functional requirements and KPI target values are associated with the relevant project classes. Along with the dashboard a it has been also developed to classify and map BIM models with KPI requirements and e-catalogue products. The model browser allows the user to interface between the CAD design model (represented by IFC files) and the HOLISTEEC data stored in the KPI server, which is created during the design workflow. The browsers tree view allows browsing and select entities in the IFC model by a configurable tree hierarchy, while the 3D view allows to freely selecting entities in an effective graphical way.
• The Model Browser can be used to select products and systems from e-Catalogues and to assign the product to the selected elements under design, making the product’s technical characteristics and performances available to the designers and simulation experts. The focus of the catalogue is addressed to envelope and insulation systems as well as HVAC and lighting equipment, since they are the most relevant with regards to the KPI-based design and have an impact in every domain.
• The KPI requirements setting tool enables the user to define new KPI Definitions and to set up specific KPI requirements for the project under design. All values are stored on the "KPI Server" web database and accessible from the simulation tools and the scoreboard.
• The NIM application is a web environment where GIS models can be created. It includes different functionalities for model transformation, simulation and on-line visualization.
• The MVDs check and filter tool is an internal service integrated in the platform that can validate the compliance of IFC files (e.g. provided by designers) against the exchange requirements for a specific task or application (e.g. the simulation engines).
• Simulation engines calculate KPIs in 4 relevant domains: energy, environmental, acoustic and lighting. For energy and acoustic domains both at BIM and NIM level can be assessed:
o Energy domain: CYPETHERM-COMETH and energy calculation engine at NIM level;
o Acoustic domain: AcoubatBIM (BIM level) and MithraSIG (NIM level);
o Lighting domain: HOLISTEEC Lighting tool;
o Environmental domain: ILMARI.
• The Multi-criteria analysis tool is able to analyse the results produced by the simulation engines, to compare them with the requirements and to produce feedback to the designers on identified non-compliances and possible ways to solve them.
• The Scoreboard visualizes results from different simulation engines and enables comparison between different design variants.
Those nine tools can be clustered in four groups according to the main functionalities they provide:
• Project team management: dashboard;
• Specification of design requirements: Model browser and e-Catalogue, KPI requirements setting tool and MVD filter and check tool;
• Evaluation: simulation engines for energy, acoustic, environmental and lighting domains;
• Design optimisation: multi-criteria analysis tool and scoreboard.
The HOLISTEEC software platform is a set of tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. The platform enables a collaborative working based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF), which goes beyond traditional design coordination since it involves simulation experts in design loops. At present different simulations are done separately and independently in different design phases. With holistic design methods we mean an organized combination of performance based design methods that enable systematic management of needed input data and multi-criteria design; this happens with the help of a software platform that integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs and supports multi-criteria simulation of different performance targets.
All those technical achievements have given way to an important number of potentially exploitable results, together with related responsible and estimations about their potential time to market. Specifically 22 exploitable results have been identified and 3 agreements have been finalised among partners.
Results have been divided in 4 main categories:
• HOLISTEEC Knowledge;
• HOLISTEEC core platform;
• Add ons to HOLISTEEC Platform;
• Proof of concepts.
And 4 different exploitation routes have been identified:
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC core software platform;
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC add-ons as standalone software tools;
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC platform customizable with the integration of add-ons;
• Exploitation of the HOLISTEEC building design methodology in combination to software platform and add-ons.
During the project different actions have been performed in order to define an adequate plan for use of Foreground developed based on project achievement and know how shared. The Plan was indeed submitted as preliminary version in correspondence of the end of the first reporting period (month 18), reviewed and updated during the second reporting period up to the delivery of the second version in month 36 and finalised during the last reporting period and submitted in correspondence to the end of the project.
The methodological approach followed for foreground exploitation was based on 5 main steps:
• Identification of potential exploitable results
• Characterization of potential exploitable e results by collecting general information about innovation contents, market data, financial and commercial aspects
• BFMULO analysis to understand partners’ claims with regard to exploitable results
• Identification of possible agreements to be established among partners to jointly exploit a specific result
• Definition of exploitable strategies for relevant results taking into account both industrial and academic perspectives
Potential Impact:
The construction sector is one of the most important industrial sector and during the life time of project some key indicators such as turnover mobilised by the sector increased. Indeed based on literature data the turnover of the construction sector pass from 1,2 Trillion in 2009 – while preparing HOLISTEEC proposal - to more than 1.5 Trillion in 2012 - while launching the project - and is foreseen a growth rate of 2.7% for 2017 - at the project end - highlighting the need to have innovative solution to support such sector growth.
In this context, the solution developed by HOLISTEEC wants to provide an instrument to the main active sector’ stockholders that allows to:
1. Have optimised design of integrated energy-efficient buildings, considering the different physical dimensions in a coupled and comprehensive overall way;
2. BIM manager to validated and qualified choices and variants in an early design phase on the basis of quantified performance objectives with compliance with regulation and user-oriented comfort expectations and constraints
3. Proper management of interaction among stakeholders and building design domains
4. Have continuity of information flows from design to maintenance
As a matter of fact, Holisteec Platform - HoP provides a collection of functionalities oriented to support the end-users through the collaborative BIM and performance-based building design process as report below:
• Project management General project management and monitoring functionalities through the so-called HOLISTEEC dashboard, having the overview of the project (phases, users, roles, schedule, current status, pending action, documentations) with potential links to other functionalities.
• Workflow management Support of an effective workflow control and management, in accordance to the methodology and related design processes.
• KPI management Support the definition of KPIs to evaluate performances of the building under design against target values through a central repository for performance based data (KPI server).
• Model management (storage and visualization) Support the storage, filtering and versioning of BIM/NIM models related to the design process phases, and the 2D/3D visualization of model and identification of key aspects related to the KPIs.
• Data management Support the upload/download of different types of files organized by categories and linked to different aspects of the project.
• Version management Support for keeping organized with different design versions and variants (which one is the newest, how many versions have been issued, which documents or analysis correspond to which input data, etc.).
• Performance scoreboard Visualization of KPI values, for the evaluation of the performances of the designed building, and the visualization of the recommendations provided to the users for the improvement of design choices
• Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) tool Specification and design a fuzzy expert system allows the evaluation of design choices through the application of expert knowledge by an inference engine. For instance, a possible result can be a set of suggestions for improvements, if any possible, to achieve better performances, regulatory constraints, other external conditions.
• Simulation management Support the semi-automatic extraction of information for different simulation domains/tools and population with templates and product catalogue data, minimizing user-interaction
HOLISTEEC building design methodology is a BIM based design methodology that connects ICT tools to the process to help implementing integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. At present different simulations are done separately and independently in different design phases. With HOLISTEEC design methods, it is meant an organized combination of performance based design methods that enable systematic management of needed input data and multi-criteria design; this happens with the help of a software platform that integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs and supports multi-criteria simulation of different performance targets.
The 5 Project demonstrations - validated during the project - most of all created more understanding of the complexity of issues related to software systems needed to support construction processes. The demonstration activities were beneficial to some extent to the real life projects in context of which the validation was carried out, and also for the companies carrying out the activities.
Measuring and quantifying the impacts of using platform like this was not an simple issue. In order to trustworthy measure the conditions with and without the platform we would need data about times and qualities of the current processes and tools, and stable environment for longer term testing of HOLISTEEC to compare times and qualities to current tools and processes that we know very well and have plenty of experience of. During the demonstrations platform has been in constant development changing here and there all the time. Quantification can only be made as expert opinion of differences in current situation and potential to-be situation with a platform like demonstrated in HOLISTEEC.
Following the work plan time savings and information consistency were selected as criteria of measurement. A questionnaire was defined to collect the assessment of expected impacts of using the platform based on experience of demo partners. The questionnaire addresses efficiency/time spending (including the data acquisition time) and changes in data consistency. The questionnaire is based on the workflow structure introduced in the updated methodology.
The workflow structure is based on 3 main phases:
1 - Project SET UP
To clearly explain how HOLISTEEC software Platform could support end-users (project managers/BIM managers) at the beginning of the process of buildings design a dedicated use case to project set up is hereinafter presented. In particular three main steps are identified:
• Create project through Dashboard and BIM-it;
• Classification(s) definition by means of Model Browser;
• Set requirements using Requirements Setting Tool (BIM manager/project manager).
2- Project Design
Design activities are facilitated by three main functionalities:
• BIM models management and variants creation through the Dashboard;
• BIM models check via MVD check/filter tool;
• BIM models classifications using the Model Browser.
3- Project Review
To show how HOLISTEEC software Platform functionalities could support also project phases related to design assess and review the following use cases are demonstrated:
• Request assessments;
• Assess design
• Review results
Based on the assessment done while playing with the demo projects the main results achieved with high impact on the current practices applied in the construction sector have been mapped and reported here below:
• Time savings - are expected a little throughout the process, most of all in the simulation loop in getting the design assessed from different point of views.
• Consistency of data - will be higher
• Unique format - The most improvement will result at start and end of the process because the KPI based approach forces to set the targets always in a specified format and KPI server/Scoreboard force resulting information always in the same format. Also all the project data is organised all the time according to project versions and different tasks by linking in Dashboard.
• Reduction of differences in current applied processes within companies - The differences in current processes of different companies (how performance driven, how requirements management oriented, how much implementing BIM,..) and different tools and methods can be reduced. Indeed it was highlighted that designers will have at least as efficient tools at the moment for some parts of the process where some others see lots pf potential improvement.
• Working team forced to use defined workflows - Learning was also thought very difficult to quantify. Each stakeholder needs to learn slightly different things, but also enough for the whole process. However, it is clear that it is an important aspect of finally making the expected impact. HOLISTEEC methodology has some new elements in the process that are needed for connecting the requirements monitoring as a solid part of the methodology (project classification, snapshot at least). One obstacle in implementing HOLISTEEC methodology and platform is understanding the needed changes in roles and their competences to carry out the process efficiently. Also already proven difficult in other occasions is the systemic innovation where not any single partner can make the change alone but changes from all stakeholders are needed to make the significant impact. Learning and pushing the change will take time, but if the change is for better (we believe), the time should be taken. A central software tool that enforces the team to work according to shared workflow is supposed to make the change easier than with current isolated tools.
In addition HOLISTEEC has contributed an impact on general development in the industry. Contributions to standardization, for example
• Defined new MVDs to propose for standardization process and software certification process to buildingSMART;
• Defined new extension to BCF to propose for standardization process to buildingSMART;
KPI definitions used in HOLISTEEC can be proposed for basis of standards development and harmonization of used KPIs (and calculation methods) in Europe.
Different tools are almost ready for external uses (from some months up to 1 year maximum after the project end) and software licences agreements need to be defined before.
List of Websites:
http://www.holisteecproject.eu/
Contact: Margherita Scotto (RINA Consulting)
Email: margherita.scotto@rina.org
The HOLISTEEC project started in October 2013 responding to the measures, put in place by the European Commission, for the promotion of buildings energy efficiency in Europe towards the achievement of ambitious climate and energy targets and to pave the way for further energy efficiency improvements. The project run for 4 years and ended in September 2017. The concept behind HOLISTEEC was the development of a BIM-based, on-the-cloud, collaborative building design software platform featuring advanced design support for multi-criteria building optimization. Specifically, the platform is composed by 9 functionally integrated tools (via APIs) to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. The main features of the platform are presented in the following list:
• Based on a layered architecture;
• Based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF);
• Provided with a modular and open design supporting multiple interfaces: all components interact through well-defined (published) REST APIs;
• Provided with a KPI management system based on the duality between requirements (at the specification level) and foreseen performances (at the design/evaluation level). This is a new development, not available in any other software, inspired and compatible with the COINS methodology that could be at the basis of future standardization;
• Enables collaborative working;
• Allows taking into account the influence of the neighborhood on building design;
• Involves simulation experts in successive design loops, from the very beginning of the construction project;
• Integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs;
• Supports multi-criteria simulation and verification of predicted performances (based on available information at each design stage) against predefined performance targets (which may be set contractually between designers and future building owners);
• Based on data repositories to centralize information and data that are progressively generated and updated along building design process by multiple stakeholders.
The preliminary step towards the definition of such a platform has been the definition of a comprehensive building design methodology to be implemented and supported by the HOLISTEEC collaborative software platform. This methodology is a BIM based design methodology that connects ICT tools to the process to help to implement integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. The focus of the methodology and tools in this project is in design phases. Simulation tools are possible to use also in construction and operation phase, but the need is greater in design phases.
Validation and testing activities for both HOLISTEEC design methodology and software platform have been carried out through five demonstration projects either as replay of design activities completed earlier or as extra activities parallel to on-going construction projects. Benefits from the use of the HOLISTEEC methodology and tools have been assessed in terms of time savings, process streamlining, value added to the process, value added to the end product (i.e. the buildings under design) and support for learning and continuous development. Exploitation strategies towards the commercialization of project results have been identified as well and particularly remarkable is the goal to have the first commercial version of HOLISTEEC platform available at the end of 2018.
Project Context and Objectives:
Significant changes and shifts are required in the AEC sector to improve the efficiency of building design and construction processes and meet the environmental and sustainable targets posed by stringent regulations in the field of Energy Efficiency and Buildings Energy Performance.
Buildings use 40% of world energy, emit 40% of world carbon footprint, and use 1/5th of world available water . In response, Europe as a whole and the Member States have committed their construction sector to reduce drastically the environmental impacts of buildings and have adopted new, stringent regulations to boost the transition to zero energy buildings, as part of their National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAP) , and in response to the requirements set by the Directive 2010/31/EU of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD). In 2016 the EC published the “Clean energy for all Europeans a package of measures boosting the clean energy transition in line with its commitment to cut CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030, modernise the economy and create conditions for sustainable jobs and growth The proposal for a revised directive on the EPBD (COM/2016/0765) puts energy efficiency first and supports cost-effective building renovation .
These commitments can be met only if a significant shift occurs in the design and construction processes.
Current practices tend to consider separately design activities on one side and assessment ones on the other, where assessment basically starts at the very end of the design stage. The fact that minor changes and corrections in one domain may have an important impact on other domains is generally ignored. This becomes even more significant when considering buildings as part of their neighbourhood, where partial optimization of multi domain requirements often leads to conflicting solutions (e.g. acoustic-focused vs. thermal-focused design). These issues, and others such as increased competition in the AEC sector, have fostered innovation in the construction industry, convincing its stakeholders to push forward an innovative digital and software-intensive design paradigm: the Building Information Model (BIM). BIM is now widely recognized as a cornerstone of future tools and practices in the construction industry.
Despite recent evolutions of tools/practices in the Architecture Engineering, Construction and Facility Management have already resulted in considerable advances some limitations remain, related to the complexity and variability of building life cycles, addressing building end user awareness and participation, lack of new business models, life cycle fragmentation, limited interoperability of the ICT supports. The concerns listed above call for a global and multi domain building design approach, based upon interoperable digital tools, upon shared and updated information, enabling highly collaborative workflows and featuring advanced design optimization support, for both new buildings and retrofitting design.
In this framework, the HOLISTEEC project proposed the development of a BIM-based, on-the-cloud, collaborative building design software platform, featuring advanced design support for multi-criteria building optimization and based on the following assets:
• An innovative feedback/loop design workflow;
• A multi-physical, multi-scale simulation engine;
• A unified data model for Building and Neighbourhood Digital Modeling;
• A full-fledged software infrastructure for building design tools interoperability leveraging available standards.
HOLISTEEC project was launched in October 2013 and after four years, on 30th September 2017, came to an end. The project has been articulated within three different project phases corresponding to the project reporting periods - Such can be summarised as follows:
• 1st Reporting Period - Early Project Phase - From the kick off to month 18
• 2nd Reporting Period – Software Development Phase - From month 19 to month 36
• 3rd Reporting Period – Demonstration and Validation Phase - From month 37 to month 48
During the early phase of the project activities were addressed to the development of the methodology, its initial validation and then to the creation of a framework where it is possible to define business models that can enable partners to exploit the methodology. The end of the Second Reporting Period corresponded to the release of the first integrated prototype of the HOLISTEEC software platform, namely, a set of tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact on and from the surrounding neighbourhood. The platform enables collaborative processes based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF), which goes beyond traditional design coordination since it involves simulation experts in successive design loops.
During the Third Reporting Period, the focus has been on demonstration and validation activities to consolidate and optimize the aforementioned prototype by testing its effectiveness on real case studies. Specifically, the suitability of HOLISTEEC tools to support AEC stakeholders while performing building design tasks has been assessed in order to verify that:
Tools are technically able to perform the activities targeted by their development without technical errors;
• Tools are suitable in the sense that they can handle real life building process data and perform relevant actions in building process;
• Tools’ usability is good enough to add value to building process.
Parallel activities have been performed to finalize the process of validation of HOLISTEEC building design methodology developed in the first project phase and already started during the Second Reporting Period through dedicated validation workshops.
Validation and testing activities – finalized in the third reporting phase - have been carried out through five demonstration projects either as replay of design activities completed earlier or as extra activities parallel to on-going construction projects.
New ENGIE Group (former GDF Suez) headquarters in Brussels is used as demonstration project played by ENGIE third Party Tractebel. The large office building, subject to HQE and BREEAM certifications, is located close to the Gare du Nord, and has a total office area of 75 000 m² with an auditorium of 300 seats and a restaurant for 700 people.
Leidsche Rijn Centrum Noord is a block of buildings at a railway and a ring road in Utrecht. The block is planned to be a highlight of the entrance to Utrecht city. Property development project of BAM contains multiple buildings for multiple purposes. Main building used in the demonstration is the so called ‘Well building’ (under development at the moment). Also the whole block is used for testing neighbourhood scale tools.
Kösk residential project is a multi-use residential complex that contains commercial, hotel, vacation and permanent living type of buildings. The complex is supplied with geothermal water energy source, takes advantage of ambient conditions and includes a common green space. The design is already developed and as a demo project for validation, the design process is recreated using the Holisteec platform and tools to validate both the methodology, tools and design itself.
The Vuorela boarding school is a care and education unit for young people under custody- A number of teenagers in need of special support live and go to school in the institution’s four housing units. The new constructed building provides accommodation, common areas and a class room for 11 persons, and offices and social spaces for staff. The institution is located in countryside outside of Helsinki.
NTUST in the Taipei City, is accommodating 450 staffs and 10,000 students. To cope with the increasing dormitory needs, the university has decided to tear down the old First Student Dormitory building, and build a new student dormitory on the same site. The dormitory building is a 14- floor building with two levels of basement. It accommodates 2,000 students in two types of units: one for four students; the other for six students in each unit, In the basement floors, it offers car & motorcycle parking spaces.
Each project demonstration was organized and planned by the respective demo responsible. Each demo team made a BIM execution plan as part of the methodology implementation, namely, a plan specifying the tasks and information exchange for the BIM process in each demonstration case.
The starting point for validation and testing activities has been handing over the developed tools from software developers to partners involved in validation and testing phase, i.e. potential end-users. Each tool composing the HOLISTEEC software platform was handed over in dedicated sessions (either in training sections, in conference calls or physical meetings) during which detailed information about related functionalities and usage have been presented. End-users then started testing the developed tools while maintaining a continuous dialogue with the software developers in order to communicate newly identified issues, unattended behaviour and potential improvements. According to this feedback, the platform prototype has been adapted and improved both with respect to the BIM infrastructure and information framework as well as the related calculation engines.
Benefits from the use of the HOLISTEEC methodology and tools have been assessed in terms of time savings, process streamlining, value added to the process, value added to the end product (i.e. the buildings under design) and support for learning and continuous development. According to the results of validation and testing activities (carried out with stakeholders internal and external to the consortium) the concept of independent software components that can communicate and cooperate through well-defined public APIs is very good achievement and is showing the way to the future for the tools that the users would like to use in the near future. The fact that the software is modular and does bind end-users with a single providers and huge software systems that intends to covers each and every need is clearly identified as a positive factor, being able to connect different specialised tools, each bringing a necessary functionality to the whole business process. The philosophy of Open BIM and the benefits from an open, configurable software platform offering a breed toolset were well demonstrated. Also from the business process point of view several positive aspects have been identified. This kind of multi-user project platform clearly enables collaboration of all stakeholders and management of complex data in a more structured/orchestrated way. The platform supports KPI based, performance driven design methodology that has potential to improve the final performances of the buildings under desing. Finally it is remarked that the prototype developed achieved the required level of technology readiness (TRL7) and that further developments are required to place it on the market.
With reference to non-technical activities:
• The project website (http://www.holisteecproject.eu/) has been continuously updated, by publishing various technical documents, reports and news and events session have been regularly tracked. Dissemination documents (brochures, posters and videos) have been revised and widely disseminated among academic institutions, research institutes, international organizations and the industry;
• With regard to dissemination events, during the Third Reporting Period, partners have taken part to twenty dissemination events targeting different stakeholders related to the AEC sectors in different European Countries. Specifically, Industry and the Scientific Community composed by researchers, designers, and technology providers have been reached. Moreover, three workshops have been organized to present project results.
• Periodic project newsletters have been produced and distributed by e-mail to 252 subscribers selected among relevant contacts of HOLISTEEC partners. One HOLISTEEC related publication (“Automatic BIM filtering using Model View Defintions”) has been prepared by one of academic partners of the Consortium and presented in the framework of CIB W78 conference;
• Last but not least, the Exploitation Plan already refined within the Second Reporting Period has been finalized within the Third Reporting Period, in order to establish and maintain mechanism for effective exploitation, coordinate it and encourage interactions/networking among stakeholders.
Project Results:
The Holisteec project was aiming at supporting the AEC sector in the renovation processes needed in order to be more close to implementation of solutions to meet EC policies and recommendations such as the EPBD. To comply with requirements included in the EPBD, Member States have to adopt actions to exploit energy savings from the building sector who requires to ensure that by 2020, all new buildings are nearly zero- energy buildings (after 2018 for new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities) - while in 2011 renovation rate of building stock was around between 0.5% and 2.5% and less than 1% of existing space was nearly zero energy
KEY CONTEXT ASPECTS
To improve the efficiency of building design and construction processes and meet the environmental and sustainable targets posed by stringent regulations in the field of Energy Efficiency and Buildings Energy Performance, significant changes and shifts are required in the AEC sector. At this purpose, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now widely recognized as a cornerstone of innovative tools and practices in the AEC industry. Specifically BIM could be seen as the transfer to the AEC sector of acknowledged practices from other industrial sectors (e.g. automotive and aerospace) where digital prototyping is a key to rapid integration of new products and processes on the market. BIM is a process involving the creation and management of digital representations of buildings (but also infrastructures and utilities) to facilitate the collaboration and information exchanges (cross domain dependencies, restrictions, boundary conditions and normative compliance) required for successfully accomplishing buildings design and construction phases. Using the BIM process for gathering the right data at the right time and giving it to the right people can be very challenging. At this purpose the HOLISTEEC project has defined a comprehensive building design methodology to be implemented and supported by a BIM-based collaborative software platform developed and demonstrated in the framework of the project.
At the beginning of the project a review of the state of the art in terms of technologies and procedures applied within the AEC sector, as well as relevant standard have been done following a three levels approach:
• Analyzing practices for building design, focusing on the identification of requirements to substantially improve the design phase, taking into account the whole lifecycle of the building;
• Analyzing existing methodologies and recommendations for low energy and sustainable building design at international, national and regional level, benchmarking them and detecting the barriers that prevent their widespread use;
• Analyzing reference projects within the partners’ portfolio with regards to new building design and construction in order to establish a summary of lesson learnt about the methodologies applied to those building projects.
The assessment highlighted that buildings have to meet higher level of requirements in terms of sustainability, functionality, usability and aesthetically aspects for different profiles of clients and end-users. The diversity of these requirements strongly influences the complexity of buildings as well as the construction process to follow. The construction process may become too complex due to the large number of actors involved, tasks required, fields of responsibilities and changing scenarios during the different phases of the process. These developments have been resulted in fragmented building design processes, disconnected communication channels between the project partners, and discontinued responsibility lines. This segmentation in the building design process has negatively influenced the optimisation of project delivery from the project management perspective resulting, in many cases, in cost overrun, late project delivery and lower level of building quality.
Moreover, attempts for design optimisation become inefficient and ineffective as only parts of the project could be optimised instead of optimising of the design as a whole. The construction sector has responded on these developments by introducing new building design methodologies that cover those discontinuity issues. In addition, decision making and design optimisation tools have been introduced to support those new building design process. The aim of these novel methodologies and computer-aided tools is to effectively optimise and efficiently design buildings taking into account multi-criteria approach and based on the whole lifecycle of the building. Although these methodologies and tools promote the integration building process, some common shortcomings in the current processes still impede the integration of those tools. The most common shortcomings are related to the computing infrastructure and the bottlenecks in the building processes causing imperfect information exchange and significant delays as the missing information and data need to be re-produced in each sub process.
In addition to the analysis of Technical SoA at the beginning of the project, an assessment of stakeholders needs has been performed. The interviewees, coming from different EU countries, represented different stakeholders and were selected in such a way that they represented experienced users of BIM. The target of the interviews was not to get the largest possible sample of all kinds of users but to concentrate on advanced users to get knowledge and priorities of the leading edge and insight to research forward.
The profiles of stakeholders interviewed correspond to: Owner / design manager representing the client; Construction manager; Designer / Architect; Structural engineer; HVAC/MEP engineer; Contractor and Facility manager, Building permitting authority and Advisor.
Different aspects have been analysed and the main wishes requested were:
• The platform should show and provide access to effective tools and methods. The most important issue is the compatibility.
• Big benefit would be to receive good and simple tools for use in project preparation and early design stages.
• The platform should provide data and data should be accessible for all (like CF data, geographical data etc., product data).
• The platform should help decision making with the help of good visualization:
• Better visualisation of performance assessment results is important also for clients and users.
• Visualisation of results of multi-criteria assessment and optimization.
• The platform should show the way towards the development of common software for all and compatible tools.
• The platform should support multi-criteria optimization with the possibility to weigh with KPIs.
• Automatically transfer the as-designed model to maintenance model, capturing the building evolution and providing access to maintenance information etc.
• As design, construction and operation cover long time period it is necessary to keep a correct data flow and avoid gaps and data incoherencies.
• The platform should implement an interdisciplinary version control system.
• Multidisciplinary analyses need to be based on cohesive design (model) versions. Hence version control needs to be trivial in order to make effective use of the platform.
• The platform should also support the development of business with the help of different simulation tools.
• The platform could be a powerful communication channel between different actors.
• The platform should achieve a huge number of users.
• The need of extra software for interfaces might be a big problem from the view point of usability.
• The platform should help to solve the question of maintenance.
• The tools should not be heavy / slow to use.
• Reliability and security issues are important.
Finally also business model aspects have been considered in an early stage of the project for both the methodologies and the HOLISTEEC BIM-based platform. In particular, two different business models have been discussed with regards to the HOLISTEEC building design methodology. Two approaches have been proposed: on one side the creation of a new company (NEWCO) that will provide consultancy services on design and construction management; on the other side, the commercialization of professional services by HOLISTEEC partners under specific bilateral (or multilateral) strategic agreements or as strategic alliances. In both cases, the methodology is offered for free in order to maximise the uptake and spread of the proposed solutions and results. These business models focus on the free distribution of the HOLISTEEC Methodology, but synergies with the platform exploitation are also considered. These connections will be further explored by the partners involved in the HOLISTEEC platform commercialization.
Regarding the HOLISTEEC BIM-based platform, two options of Business Models have been taken into account which investigate the possible exploitation of the platform as open or closed system. Since the project developments are proceeding towards an open platform model, where the service layers of the architecture are defined by public standards, the second option is the most suitable option for the HOLISTEEC Consortium.
MAIN S&T RESULTS/FOREGROUNDS
All what above considered HOLISTEEC developed a design methodology- a BIM based design methodology - that connects ICT tools to the process to help to implement integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. The focus of the methodology and tools in this project is in design phases. Simulation tools are possible to use also in construction and operation phase, but the need is greater in design phases.
The methodology is articulated within two parts:
The first part corresponds to the description of all design activities required to successfully implement a building design process highlighting for each project phase: objective, checklist for design activities, check list for performance assessment, checklist for BIM executions. In order to label the different project phases in a consistent manner and by using an international recognized classification system, RIBA terminology is used thus relevant phases are: Preparation and Brief, Concept design, Developed design, Technical design, Construction, In use.
The second part describes how the tools that constitute the HOLISTEEC software platform could support AEC stakeholders along the process of building design.
In addition HOLISTEEC project has been developed to provide a set of tools, integrated in a collaborative platform capable of swiftly relate with existing software for building design. The main Scientific and Technical results achieved in the platform, running in parallel with the HOLISTEEC methodology, are presented in the following list:
• It is based on a layered architecture;
• It is based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF);
• It provides users with a modular and open design supporting multiple interfaces: all components interact through well-defined (published) REST APIs;
• It provides with a KPI management system based on the duality between requirements (at the specification level) and foreseen performances (at the design/evaluation level). This is a new development, not available in any other software, inspired and compatible with the COINS methodology that could be at the basis of future standardization;
• It enables collaborative working;
• It allows taking into account the influence of the neighbourhood on building design;
• It involves simulation experts in successive design loops, from the very beginning of the construction project;
• It integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs;
• It supports multi-criteria simulation and verification of predicted performances (based on available information at each design stage) against predefined performance targets (which may be set contractually between designers and future building owners);
• It is based on data repositories to centralize information and data that are progressively generated and updated along building design process by multiple stakeholders.
Specifically the platform is composed by 9 functionally integrated tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. Within the following list, a brief description of each tool is presented:
• The Dashboard is a project management and collaboration tool. It provides a user interface that adds to and enhances the functionality available in the BCF collaboration tool BIM-it. The focus of the Dashboard UI is on organizing and filtering workflow information and communication between all stakeholders in the design process. Is the central access point to each HOLISTEEC project being the main BCF-based collaboration client which supports all the BCF message types defined for the HOLISTEEC workflows. The focus is on organizing and filtering workflow information and communication, organized in projects, variants and versions. All the interactions are supported by BCF standard. Different ways of associating documents have been introduced: direct upload and external links. Once uploading a model, the MVD filter and checking tool was automatically triggered through a service. The result would be visible in the dashboard UI once the service has completed. Additionally a new concept about the snapshot was introduced to guarantee consistent data for classification, simulation and showing the result in the scoreboard.
• The Model browser allows the user to interface between the design models (provided by designers and stored on the server) and the HOLISTEEC performance/requirement data which is created during the design workflow and stored on the KPI server. Most importantly the model elements can be classified using any published (e.g. OmniClass) or user-defined classification system. Functional requirements and KPI target values are associated with the relevant project classes. Along with the dashboard a it has been also developed to classify and map BIM models with KPI requirements and e-catalogue products. The model browser allows the user to interface between the CAD design model (represented by IFC files) and the HOLISTEEC data stored in the KPI server, which is created during the design workflow. The browsers tree view allows browsing and select entities in the IFC model by a configurable tree hierarchy, while the 3D view allows to freely selecting entities in an effective graphical way.
• The Model Browser can be used to select products and systems from e-Catalogues and to assign the product to the selected elements under design, making the product’s technical characteristics and performances available to the designers and simulation experts. The focus of the catalogue is addressed to envelope and insulation systems as well as HVAC and lighting equipment, since they are the most relevant with regards to the KPI-based design and have an impact in every domain.
• The KPI requirements setting tool enables the user to define new KPI Definitions and to set up specific KPI requirements for the project under design. All values are stored on the "KPI Server" web database and accessible from the simulation tools and the scoreboard.
• The NIM application is a web environment where GIS models can be created. It includes different functionalities for model transformation, simulation and on-line visualization.
• The MVDs check and filter tool is an internal service integrated in the platform that can validate the compliance of IFC files (e.g. provided by designers) against the exchange requirements for a specific task or application (e.g. the simulation engines).
• Simulation engines calculate KPIs in 4 relevant domains: energy, environmental, acoustic and lighting. For energy and acoustic domains both at BIM and NIM level can be assessed:
o Energy domain: CYPETHERM-COMETH and energy calculation engine at NIM level;
o Acoustic domain: AcoubatBIM (BIM level) and MithraSIG (NIM level);
o Lighting domain: HOLISTEEC Lighting tool;
o Environmental domain: ILMARI.
• The Multi-criteria analysis tool is able to analyse the results produced by the simulation engines, to compare them with the requirements and to produce feedback to the designers on identified non-compliances and possible ways to solve them.
• The Scoreboard visualizes results from different simulation engines and enables comparison between different design variants.
Those nine tools can be clustered in four groups according to the main functionalities they provide:
• Project team management: dashboard;
• Specification of design requirements: Model browser and e-Catalogue, KPI requirements setting tool and MVD filter and check tool;
• Evaluation: simulation engines for energy, acoustic, environmental and lighting domains;
• Design optimisation: multi-criteria analysis tool and scoreboard.
The HOLISTEEC software platform is a set of tools and services to enable the proper execution of building design and simulation workflows, considering also the impact with the surrounding city environment. The platform enables a collaborative working based on standard formats (IFC, CityGML, BCF), which goes beyond traditional design coordination since it involves simulation experts in design loops. At present different simulations are done separately and independently in different design phases. With holistic design methods we mean an organized combination of performance based design methods that enable systematic management of needed input data and multi-criteria design; this happens with the help of a software platform that integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs and supports multi-criteria simulation of different performance targets.
All those technical achievements have given way to an important number of potentially exploitable results, together with related responsible and estimations about their potential time to market. Specifically 22 exploitable results have been identified and 3 agreements have been finalised among partners.
Results have been divided in 4 main categories:
• HOLISTEEC Knowledge;
• HOLISTEEC core platform;
• Add ons to HOLISTEEC Platform;
• Proof of concepts.
And 4 different exploitation routes have been identified:
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC core software platform;
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC add-ons as standalone software tools;
• Commercialization of HOLISTEEC platform customizable with the integration of add-ons;
• Exploitation of the HOLISTEEC building design methodology in combination to software platform and add-ons.
During the project different actions have been performed in order to define an adequate plan for use of Foreground developed based on project achievement and know how shared. The Plan was indeed submitted as preliminary version in correspondence of the end of the first reporting period (month 18), reviewed and updated during the second reporting period up to the delivery of the second version in month 36 and finalised during the last reporting period and submitted in correspondence to the end of the project.
The methodological approach followed for foreground exploitation was based on 5 main steps:
• Identification of potential exploitable results
• Characterization of potential exploitable e results by collecting general information about innovation contents, market data, financial and commercial aspects
• BFMULO analysis to understand partners’ claims with regard to exploitable results
• Identification of possible agreements to be established among partners to jointly exploit a specific result
• Definition of exploitable strategies for relevant results taking into account both industrial and academic perspectives
Potential Impact:
The construction sector is one of the most important industrial sector and during the life time of project some key indicators such as turnover mobilised by the sector increased. Indeed based on literature data the turnover of the construction sector pass from 1,2 Trillion in 2009 – while preparing HOLISTEEC proposal - to more than 1.5 Trillion in 2012 - while launching the project - and is foreseen a growth rate of 2.7% for 2017 - at the project end - highlighting the need to have innovative solution to support such sector growth.
In this context, the solution developed by HOLISTEEC wants to provide an instrument to the main active sector’ stockholders that allows to:
1. Have optimised design of integrated energy-efficient buildings, considering the different physical dimensions in a coupled and comprehensive overall way;
2. BIM manager to validated and qualified choices and variants in an early design phase on the basis of quantified performance objectives with compliance with regulation and user-oriented comfort expectations and constraints
3. Proper management of interaction among stakeholders and building design domains
4. Have continuity of information flows from design to maintenance
As a matter of fact, Holisteec Platform - HoP provides a collection of functionalities oriented to support the end-users through the collaborative BIM and performance-based building design process as report below:
• Project management General project management and monitoring functionalities through the so-called HOLISTEEC dashboard, having the overview of the project (phases, users, roles, schedule, current status, pending action, documentations) with potential links to other functionalities.
• Workflow management Support of an effective workflow control and management, in accordance to the methodology and related design processes.
• KPI management Support the definition of KPIs to evaluate performances of the building under design against target values through a central repository for performance based data (KPI server).
• Model management (storage and visualization) Support the storage, filtering and versioning of BIM/NIM models related to the design process phases, and the 2D/3D visualization of model and identification of key aspects related to the KPIs.
• Data management Support the upload/download of different types of files organized by categories and linked to different aspects of the project.
• Version management Support for keeping organized with different design versions and variants (which one is the newest, how many versions have been issued, which documents or analysis correspond to which input data, etc.).
• Performance scoreboard Visualization of KPI values, for the evaluation of the performances of the designed building, and the visualization of the recommendations provided to the users for the improvement of design choices
• Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) tool Specification and design a fuzzy expert system allows the evaluation of design choices through the application of expert knowledge by an inference engine. For instance, a possible result can be a set of suggestions for improvements, if any possible, to achieve better performances, regulatory constraints, other external conditions.
• Simulation management Support the semi-automatic extraction of information for different simulation domains/tools and population with templates and product catalogue data, minimizing user-interaction
HOLISTEEC building design methodology is a BIM based design methodology that connects ICT tools to the process to help implementing integrated design and performance based design principles, taking a step forward in comparison to traditional practices that tend to consider separately design and assessment activities. At present different simulations are done separately and independently in different design phases. With HOLISTEEC design methods, it is meant an organized combination of performance based design methods that enable systematic management of needed input data and multi-criteria design; this happens with the help of a software platform that integrates the design information from different discipline BIMs and supports multi-criteria simulation of different performance targets.
The 5 Project demonstrations - validated during the project - most of all created more understanding of the complexity of issues related to software systems needed to support construction processes. The demonstration activities were beneficial to some extent to the real life projects in context of which the validation was carried out, and also for the companies carrying out the activities.
Measuring and quantifying the impacts of using platform like this was not an simple issue. In order to trustworthy measure the conditions with and without the platform we would need data about times and qualities of the current processes and tools, and stable environment for longer term testing of HOLISTEEC to compare times and qualities to current tools and processes that we know very well and have plenty of experience of. During the demonstrations platform has been in constant development changing here and there all the time. Quantification can only be made as expert opinion of differences in current situation and potential to-be situation with a platform like demonstrated in HOLISTEEC.
Following the work plan time savings and information consistency were selected as criteria of measurement. A questionnaire was defined to collect the assessment of expected impacts of using the platform based on experience of demo partners. The questionnaire addresses efficiency/time spending (including the data acquisition time) and changes in data consistency. The questionnaire is based on the workflow structure introduced in the updated methodology.
The workflow structure is based on 3 main phases:
1 - Project SET UP
To clearly explain how HOLISTEEC software Platform could support end-users (project managers/BIM managers) at the beginning of the process of buildings design a dedicated use case to project set up is hereinafter presented. In particular three main steps are identified:
• Create project through Dashboard and BIM-it;
• Classification(s) definition by means of Model Browser;
• Set requirements using Requirements Setting Tool (BIM manager/project manager).
2- Project Design
Design activities are facilitated by three main functionalities:
• BIM models management and variants creation through the Dashboard;
• BIM models check via MVD check/filter tool;
• BIM models classifications using the Model Browser.
3- Project Review
To show how HOLISTEEC software Platform functionalities could support also project phases related to design assess and review the following use cases are demonstrated:
• Request assessments;
• Assess design
• Review results
Based on the assessment done while playing with the demo projects the main results achieved with high impact on the current practices applied in the construction sector have been mapped and reported here below:
• Time savings - are expected a little throughout the process, most of all in the simulation loop in getting the design assessed from different point of views.
• Consistency of data - will be higher
• Unique format - The most improvement will result at start and end of the process because the KPI based approach forces to set the targets always in a specified format and KPI server/Scoreboard force resulting information always in the same format. Also all the project data is organised all the time according to project versions and different tasks by linking in Dashboard.
• Reduction of differences in current applied processes within companies - The differences in current processes of different companies (how performance driven, how requirements management oriented, how much implementing BIM,..) and different tools and methods can be reduced. Indeed it was highlighted that designers will have at least as efficient tools at the moment for some parts of the process where some others see lots pf potential improvement.
• Working team forced to use defined workflows - Learning was also thought very difficult to quantify. Each stakeholder needs to learn slightly different things, but also enough for the whole process. However, it is clear that it is an important aspect of finally making the expected impact. HOLISTEEC methodology has some new elements in the process that are needed for connecting the requirements monitoring as a solid part of the methodology (project classification, snapshot at least). One obstacle in implementing HOLISTEEC methodology and platform is understanding the needed changes in roles and their competences to carry out the process efficiently. Also already proven difficult in other occasions is the systemic innovation where not any single partner can make the change alone but changes from all stakeholders are needed to make the significant impact. Learning and pushing the change will take time, but if the change is for better (we believe), the time should be taken. A central software tool that enforces the team to work according to shared workflow is supposed to make the change easier than with current isolated tools.
In addition HOLISTEEC has contributed an impact on general development in the industry. Contributions to standardization, for example
• Defined new MVDs to propose for standardization process and software certification process to buildingSMART;
• Defined new extension to BCF to propose for standardization process to buildingSMART;
KPI definitions used in HOLISTEEC can be proposed for basis of standards development and harmonization of used KPIs (and calculation methods) in Europe.
Different tools are almost ready for external uses (from some months up to 1 year maximum after the project end) and software licences agreements need to be defined before.
List of Websites:
http://www.holisteecproject.eu/
Contact: Margherita Scotto (RINA Consulting)
Email: margherita.scotto@rina.org
