Meet the World's 10 Best BIM Projects
Helsinki Airport extension rendering. Credit: T2 Alliance
What do the Helsinki Airport, the Big One Roller Coaster, and a temporary bridge over the Corrèze River all have in common?
These projects are among 10 of the best structural designs and construction projects using building information modeling (BIM) around the world. Each has been awarded a Tekla Global BIM Award for 2022.
What are the Tekla BIM Awards 2022?
The Tekla BIM Awards is a biennial global competition that rewards the world's most impressive structural designs modeled with Tekla BIM software. The competition entries are the winners of local Tekla BIM awards. This year, 132 projects from 37 countries won local Tekla BIM awards.
From the local winners, a selection jury decides the overall winners, split amongst different project-type categories. The jury uses the following judging criteria to determine the winners:
- Use of BIM and collaboration: Model life cycle, collaboration between multiple participants, and use of IFC and open BIM
- Innovative use of Tekla BIM software: Challenges solved with Tekla and innovative ways of utilizing BIM
- Constructability: Level of Development (LOD), multi-material aspect, and geometry complexity
- Environmental benefits: Energy savings, reduced waste, and logistics
- Cool factor: Impressiveness, uniqueness, and creativity of project execution
In addition to the project type categories, there are special categories for a student winner and a software developer winner. So, without further adieu, the Tekla BIM Awards 2022 winners are:
What: T2 Alliance, Helsinki Airport, an extension of Terminal 2 in Finland
Who: Ramboll Finland Oy, Finavia Corporation, SRV Rakennus Oy, ALA Architects Ltd., HKP Architects Ltd., Gravicon Oy
Why: The project owner, Finavia Corporation, recognized the value of BIM, incorporating it wherever possible to manage project scale and complexity.
- Throughout the project, more than 100 users from 8 different organizations used Trimble Connect and Tekla Model Sharing to collaborate and manage over 400 project models.
- BIM models are referenced in stakeholder meetings and weekly update meetings to make informed construction and operational decisions.
- The Tekla Structures Model Sharing models were highly detailed, with the cast-in-place and precast reinforcement, steel roof trusses, and foundation piles all modeled.
What: King's Cross R8, a mixed-use project with two 13-story buildings in the United Kingdom
Who: ARUP, Argent, McLaren Construction, Piercy & Company, Severfield UK, and Getjar
Why: The project's structural BIM model, created with a Tekla-Grasshopper Live Link, enabled faster design through collaboration and automation, allowing the team to advance design delivery.
How BIM helped speed up the design process
- The project site bordered three active shallow brickwork train tunnels sensitive to ground movements, adding a design coordination challenge with Network Rail.
- The team quickly compared structural framing options in early design stages using Tekla Structures and a Grasshopper script that generated the full structural frame and foundations.
- Another Grasshopper script automated the calculation of piles and pilecaps, while Tekla Structures was used to 3D model the project's challenging reinforcement.
What: Ovalo Monitor Bridge, a complex reinforced concrete bridge in Peru
Who: TSC Innovation, Aceros Arequipa, INCOT
Why: The execution of this 870-meter bridge with straight and curved sections was only possible with an impressive BIM software stack.
A tech stack of BIM software managed project design and data
- The complex geometric configuration of the bridge was parametrically modeled with Tekla-Grasshopper, allowing a quicker modeling time and simplifying any future changes.
- Tekla Model Sharing was an essential tool that enabled designers located in different areas to work within the same project models.
- Trimble Connect rounded out the project's software stack -- the cloud-based common data environment managed and stored all project information, so it was easilyl accessible by any party, anywhere.
What: Pierrefonds Waste Management Plant, a multi-sector hub critical for Reunion Island's energy transition
Who: SEEI (Sud Etude et Equipment Industrie)
Why: BIM models enabled proper construction division coordination to deliver this critical waste management project.
Division coordination made easier with BIM
- Completion of this critical project treats the waste of 60% of Reunion's population, produces renewable energy for more than 10,000 households, and puts an end to landfilling in the region.
- Coordination among the piping, equipment, and civil engineering divisions was successful with detailed Tekla Structures BIM models and Tekla Model Sharing.
- The models were also used to coordinate the envelope of an adjacent building being designed by another firm.
What: ScaffPlan, BIM plug-ins for scaffolding modeling made in Australia
Who: ScaffPlan
Why: This developer-built tool quickly engineers scaffolding within Tekla Structures to reduce designing time and increase profits.
- ScaffPlan is the world's first intelligent scaffolding software, allowing users to draft complex scaffolding designs in minutes.
- Developed by industry-leading scaffolders, the plug-in words on top of Tekla Structures to engineer a project's scaffolding solution 360 times faster than traditional methods.
- ScaffPlan is designed to streamline plans, calculate engineering, remotely manage projects, and control operations to an exceptional standard.
What: Tampere Deck and Arena, a multi-purpose activity center located directly above railway tracks in Finland
Who: SRV Rakennus Oy, Ramboll Finland Oy, ARCO Architecture Company
Why: With all project parties extensively using BIM, the arena was designed efficiently and with a high degree of accuracy.
- Every party involved in the major project used BIM to manage the project's large scope, numerous design disciplines, and overlapping areas of responsibility
- Using Tekla Structures and Tekla Model Sharing sitewide enabled design precision. For example, sewer pipes fit perfectly into the deck structures, lighting met strict organizational requirements, and each arena seat enjoyed an unobstructed view.
- Additionally, BIM was essential throughout construction. Project management could monitor real-time progress and material delivery statuses to inform contractor coordination and labor scheduling.
What: The Big One, Season 2, the replacement of nine roller coaster tracks in the United Kingdom
Who: Taziker Industrial
Why: The extensive capabilities of Tekla Structures made redesigning this roller coaster's curve for better dynamics achievable.
- Three Tekla Structures tools enabled this complex geometry engineering feat: point cloud import, layout manager, and Grasshopper link.
- Point cloud import was used to determine the geometry of the existing roller coaster track, which was then backchecked with a Robotic Total Station.
- Using Tekla Structures easily allowed specific design criteria to be met. Compound radii were not used on any pieces of rolled tube and butt-welded joints were minimized to reduce cost.
- The fabricated tracks had an exceptional fit up to the existing ride -- a testament to the BIM technology and the work of the fabricators.
What: Pidekso Dam, a new dam designed to prevent floods in Indonesia
Who: PT PP, Balai Besar River Basin Dam (BBWS), Bengawan Solo project
Why: Using BIM tools to design faster and better allowed this project to finish far ahead of projections.
BIM project planning reduced errors and enabled project success
- Tekla Structures BIM models accelerated design with faster project shop drawing production, minimized rework, reduced material waste, and maximized natural resources.
- When protests disrupted the project site, surveys were conducted with drone photogrammetry and BIM technology, allowing precise existing measurements.
- Using Tekla Structures, Trimble Connect, and Trimble Laser Scanner SX 104 as part of a project-wide BIM collaboration allowed this project to finish 1.5 years earlier than initially projected.
What: Corrèze Bridge, a viaduct over the Corrèze River in France
Who: Students from IUT Departement GC EGLETONS
Why: In a short timeframe, a group of students modeled a temporary viaduct crucial to constructing the MALEMORT SUR CORREZE bypass using Tekla Structures.
BIM used to quickly model a temporary bridge solution
- A group of 6 students provided a design solution for a temporary bridge over the Corrèze River in just 13 days.
- In this timeline, the students reviewed the bridge under construction and the concrete and steel execution plans, then used the information to model a temporary bridge with Tekla Structures.
- The final design, including the detailed reinforcement cages, was presented to the EXE method engineer, project manager, and project owner.
What: E6 Ranheim-Værnes, a highway widening project with three tunnels and multiple structures in Norway
Who: ACCIONA Engineering, Ramboll, ACCIONA Construction, COWI, Statens Vegvesen vegdirektoratet (Norwegian road authorities), Nye Veier
Why: The project team incorporated BIM solutions wherever possible to design efficiently and maintain live design collaboration.
- The engineering team and project stakeholders used an integrated, model-based design to leverage wide-scale BIM during initial design through construction and into future operations.
- Tekla Model Sharing enabled model sharing amongst the design team, and Trimble Quadri allowed interdisciplinary coordination and clash detection workflows.
- Design files were regularly exported from Tekla into Trimble Connect and Trimble Quadri to ensure up-to-date data exchange.
- Tekla-Grasshopper parametric models allowed design optioneering and analysis into value-added solutions to promote design efficiency.