How long has GK "A101" had its own departments responsible for the development of architectural concepts, design and working documentation? Are there many people there and what do they do?
We have a subdivision, which in 7 years from a small technical department in the structure of the customer service has turned into a design institute with more than 100 people. Today the institute participates in all design stages. At the same time, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our product, therefore we attract external partners who can be useful in developing new ideas and solutions. Here you can recall the international architectural competition for the concept of a system of public spaces for the residential complex "Scandinavia", in which the Dutch bureau MLA + became the winner. Or a recent tender for the design of more than 300 thousand m2 housing, which was attended by companies from all over the country. Third-party teams can be involved at any stage, from concept to working documentation.
Why then should a development company spend internal resources at all, develop its own design institute with good competencies in BIM design, when the market allows you to hire a very good team for little money?
Little money in development is a relative concept. It is extremely difficult to find a good team in the market. That is, one whose experience and competencies allow you to quickly understand the product and, in a sense, "predict" the wishes of the customer.
In addition, A101 Group of Companies works only with large-scale projects, on plots of 70 hectares and more, and they are never static, they evolve along with the market. An in-house team that “lives” with the project throughout the entire implementation period is a more optimal choice in terms of both the level of costs and understanding of the product. Of course, its presence does not exclude the involvement of external contractors, who often bring interesting ideas, but it is important to preserve the concept, to ensure a balance of continuity and diversity.
By creating competence in the field of BIM-design within the Group, we solve two main tasks. The first is obvious: the development of our own project team that can effectively work with bigdata, including within the framework of design and working documentation. Usually its preparation is a very long process. The cost of an error is quite high, but often errors are “caught” not within the company, but in the expertise, and then the documents are sent for revision, and the exit to the construction site is postponed for about two or three months.
Meanwhile, in the conditions of work through escrow accounts, the high speed of project implementation becomes a critical factor. And it is clear that not all technological processes at a construction site can be accelerated without loss of quality. But it is possible to reduce the stage "P" due to modern IT solutions.
A virtual model of a building, created using BIM, behaves exactly like a real house, in accordance with the laws of physics, all the effects of new solutions and materials are quickly calculated by a computer. Finding intersections between sections and within the same design discipline reduces the likelihood of errors by 80%. And also, which is equally important, it allows you to very quickly check new solutions or materials for efficiency.
The second task is to be able to distinguish between competent contractors from bureaus that only declare their level of informatization, but in fact, BIM implementation was limited to hiring one specialist, not always with a certificate, and Revit installations, not always licensed.
In this regard, by the way, I would like to note one more important point. We ourselves do not want to find ourselves in a situation where one person or a small team acts as the bearer of certain competencies. We all understand about the circumstances of life and the competition "for brains". Therefore, we have created our own corporate training program BIM, which is principally designed for mass scale.
How long has your in-house team been working with BIM itself, in whole or in fragments?
So far, within the framework of pilot projects. We started the first such project for the most sensitive product for us - housing. His goal was to create a kind of library of materials, structures and templates that automates most of the routine processes, gives architects a set of elements for layout. Now, on the basis of these developments, we are designing residential buildings for the Scandinavia and Spanish Quarters projects.
Our BIM implementation process was structured differently than others. Two years ago, we hired the first employee in the relevant department, started with the development of regulations and a BIM modeling standard, but when it came to finding competencies in the market, we realized that we would not find so many people at the moment.
Therefore, together with external experts, we developed a corporate training program, tested it in a focus group, but at first we did not meet with enthusiasm. This did not stop us, and we launched a large-scale educational project, which was supported by Autodesk. She provided us with the opportunity to certify our employees, and the entire BIM implementation department has been certified as professionals with the right to teach.
The domino effect happened when we trained the first few groups and solemnly presented the first certificates. A queue of applicants immediately lined up to us, we even had to adjust the training schedule for those who "very urgently and very badly" needed it.
Tell us about your program, what is special about it?
Firstly, we developed it on the basis of the "fieldwork" principle. Training is carried out without interrupting the main activity, including the solutions that the same specialists have already designed without the use of BIM. This very clearly shows the difference in approach.
Secondly, all classes are conducted interactively, in a webinar format. The teacher shows how and what to do, answers questions. At the same time, two monitors are connected to the computers of both the teacher and the students. The student monitors the broadcast in one, and performs tasks in the second. And the teacher needs a second monitor in order to watch how the student completes the assignments. If necessary, the teacher can take the profile of any student under remote control and visually analyze the question or difficult situation.
Thirdly, the program itself seems to me to be very effective. It is divided into a general course, where designers get acquainted with the principles of modeling and the program interface, and a personalized course for each of the specializations. In addition, we have created a collaborative design course to establish effective communication between designers of different specialties.
And, finally, all our seminars are accumulated in the knowledge base of the A101 Group of Companies in the form of screencasts, so that you can review any moment. I've seen a lot of great tutorials in my life, and it seems we've created another one.
At what stage is the implementation of BIM, is it already possible to assess the effectiveness in numbers?
The introduction of the technology has a deferred economic effect for the Group as a whole, but analyzing local solutions, only on the structural and architectural part, we estimate the savings of 2-3%. After the full-scale implementation of BIM in our production practice, the effect can reach 8-11%, taking into account changes in taxes and inflation.
So far, the most "breakthrough" effect, I would say, is the ability to simulate several different technical solutions within the framework of one project in just 1-3 days and predict for each of them the cost price changes and the feasibility of using them with an accuracy of up to 98%.
In general, the development of competencies in the field of BIM will give us a clear understanding of how each technical solution affects the entire project as a whole. Applying the principles of TRIZ (the theory of inventive problem solving - ed.), We came to the digitalization of projects. Using BIM-modeling, we are able to formulate the desired result in design assignments.
Let's get back to interaction with partners. How do you assess the difference in work with an internal unit, with an external Russian team, with an international team - in economic terms and in terms of originality and attractiveness of the work result?
There is, of course, a difference. Imagine that you are on vacation, come to a beach in another country, do not know English, but really want to play, for example, volleyball. In order for everything to work out exactly, you first look for compatriots, because you have one language, but after a while the multilingual team “plays out” and understands each other by looking or gesture. In working with external partners, the principle is the same: first, the conflict of paradigms and views, then constructive work and the result.
Foreign partners are interesting as consolidators of the best world experience, but only for conceptual studies. Because, firstly, we still have very different standards and nomenclature base of materials, and in some cases and technologies, not all of which can be applied in the Russian Federation due to the norms of joint venture or GOST. And, secondly, their “full cycle” services are several times more expensive than those of their compatriots, which affects the cost of the product as a whole.
