Sylvia Knauer
It’s hard to believe Autodesk is in its sixth year of involvement with the AEC Excellence Awards, and this time we share the privilege with co-sponsors HP, Construction Dive and Smart Cities Dive. This year’s AEC Excellence Awards competition attracted 256 submissions from 40 countries and culminated in a ceremony held at Autodesk University Las Vegas to recognize the winning projects that are embracing technology in reimagining the processes of design and construction.
As was the case with many AEC Excellence 2017 award winners, Revit software was central to many 2018 project submissions. In fact, winners in all categories – building design, infrastructure design, and construction—and project sizes used Revit to devise their award-winning solutions to design challenges. What made Revit integral was its connection to other Autodesk solutions for analysis, reality capture, design collaboration, as well as construction coordination and scheduling.
Read on to see how Revit enabled the success of these AEC Excellence Awards winning projects.
Building Category
Basler & Hofmann AG
Office Building Extension
Using BIM for the full lifecycle, from design to planning to construction, is still an unusual practice in Switzerland but taking this revolutionary approach paid off for engineering, planning, and consulting company Basler & Hofmann. The firm used a Revit central model approach to have everyone—architects; structural and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers; and construction contractors—work from a single BIM.
With all team members having full, real-time visibility into all design aspects, the team was ultimately able to design to the very high BIM level of development (LOD) of between 300 and 400. As a result, the structural engineering team was able to present their designs in a complete 3D model and the MEP team delivered a highly accurate MEP model. Improved productivity and quality in the design phase and the high LOD of the Revit model, translated to an exceptionally smooth construction process. Read the full project description.
See all building category winners
Infrastructure Category
Empresa Desarrollo Urbano de Medellin
A public entity, the Empresa Desarrollo Urbano de Medellín (EDU) was challenged to design safer communities for people living in slide-prone hillside neighborhoods that had been built with little planning. EDU got buy-in from the community by using used integrated BIM tools in the Autodesk AEC Collection to create visuals that demonstrated how improvements addressed transportation and sanitation in addition to housing. Using Autodesk InfraWorks and Civil 3D, they created a 3D model that included both existing conditions and proposed site changes.
Image courtesy of Empresa de Desarrollo Urbana
They then used Revit to design new housing concepts for the communities. By using Revit models, they were able to evaluate construction and material requirements early on, giving them a view into costs and budget alignment. They used Autodesk Insight to orient the houses to be energy-efficient, estimating that the finished housing will be 28% more efficient. For further details on how the project used Navisworks and Autodesk Rendering to share the plans with the community, read the full story here.
See all infrastructure category winners
Construction category
University of Virginia (UVA) University Hospital Expansion
Perkins + Will and Skanska USA
Model-based collaboration enabled the design team and construction firm on this project to keep hospital operations running – including use of a helipad – while they added 440,000 square feet of space. Revit, Navisworks and BIM 360 were central to facilitating collaboration between Perkins+Will, Skanska and the client. Early on they used aggregated, cloud-based models to detect and avoid potential clashes. They pushed Revit models to the Revit® Live architectural visualization service to help medical teams see and improve equipment placement in a VR experience.
Image courtesy of Perkins+Will Architects, Skanska USA
The team used the Revit model during preconstruction to understand where they could reduce costs. Taking laser scans of the existing building processed with Autodesk ReCap™ reality capture software and blending them with the Revit design models, they realized they did not need to construct a costly new shaft that was going to be placed near an existing shaft. Read the full story including how ReCap saved the project $200,000 .
See all construction category winners
The three winning projects highlighted here are just a view into the range of project submissions to the 2018 AEC Excellence Awards that demonstrate how technology for collaboration, prefabrication, and design automation is transforming the way the industry works.
Are you working on project worthy of recognition? Stay tuned and follow Autodesk Revit on Twitter to read more about the winning stories and receive updates about when the 2019 competition will open.