The corridors of the new building are still empty, but the situation will suddenly change when the school bell rings for the first time after the summer holidays. The first children will then populate the new comprehensive school in Hürth, and they will test the qualities of the building. The KZA team has supervised the execution planning for the construction project with a budget of approximately 40 million euros. After almost two years of construction, it is now ready for the move.
For the Essen architects and their project manager Hans Protsch, the planning of the school was something special. For the first time, the design of the office h4a architects from Stuttgart was implemented with a new digital working method: the Building Information Modeling (BIM). The focus is on a complex three-dimensional model, which captures all the building parts with their properties and digitally links them together.
BIM helps to save time and avoid mistakes
This results in several advantages: On the one hand, the system automatically recognizes how a change in one area affects another subarea – and adjusts the data accordingly. On the other hand, all project participants can access the model at any time – schedules and costs can be calculated faster and more efficiently.
“We need the same time for the first input of the data as with other methods. Yet BIM can save you a lot of time with changes, and you have more chances of finding mistakes,“ explains Hans Protsch. If, for example, the client wishes other panels for the classes as originally planned, this can be changed with little effort in the plans: „You only have to enter the new dimensions for a single panel. The system will then take it automatically for all panels of the same type in the building.“
Intelligent three-dimensional planning also offers advantages at the construction site. During their tours, the construction managers in Hürth had no paper sheets, but tablets in their luggage. They were able to quickly understand whether the specifications of the plans were correctly implemented on the spot.
Trainees were planning
For the KZA team, the school building in Hürth was still exceptional in another respect. After all, the architects‘ trainee apprentices at the Essen architectural office were also closely involved in the planning process – and from the very beginning they were able to work with BIM.
„This is a topic we hardly talk about at vocational school – yet it is very important for our professional future“, says Chris Moog, trainee in his second year of apprenticeship. BIM makes working day simpler in many ways, adds his colleague Marcel Roling (third year). „You have a better understanding of a project and a better overview.“ It is not only for that reason BIM belongs to everyday life at KZA now. „The method has established itself internationally and is gaining importance in Germany as well,“ emphasizes Hans Protsch.
More information about the comprehensive school in Hürth can be found here.
