Leveraging BIM for sustainable design

Case in point: York University
To illustrate the myriad uses of BIM, a case study can be helpful. Founded in March 1959, York University is the country’s third-largest university and a leading interdisciplinary teaching and research school. It has two campuses located in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)—Keele (185 ha [457 acres]) and Glendon (34.4 ha [85 acres]), which together support 54,000 students with a staff and faculty nearing 10,000.

York has been at the forefront of sustainability when it comes to higher education institutions in Canada. In 2002, its Computer Science and Engineering Building won a Green Building of the Year Award from World Architecture magazine for being the first cold-weather green building for a Canadian university. Still, there was room to improve the integration process of design, construction, and post-construction in terms of facility management.

In the case of the Computer Science and Engineering Building, the architects and engineers who once worked on the award-winning project were long gone years later. Since the facility was developed using such advanced technology for the time, there was no BIM model to help make possible an ongoing lifecycle understanding.

Patrick Saavedra, a trained architect and urban planner, came on board as York’s manager of planning and architectural design in 2009. He quickly noticed some gaps in integration between the various operation and infrastructure departments at the university.

“Having come from a large fully integrated and multi-disciplinary firm where sustainability was key to everything, I knew the importance of ensuring proper integration of all disciplines from the inception of an idea,” he says. “I started to gather our team to discuss how we could manage our design process in a more integrated and holistic way, and BIM was the solution.”

One of the first ways the team employed information modelling was to construct some initial visualizations for smaller renovation projects. Instead of presenting typical floor plans, construction prints, and a materials board to depict design intent (which could often be confusing for clients to decipher), the team began using BIM.

“We started by creating a BIM model of a partial floor we were going to renovate, and did some initial investigation through the BIM process that we could use to extract some general data, such as views and layouts,” says Saavedra. “We found many of our clients around the university were quite receptive to the three-dimensional representation of the work we do.”

The BIM process enabled clients to ask more in-depth questions about projects (e.g. What would it look like with different materials or colours in a space? Can the lighting be improved?). The models could be quickly manipulated to yield visual results.

With the positive client and user feedback, the team at York decided to explore something much bigger when tasked with a complicated infrastructure project at the heart and nucleus of the university. The 46,450-m² (500,000-sf) project encompassed a 1968 facility housing three buildings—a lecture hall, the main library, and the main administrative building—sitting atop a raised concrete podium. Many needs had to be considered from those vying for a particular space with particular demands, including those of student services, the library, food services, and academic uses.

“We quickly realized we needed to overlay the needs of many stakeholders and look at the implications on the overall complex, because everything has a ripple effect,” says Saavedra. “So we decided to undertake an integrated study that looks at sustainability, architecture, urban design, landscape design, interior design, micro climate, operations, maintenance, and energy performance.”

Using a BIM process, the team is now testing numerous scenarios and design interventions, such as how replacing windows would impact energy performance (and therefore decrease utility costs), or how a green roof could mitigate the heat island effect on the podium.

“We also discovered through the BIM model that the micro-climate effect on the podium had a direct impact on the existing vegetation to the extent it was killing the trees,” explains Saavedra. “We were able to test different scenarios to correct that, while addressing other issues such as solar implications on the surface of the buildings.”

The study, which is still underway, is likely the first of its kind in an Ontario university to use a fully integrated design process using a BIM model. It will allow consultants and university administrators to make future planning decisions on building energy performance by changing things like roofs and windows. This practice will also provide the university the tools to discover and mitigate maintenance and operation issues that can be used by the different disciplines at the university, from the Department of Energy Management to the custodial department.

The planning and architectural design team is also hoping to leverage this study to do more large-scale integrated and sustainable projects in the future, using BIM for the university.

“Being sustainable for us means creating spaces and facilities that are flexible, so we can keep up with the changing pedagogical needs of the university as it progresses,” says Saavedra. “By being able to reuse spaces and use them efficiently, we’ll reduce our energy consumption significantly. We’ll also be able to reduce repetition and the need to create new buildings by optimizing use of existing space, classrooms, and other critical space at the university, thereby greatly reducing our carbon footprint.”

Best practices to BIM implementation
Getting started with BIM does not have to be difficult. From an owner perspective, there are numerous best practices to follow when moving from a traditional project delivery to requiring consultants use BIM.

Progressive owners should mandate BIM and make it a condition of contract. The benefits of BIM are proven, and it is now up to the Canadian architectural/engineering/construction (AEC) industry to take the lead and fully embrace and implement this next-generation methodology. By this same token, it is important to have the best consultants on the job. Firms who choose not to embrace BIM are at risk of being left behind in Canada’s competitive marketplace.

New BIM language should be included within Requests for Proposals (RFPs); the asking should be clear and detailed to avoid confusion and misinterpretation of needs. The pre-qualified consulting team, and its BIM process, must also be validated. It is important to differentiate between a consultant’s proven abilities to deliver information modelling services from blatant ‘BIMwash.’

Multi-party or integrated project delivery (IPD) contracts should be incorporated. These terms refer to a contractual model where all parties involved are in a single contract. The contracting parties share joint responsibility for both the definition of the project and the management of the process. The owner is actively involved on this team and has ultimate veto power over decisions in the case
of disagreements.

Once a team is in place, BIM can be used to help improve building energy efficiency and performance by following five basic steps.

1. Collect basic building information—including wall, floor, roof, and ceiling dimensions—on each building within the portfolio.
2. Create basic models for each building in the portfolio. It is possible to generate a complete model—including floor plans, elevations, sections, and 3-D views—from the most basic building dimensions in just a few hours.
3. Analyze building models for environmental and economic performance. Facilitate smarter, more sustainable performance by analyzing and simulating a wide range of options. For example, in the area of optimizing solar effects, models and integrated analysis tools can be used to evaluate sun position, solar radiation, shading, and daylight alternatives.
4. Compare and then prioritize projects or investment alternatives based on conservation objectives, such as water or fossil fuel usage, or financial goals. For example, evaluate the economic and environmental return on upgrades to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems.
5. Select and act on top priority projects.

Conclusion
Whether it is for one or multiple buildings in a portfolio, conducting performance modelling and analysis can generate significant benefits by providing clear, consistent, and evidence-based building analysis that sufficiently details predicted performance. Embracing BIM can help a team more accurately understand related issues over the project’s multiyear lifecycle, and facilitate true sustainable design for improved building performance.

Caesar Ruest is Autodesk’s building information modelling (BIM) solutions executive for architecture, engineering, and construction in Canada. He meets with building owners and property managers to discuss the advancements within capital project delivery trends as it relates to planning, visualization, and management of assets for their lifecycle. Ruest is a member of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Canada BIM Council. He can be contacted
at caesar.ruest@autodesk.com.