Architectus Sustainable building Autodesk Australia Customer Success Story innovation with BIM. Autodesk® Revit® Architecture AutoCAD® Since adopting Autodesk’s BIM solutions, leading Australia-based architecture firm BIM is compelling for everyone in the Architectus delivers award-winning construction industry, sustainable projects quickly and efficiently. from architects, building consultants, contractors and engineers. We are seeing a shift to BIM being an expectation and it won’t be long until BIM use is demanded and mandated on all construction projects. —Rodd Perey Group Design Technology Manager Architectus Sydney Completed atrium at 1 Bligh Street Sydney Image courtesy of H.G. Esch The Firm Leveraging the benefits of BIM as Architectus is an international award-winning a point of difference professional services company with more than 200 With a strong reputation for project delivery, leading architects, urban designers, and planners, Architectus sought to streamline the design and with offices in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, documentation process in a bid to further enhance Shanghai, and Sydney. Their experience spans its services. The firm had been using AutoCAD® many project typologies, including urban design software since 1988 and since then substantially and planning, public, commercial, residential, customised the solution for their use. education and research, industrial, hospitality, transport, retail, and interior architecture. As a company that continuously seeks to improve and innovate, Architectus recognised early on The company is behind projects such as the that technology had a key role to play in enabling Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; the way they create and deliver quality designs. 1 Bligh St. Sydney; Australian Synchrotron, Architectus used Autodesk® Revit® Architecture Melbourne; Maanshan City Centre, China; and software on a pilot project and saw it as a turning the Waitakere Civic Centre in New Zealand. point for their firm. “We recognised that a revolution was required and not simply evolution in our use of technology,” said Rodd Perey, group design technology manager of the Sydney Architectus office. “It was then that we decided to start looking at our services from a clean slate because with the better use of information enabled by the software, greater possibilities opened up to us as a business.” They now use Revit as the key platform underpinning Sustainable Innovation From conceptual studies through to the most its building information modeling (BIM) approach to As an early adopter, Architectus is the poster child detailed construction drawings and schedules, Revit project delivery and adopted BIM as a key discipline for the benefits of BIM technology. Now using BIM Architecture software helps Architectus coordinate within the firm. Since then, Architectus has trans- in all its projects, the firm has built Sydney’s very its projects effortlessly. With the Revit Architecture formed the way it creates, amends, and delivers first six-star Green Building at 1 Bligh Street and parametric change engine, the company can make designs and sees BIM as a point of difference for has emphasised that innovative architecture of this amendments to any part of the design and have the the firm. standard would not have been possible without the changes automatically integrated and coordinated assistance of BIM technology. throughout the model. It also helps the company The company now has the ability to design through- to enhance client communications and accelerate out different phases, and more quickly and easily Perey adds, “BIM is compelling for everyone in the decision making, by gaining more timely feedback make changes to major compositional elements. construction industry, from architects, building on project design, scope, schedule, and budget, It can create comprehensive design proposals and consultants, contractors and engineers. We are while minimizing costly efforts to coordinate better realize its clients’ ideas on the fly with 3D seeing a shift to BIM being an expectation and documents manually. views. It can also make late-stage changes without it won’t be long until BIM use is demanded and having to manually coordinate model views, mandated on all construction projects.” Using model-based design, by having the ability to drawing sheets, schedules, sections, plans, and design in a 3D format, the company can better other design information. More importantly, 1 Bligh Street is being heralded as a big step share ideas and inspirations with clients and partners Revit Architecture helps Architectus to provide forward in sustainable design, and is expected to at an early stage to help fast-track support. Through designs and documentation that are coordinated, use substantially less energy than a conventional the Project Navigator feature in Revit Architecture, consistent, and complete. high rise. The elliptical glass tower is angled on designers can access any view of the building infor- the corner site to maximise both the iconic Sydney mation model including drawing sheets, schedules, Architectus has dramatically reduced the time spent Harbour view and the sun. It will have a double sections and plans. on iterating designs, particularly where detail is glass skin that allows the sun in while also consistently added to various elements and phases controlling its heat. The Result of the design process. According to Perey, “The Revit Architecture software is delivering significant benefits were immediate and promising. We were At the conceptual stage, the building was designed benefits to Architectus, providing the company with able to extract models from Revit rather than drawing to manage solar heat gains, glare and air train a key point of differentiation and further boosting models sheet by sheet and this meant that we efficiency to ensure hot air is efficiently vented out its position in the architecture and design field. achieved notable percent in efficiency gains and as of the building when needed. The team were able to Architectus now relies on Revit Architecture to build a result became more competitive.” vigorously test the sustainability hypotheses at the more sustainable buildings and achieve a level of early stage and tweak it where needed. As a result, efficiency and quality that would not have been Keeping up to the standard that Architectus is material waste and time were significantly reduced possible without BIM technology. Overall, the recognized for is a key factor for their success. Using at the construction stage — this meant that the company is delivering on its commitment to project BIM technology the company can keep computable construction was also environmentally friendly. success and excellent service through enhanced information about a building project in design communication and collaboration, integrated and construction up-to-date and accessible in an Improved collaboration processes, and streamlined systems. integrated digital environment. This helps give As Architectus grows, seamless integration of architects, engineers, builders, and owners a clear designs and documentation is a key to driving Architectus received extensive technical support overall vision of their projects and enables faster project success, as is effective collaboration across from their Autodesk reseller, AEC Systems. The decision making—helping raise the quality of teams and geographies. This requires streamlined training and support enabled them to explore new projects. BIM technology has helped the firm win processes and effective workflows to ensure products and tools to improve their design process project bids because they were able to demonstrate designs are created and delivered efficiently. and design capabilities. that they could deliver quality efficiently. The benefits were immediate and promising. We were able to extract models from Revit rather than drawing models sheet by sheet and this meant that we achieved notable efficiency gains and as a result became more competitive. —Rodd Perey Group Design Technology Manager Architectus Sydney 1 Bligh Street Sydney, Revit Model showing multiple services Image courtesy of Architectus Autodesk, AutoCAD, and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. 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