With the continuous promotion and development of BIM technology in architectural design, BIM forward design and technology have gradually become an indispensable skill and demand for modern architectural design, and also provide a sustainable technical path for the engineering construction industry. In recent years, the policy requirements of the national and local governments for BIM have gradually been clarified, emphasizing the promotion of BIM technology application in medium and large-scale projects and the promotion of information management. Due to the rapid development of medical buildings due to the new crown epidemic, how to effectively apply BIM forward design and BIM technology to the design of medium and large medical buildings has become a difficult problem. Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute") has conducted research and exploration on the BIM forward design system in the practice of Tongji International Rehabilitation Medical Center.
Project Overview
Fig.1 Renderings of the project of Tongji International Rehabilitation Medical Center
The Tongji International Rehabilitation Medical Center project (Figure 1) is located at the intersection of Guanshan Road and Chuanjiangchi 4th Road, Caidian District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. The project is positioned as a first-class rehabilitation medical center in China and the largest in central China, and is an important project to make up for the shortcomings of the rehabilitation treatment system in Hubei Province. The total construction area of the project is 203,000 square meters, with an above-ground construction area of 142,700 square meters and an underground construction area of about 60,400 square meters, including 8 sub-projects, including a rehabilitation medical center, a rehabilitation training center, and a 120 emergency command and dispatch center (Figure 2). The design of the project is innovative and unique, breaking the cold and stereotypical image of medical architecture, integrating the concept of rehabilitation into the architectural modeling, and contributing to the "spine" of the ultra-modern healthy city center in Wuhan.
Fig.2 Integration model of Tongji International Rehabilitation Medical Center
BIM forward design is a major difficulty
Compared with traditional design, BIM positive design not only triggers a comprehensive change in the way of design, but also brings a series of important challenges. In this project, the design team faced multiple problems: the huge project volume and tight design cycle made the BIM design relatively inefficient; Project collaboration across multiple professional fields and cumbersome funding process make it difficult to accurately control design management and lack effective process management tools and platforms. In medical projects, the complexity of the layout and electromechanical systems brings difficulties to the design and pipeline integration of the whole project. BIM forward design model review, drawing and drawing also face many challenges.
Research on BIM forward design system
In order to cope with the above challenges, Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute has built a college-level digital BIM forward design system based on ISO19650 (Fig. 3). This system is a key component of the company's drive for BIM technology. In the course of this practice, the support of the company's leadership and the responsive implementation of BIM technology by all departments and disciplines are crucial. The company should not only understand the strategic significance of BIM, but also establish the corresponding resource investment, build a sound technical support and training system to ensure that BIM technology can be widely used in the company. Through the formulation of company-level BIM technical standards, the construction of a public data environment, the development of a design collaborative management platform and other measures, a comprehensive BIM application system has been formed. These decisions and strategies provide strategic guidance and organizational support for the application of BIM technology within the company.
Fig.3 Architecture diagram of BIM forward design system
Clarity of technical standards
The BIM forward design system first clarifies the technical standards of the project, including model management requirements, forward drawing technical requirements, a table of mutual data for all disciplines, model review requirements, design process management and other technical guidance documents. These standardization help ensure consistency and high quality in project design.
Construction of a public data environment
In order to support the BIM application of the whole hospital, a public data environment (CDE) was built, and virtual desktops were deployed based on private clouds. This environment unifies production tools and data exchange, supports the use of the whole hospital, realizes the centralized management and sharing of data, and provides convenience for project design.
Design the development of a collaborative management platform
In order to meet the collaborative and management needs of project design, we have independently developed a design collaborative management platform. The platform covers multiple key links such as multi-discipline collaboration, 3D review, achievement delivery, and process quality control, and has become a key technology for forward design (Figure 4). The application results of the platform have formed a series of system construction achievements that can be promoted and implemented, such as system documents, project production mechanisms, and public data environment team building. The design collaborative management platform is the core component of the BIM forward design system, which provides technical support for the full implementation of forward design.
Figure 4 Design collaboration platform
BIM forward design implementation
BIM design collaborative management platform
The design core of the design collaboration management platform is based on the Web, Revit plug-in and Windows applications, and is based on the PDCA task engine to efficiently complete task assignment and design work (Figure 5), providing a high degree of flexibility and convenience to make the design work smoother. On this platform, design teams can work together in real-time to ensure high-quality design tasks. At the same time, the platform also pays attention to the integration and circulation of data to ensure that all tasks in the design process are accurately tracked and managed.
Fig.5 BIM collaborative design platform
BIM design progress control and design collaborative funding environment
In the BIM planning stage, the project designers, collaboration methods and project nodes were planned on the design collaborative management platform. The work tasks are associated with the design model, and the model structure tree (MBS) is decomposed in the platform to carry out refined control of design tasks, progress, and capital improvement (Figure 6). Sort out the forward design workflow of the whole process of BIM, and build a three-dimensional collaborative funding environment for forward design. Designers need to raise funds in strict accordance with the management and control table of each specialty, which indicates the content of each stage of each major (Figure 7), and restricts the time and content of each specialty. Considering the iteration of the model version, the design traces can be traced and controlled, and the positive design of the whole is supervised in a down-to-earth manner.
Figure 6 Design progress management
Fig.7. 3D design collaborative funding environment
Perform 2D and 3D proofreading simultaneously
The innovative and developed review system can simultaneously perform the review of 2D drawings and 3D models on the same platform. The platform integrates the proofreading, reviewing, and proofreading processes of 2D drawings and 3D models, and the review comments are associated with model components and drawings, and the reviewers and designers can send and receive review comments through the platform. Designers can quickly find, modify and reply to comments on the review platform, strengthen the process quality control of forward design, and ensure the consistency of drawings and models.
Forward design optimization
During the design phase, the building structure, modeling, pipe comprehensives and performance analysis were optimized. Its main design optimization has the following three points: First, the steel structure skeleton of the rehabilitation medical center is optimized. The steel truss of the large atrium of the rehabilitation medical center had different angles, and the structural skeleton lines were optimized by Rhino and Grasshopper, and the positioning of the skeleton lines was extracted and reversed into the Revit and Tekla models for collaborative design verification and design deepening. The second is to analyze the architectural modeling, flow line, and indoor and outdoor environment through evacuation simulation, 720 cloud panoramic display, and pedestrian flow line and line of sight simulation analysis, so as to create the most comfortable pedestrian flow line and simple and bright space experience under the premise of meeting the specifications (Figure 8). The third is to formulate the basic principles of the pipeline, carry out the comprehensive design of the overall pipeline of the project, deepen the pipeline and machine room for each sub-project, and deal with the embedded casing. Combined with the manufacturer's investment, the design of the medical logistics well channel was deepened to verify whether it meets the use requirements (Fig. 9).
Figure 8 720 cloud panorama display
Fig.9 Deepening design of medical logistics channel
Independent research and development of various plug-ins and platforms
In order to improve the design efficiency and model quality of forward projects, a series of plug-ins and platform tools have been independently developed according to project requirements. The first is to build a 3D medical project family library and component library, and add a 2D component library and annotation library. Integrate medical room products to form a medical design resource library for easy reuse; The second is the BIM drawing and drawing system independently developed by the hospital, which breaks through the technical barriers of BIM drawing and drawing difficulties in the past, and realizes the integrated process of forward design and drawing; The third is to develop a plug-in for the design of tube wells in the general drawing. The terrain of the general map is undulating, and the elevation of the pipeline changes a lot, so the design of the tube well needs to be close to the terrain and the distance of the pipeline, and the auxiliary tools of the master plan should be developed to automatically adjust the elevation and depth of the tube well to improve the design efficiency. Fourth, independent research and development of lightweight platform. The platform is based on the BIM model of LOD400 for control, and through the expansion and development of the lightweight engine, the model can be non-destructive and lightweight, reducing the model volume by about 80%, and avoiding the problem that the model is too large and the platform is slow to load.
Collaborative project management platform
The collaborative project management platform independently developed by Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute covers eight business management modules and more than 30 business management processes, and realizes data collaboration through two ends and one cloud (Figure 10). On-site three-dimensional collaboration is carried out throughout the project to assist in the construction disclosure and acceptance. The digital drawing model control method is used to assist in solving design problems and receiving design changes on site.
Figure 10 BIM project management platform
Research results of BIM positive design
Through the practice of Tongji International Rehabilitation Medicine Center, the positive design system of enterprise BIM has been verified and improved. Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute has realized the full construction drawing design process control from project planning to drawing within 4 months, saving 20% of positive design time compared with the past. In the design collaboration platform, 136 funding achievements of various majors were summarized, 338 review results were collected in the process, and more than 60 related funding processes were collected. The research and development of the design collaborative management platform and related software have won 2 related patents, 9 software copyrights and 1 third prize of Hubei Provincial Civil Science and Technology Award (Figure 11).
Figure 11 Scientific and technological innovation achievements
epilogue
In the face of a medical project like Tongji International Rehabilitation Medical Center, which is large in size, complex in function, short in design cycle and with many special cooperation, Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute has experienced a race between BIM design and time. In this design, the BIM positive design system and design application innovation points made the design land in a short period of time, ensuring the design quality and cycle. This practice also demonstrated the company's keen application of innovative technology, marking that BIM is not only a catalyst for innovative design, but also a key tool for the successful implementation of the company's projects, laying a solid foundation for the company's future development in the field of design.
Source: China Survey and Design Magazine
Authors: Zhongnan Architectural Design Institute Co., Ltd., Xu Fanghui, Fan Huabing, Li Wentao, Xiao Muying