Juul | Frost Architects go 100% BIM in Örebro

Örebro in Sweden is going through an exiting development as a knowledge city with the transformation of the expansive university campus. In 2010, JUUL | FROST Architects (JFA) won the competition for the university’s campus square and was awarded with the task of designing, programming and detail designing three new buildings for the area. The new business college Nova opened its doors in 2015 and was shortly after awarded the Örebro municipality’s city prize.

NOVA house connects the university, business and the city   

The Nova house, with its 560 seat auditorium, is an educational meeting place that connects the university, the city and its business life. The building opens up towards the university square - the new central arrival point - and hereby underlines the principle idea that openness and visibility support a modern and innovative study environment.

In the evenings the translucent facade glows, inviting students and the city’s citizens into the main atrium and auditorium, the building’s soaring focal point. Beyond the campus square and the business college, 100 new student and researcher apartments as well as the business centre, Alfred Nobel Science Park, form part of the project and contribute to the creation of a dynamic urban life around the entrance zone.

BIM pioneers 

JFA have been responsible for the comprehensive BIM (Building information Modelling) detail phase and since 2006 have been one of Scandinavias foremost BIM pioneers.

The process of the Nova house has been unique with its smooth dialogue-based cooperation between the architect, the contractors and the client which has created the right platform for the formation of the new high-profile building. To enable everyone involved to participate in the project’s development and ongoing progress, JFA used the IFC format as an open exchange platform. This does not only makes the actual development process easier and dialogue-based, but also ensures that all building data is secured for future use, which is of great importance to the operation and maintenance phases of the facility.

Weekly exchanges, fortnightly telecon sessions

Early in the process the parties saw that a weekly exchange process suited the nature and size of the project. Solibri Model Checker was used for coordination and quality control. Based in IFC models from the different consultants and reports from Solibri Model Checker, issues and challenges across the project team where detected on a weekly basis. Reports with comments were exported via BCF and added to the federated model, so that an overview was created for everyone at the next IFC exchange session. One of the advantages of BCF is that all comments are gathered in the model, instead of the involved parties having to compare Excel spreadsheets or meeting notes. 

Telecon meetings where conducted fortnightly throughout the project’s design phase, followed by the exchange of the federated model. At these meetings, the project team assessed the project’s progression ‘face-to-face’ in Solibri Model Checker and navigated the model together. This meant that both project-related and technical modelling changes, as well as procedures, could be agreed upon. This was combined with face-to-face meetings that the project owner and the design team conducted when required.

A Smooth process 

Ulf Wennlöf, Contractor at ByggTema, is impressed over the process, ”I have been in the building industry since 1976, and this is the smoothest project I have ever seen. Actually, this is the first time I have seen MEP technicians use Solibri on site. By coordinating the models in Solibri we had access to better quality checks all through the process”. 

NOVA was inaugurated in October 2015.
Find out more about JUUL | FROST Architects
at juulfrost.dk