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21st century design and
project management in BIM workflow

Weinberg office building

Client: Weinberg 93 Építő Kft.

Size: 1090 m2

Location: Sárospatak

Completion: 2023

Architect: Csaba Livják

Services: , , , , , ,

Sectors: ,

We were asked by one of Hungary’s leading steel structure manufacturers and contractors to design and accompany the expansion of their office in Sárospatak with BIM-based project management. In addition to the existing building with its unique façade, we dreamt up a more restrained block connected by a neck link, as requested by the client. The entire project is summarised in this video:

The Client

Since 1993, Weinberg Kft. has been engaged in the construction of industrial and commercial buildings, typically halls, and the manufacture of steel structures for buildings. The company, which is 100% Hungarian-owned, is growing very dynamically and has become a significant player in the Hungarian construction industry at a national level, and its activities have been recognised with numerous professional awards.

They are also responsible for the steel frame of the roof structure of the Hungarian House of Music and the steel structure of the façade of the New Ethnographic Museum, but they have also produced and installed several unique works also in the USA.

The building to be extended, with the award-winning light-reflecting façade (Photo: BuildEXT)
The building to be extended, with the award-winning light-reflecting façade (Photo: BuildEXT)

The Conditions

The company is located on the outskirts of Sárospatak, on the site of the old Millstone factory, on two plots of land facing each other and separated by a street. As a result of the division of territory, the “old” site housed a small training hall, while the former millstone factory building, more than 100 years old, was used for the finance and preparation department. Across the street – the site of the current development – were the production halls, warehouses, and an office headquarters, which housed the production management, the business unit, and the C-level management of the company.

Operating in two locations was causing increasing operational difficulties, so management sought a solution to consolidate functions into one area.

Existing hall building of Weinberg 93

As the development of the old office building was not possible for both economic and layout reasons, we were asked to design a new office building.

The project required the building to be expandable, to form an integral unit with the existing office building, which serves as the headquarters of the production hall, and to functionally reunite the company’s management and production management.

Iron strong connection

The planned new office will consist of two parts: a three-story building with a pillar frame and a neck wing, which will create a functional unity between the old and the new facility by connecting the offices of the main building with a bridge structure.

The new building will house offices, meeting rooms and their service facilities – reception, canteen, kitchen, toilets, kitchenette, etc., – while the existing building will provide office space with minimal modifications and almost the same functions as the existing building. The company planned to install 32,000 kWh of solar panels on the roof.

Modern office space

At the customer’s request, we have designed flexible, post-Covid solutions that meet the requirements of the times and ensure optimal utilisation and employee satisfaction in the long term.

For example, mobile walls can connect the canteen to two adjacent meeting rooms, creating a communal space for smaller corporate events. The open office space is broken up by two-person chatboxes for short meetings, while highly automated, smart-system lighting and engineering for staff comfort.

Due to the profile of the company, we used a lot of steel and glass, complemented by elements that make the interiors more welcoming from a visual, tactile and acoustic point of view.

BIM fundamentals

The ISO 19650 project was based on a highly accurate georeferenced point cloud of 12 billion points, created by the reality capture division of Buildext. The design was carried out in one of the world’s most advanced design systems, Autodesk Revit, a little known environment in Hungary, using closed BIM methodology.

At the beginning of the project, a BIM Execution Plan (BEP) was prepared, defining the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders, the processes and, of course, the way of communication. The BIM goals included the preparation of quantity take-offs and simulations of the building’s operation (wet-out, thermal analysis, etc.), BIM-based on-site construction coordination and as-built model.

We supported the construction with scan to BIM activities: we regularly scanned back the as-built condition and compared it with the plans. This allowed us to identify many of the faults before the installation phase, so that we could suggest solutions, saving considerable cost, time and frustration during the project.

This time the common data environment (CDE) was Dalux, and after the setup we taught the practical use of the software several times; first in office conditions, later we started to use the interface together in the field, which was supported by a fixed, remote workstation during the project.

We invited the project stakeholders – the client, project managers, designers and construction participants – to the platform, which, as a common, closed communication platform, accelerated and simplified communication, allowing everyone to see the same information.

Dalux was not only used to monitor progress, record defects and ensure quality, but also to track the actual state of construction during the bi-weekly design visits.

The project was not extremely challenging from an architectural point of view, but the mechanical engineering was relatively complex, including ceiling and underfloor heating and air conditioning systems. During the design phase, we carried out regular clash detections, so that even with LOD 300 detailing, the installation work was trouble-free.

MEP model of the new Weinberg office building (BuildEXT)

Interior design solutions were also included in the multi-disciplinary 3D model. From sketchpauses to AI-based image generation tools, we used a range of tools to create a conceptual design for the building, and from this the draft model, which was presented to the client in a video and interactive virtual tour.

Thanks to VR technology and spectacular, lifelike visualisation, we can get a better sense of the scale of the space, the quality of the materials and the overall effect, which we could even modify in real time.

What was new was that we also used artificial intelligence to bring interior designs and graphics to life; with the help of the Midjourney creation system, we were able to create radically different concepts very quickly.

Simulations in virtual space

By placing the BIM model in a simulation environment, we optimised the energy use of the building, reducing operational carbon emissions, which are of key importance for ESG.

A partial 4D schedule has been prepared to support the implementation. Our BIM model “knows” exactly what materials will be installed, so by linking the time and resource requirements of each construction phase, the standard times and the logical sequence of construction, the system can simulate the progress of construction to the day. This allowed us to anticipate slips, giving us the opportunity to correct them.

Weinberg’s profile was fortunate for the project – the steel structural elements of the bridge connecting the new section to the old section were prefabricated and assembled by the client.

The status of the construction was also regularly documented using OpenSpace, which allows a 360-degree virtual tour using existing floor plans, from 360-degree video taken during site visits. Not only does it support technical monitoring and project management, but it also logs and compares any two snapshots in split view.

OpenSpace effectively supports technical supervision
OpenSpace effectively supports technical supervision

International recognition

The exemplary nature of the project also caught the attention of the CDE developer, who was able to present the design and construction workflow of the Weinberg office building to nearly 2,000 engineers from 130 countries at Dalux’s annual conference, the Dalux Summit, in Copenhagen.

BuildEXT BIM Manager to present the Weinberg office building project at Dalux Summit 2023 in Copenhagen
BuildEXT BIM Manager to present the Weinberg office building project at Dalux Summit 2023 in Copenhagen

The result: a flexible and modern open office with highly automated engineering, delivered on budget and on time, as part of an internationally acclaimed project, and an information-rich digital model ready to operate, develop and transform.

Team

BuildEXT
Project leader, lead architect: Csaba Livják
Gábor Bazsali, Gergely Chladny, Dániel Csallóközi, Dávid Cserháti, Csaba Faltusz, Márk Felső, Bence Krajnyák N., Gabriella Madari, Norbert Pintér, Balázs Sóti, János Varga

Photo & CGI
BuildEXT

Sandor Nagy

Talk to Sándor about this project
Sandor Nagy

Business manager

+36 30 953 8212

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