Configuring Generative AECO Dynamics: A Case Study
About MT Højgaard
MT Højgaard is part of MTH GROUP, one of the leading companies in the construction and civil engineering industry in the Nordic region. The company strives to become the preferred business partner across the industry by proving and continuously improving its high levels of professional competence and know-how.
MT Højgaard and the Group undertake projects in Denmark and specific activities in selected countries. MTH GROUP’s vision is to become the most productivity enhancing group in the construction and civil works industry. (Besides MT Højgaard , the Group consists of the companies Enemærke & Petersen, Lindpro, Scandi Byg and Ajos as well as the partly-owned companies Greenland Contractors and Seth.) Productivity, sustainability, intelligent solutions and quality are focus areas for the MTH GROUP’s 4,200 employees. The Group generates annual revenue of about DKK 7 billion. For more information see http://mth.com/About_Us.aspx
About VDC
The majority of the building and construction industry around the world that uses VDC, short for Virtual Design and Construction, uses it as a digital modeling tool made to design, optimize, and evaluate construction processes virtually. By using VDC, simulating an entire construction project from 2D to 6D before breaking ground is now possible. The added dimensions which are BIM (3D), time (4D), cost (5D), and facility management (6D), enable us to gain valuable insights into the entire project and to minimize risks and potential clashes that would otherwise only be discovered when causing an undesirable halt in the building process at the construction site.
At MT Højgaard, we approach VDC differently. We think of it as a method and an approach and not just a tool, and we have gained a high level of expertise based on in-depth research, tests, and experiments. To MT Højgaard, VDC is a way of thinking, a way of securing the highest possible quality of a project at an early stage of the process, and a way of improving the way the entire industry approaches a given project. By using VDC as a mindset, we strive to lead the industry in a more efficient and productivity-enhancing way.
At a practical level this means that we at MT Højgaard do our best to integrate and execute every part of a project virtually such as design, time, and cost before we start building in real life, thus incorporate our value chain at an early stage. We do this in close collaboration with both our clients and partners in order to optimize the project. When working with VDC as a mindset, engineers, architects, advisors, and clients can all work together as a team from the beginning and focus on the project as a whole. It helps us tear down barriers between our different disciplines which, during the process and at the end, benefits both the people and companies taking part in the project, and it assures a higher quality outcome. VDC could be a real game-changer that would not only lead to higher productivity and less clashes at the construction site, but also lead to less frustration along the way and more motivated and enthusiastic people.
The Parking Garage Configurator
The Case: MT Højgaard’s self-built construction of a parking garage for our new group headquarters in Søborg, Denmark. The virtual design and construction (VDC) department was asked to join the project and come up with cost alternatives by optimizing some of the parameters behind the rule-based design of the concept. The standard parking garage concept is also developed to address the Danish market regardless of the site. We ended up having a data-driven design solution from early conceptual design all the way to construction documents and object-based estimation with four products connected though Dynamo.
Phase 1: Parametric Concept Model
We decided to use Dynamo for the creation of a rule based parametric concept definition. We identified the parameters of the standard concept structure such as levels, lengths, number of parking spots, and other factors including total cost and average price per parking spot that all play an important role in the success of the project. We quickly created the foundation for a Dynamo approach. The first thought was a workflow directly on top of Revit. After a series of meetings and dialog about the master plan for the workflow, we agreed to split the tool into two phases. The first phase would focus on the preparation of a proof of concept definition providing the base for the early-stage Conceptual Design model. In phase two we used the base definition from Dynamo Studio and, via Dynamo for Revit®, built a Revit generator as originally intended.
The geometry generated within Dynamo provides an excellent visual representation, but it’s not a very user friendly environment. To provide a better end user platform, we ended up using Dynamo Studio and the Customizer to bring the design into FormIt 360. The combination of the two products made it possible for our sales team to meet our client inside FormIt. In order to evaluate the site we used FormIt and created the site context and tried some further options with the dynamic model. We built an output dashboard in the definition to dynamically show outputs for number of parking lots and price estimation in real-time while adapting it to the client's wishes. After finding the best fit for the client, the output from the conceptual design model (phase one) is then used as input in the Revit generator definition, which creates the detailed design model in Revit.
Phase 1.1: Generative Design
During the development, we were lucky enough (1 out of 50 people) to get access to Project Fractal’s alpha program and with only a little adjustment prepare the definition to work inside Fractal. Project Fractal runs your Dynamo definition through the cloud to analyze a design space of possible inputs and helps the designer determine the configurations that best meet the criteria of fitness. Now we had a solution to automate the optimization process of finding cost alternatives. After adding a cost mechanism and color visualization on top of the original definition, we fed it through Project Fractal to see which combination arrived closest to the cost target. From the options generated, we then refined until we found 5-10 optimal cost alternatives and presented it to the client.
While this does not necessarily design the entire parking garage automatically, it is an excellent tool to create thousands of garage scenarios optimized on parameters of our choosing and validates a particular decision in the early stage of a design.
Phase 2: Parking Garage Generator
After locking the conceptual design of the parking garage structure, the next step was to turn the dead geometry created in Dynamo, FormIt, and Fractal into hardcore BIM objects. The process of converting the parameters identified in the concept model into a Revit model is based on a Dynamo graph that has the same foundation as the script for generating the concept model. The big difference is that instead of making Dynamo geometry, it now creates fully parametric Revit families, which can be used for estimation, fabrication, and so on. Basically the script uses the data that was found in the concept model, and from these data generates the entire structural model of the parking garage. From the data collected from the concept model, the script has built-in rules that, based on these data, define things such as number of columns and beams, placement of structural reinforcement, creates the appropriate amount of levels, and much more. From these data we are able to automate almost all of the modeling process.
To make sure that object naming, parameters, and classification are always done in a standardized way, a special Revit template is created for model. This template contains all the parts used in the structure with two to three alternatives to each object. By making sure the naming conventions are always done in the same way, we create a link to our VDC software that enables us to do automated quantity takeoff and 4D simulations.
Phase 3: 4D/5D Model
In the last phase of the project, we went from 3D to 4D and 5D, through our VDC software iTWO. In iTWO we could perform quantity takeoff, estimation, and simulation of the building process. With the generated Revit model, we were able to almost fully automate the process of quantity takeoff, estimation, and simulation. By using standard naming and classification, an iTWO template was made so that every time a new model was loaded into iTWO, everything was set up and ready to give accurate price estimation and time scheduling. By automating these processes we could present the customer with alternative solutions for the structure, which means the customer could now see the consequence of every choice made, a lot faster.
As contractors, we also get a lot of benefits through the simulations of the building process, as we can build the parking garage as many times as we want on the computer before we start the actual building process.
Jesper Wallaert is a VDC specialist at @MTHoejgaard and uses his experience providing computational design and construction research, development, and automation for digital design solutions at MT Højgaard. Jesper can be reached at jw@mth.dk
Sylvester Knudsen is a Building Informatics master student at Aalborg University, also working @MTHoejgaard as part of the Computational Design and Construction group, which goal is to implement and develop computation in the company’s daily workflows. Sylvester can be reached at shkn@mth.dk
