• Detail design development with input from engineers;
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• Detail estimate by quantity surveyor;
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• Drawings issued to engineers in order for them to start preparing their detail drawings;
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• Municipal and working drawings plus schedules preparations;
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• Engineers drawings begin to be coordinated and prepared for measurement in main bill or separate engineering bill;
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• Issue to Quantity Surveyor to produce bill of quantities/materials for tender purposes;
• Tenders appointed (after municipal approval obtained);
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• Full set of drawings and schedule (architectural and engineering) issued for construction;
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• Site supervision with any required site instructions issued;
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• Adjustment of drawings to coincide with shop drawings and as-built/chang-ing conditions;
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• Closing down phase—as-built drawings and owner manuals prepared.
Environmental concerns tend to be a part of larger projects only. The Green Building Council with a Green Star rating used in South Africa is modeled on the Australian version.
14.3.4 Practicing in Challenging Times
During economic downturns the firm uses time to improve the quality of the work and the skill levels of the staff. South Africa’s affirmative action requirements have opened up work opportunities for Aziz Tayob Architects, a minority owned firm.
According to Haneef, the firm’s quality of work has allowed them to take on more responsibilities in of collaborative work situations. Tayob feels strongly that “qual-ity will keep us fed during lean times.”
Staffing at the firm has remained stable between 10 and 12. The firm has not had to downsize because of the economy. Instead, the same number of people are able to take on more work due to the BIM process that has been put in place.
In the economic downturn the firm has taken on some risks, including enter-ing competitions and doenter-ing preliminary designs for projects that have only a 50/50 chance of going ahead. Often these projects are for developers and clients the firm has worked with in the past. Unfortunately, the work of preliminary design on spec without guarantee of payment is becoming more common.
14.3.5 Integration of CAD and BIM by Firm
The firm’s first project using AutoCAD was a COO home housing development.
The use of AutoCAD saved considerable time by eliminating repetitive tasks in
14.3 CAD and BIM Use 147 producing drawings and studying alternatives. See Figure 14.2 summarizing their CAD integration from 1990–1996. In this first project the firm quickly and ac-curately created options for the client including mirrored units, copying, stretch-ing (elongatstretch-ing or shortenstretch-ing), and rotatstretch-ing to address site orientation. In Figure 14.3(a,b) we see how the firm handled 20 views and perspectives. There was very little 3-D work done at the time due to software/hardware limitations, and staff skill levels. As with hand drafting, they relied on artists to produce project render-ings and other 3-D representations.
By 1996, most firms had transitioned to a CAD program using it as an auto-mated drafting system. It was when a colleague demonstrated an early version of ArchiCAD in 1995–1996 that Haneef was struck by how much more the program could do including:
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• Integrated and more intuitive 3-D;
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• Easier editing (walls and columns were parametric);
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• Searching (find and select), focusing on drawing elements (door and win-dows) rather than wasting time in drawing lines, fills, and circles;
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• Instant door and window insertion with easy editing;
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• Floor alignment;
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• Sections and elevations resulting from plans with manual alignment not nec-essary (not quite automatic and instantaneous) (Figure 14.4).
The transition to the new BIM program between 1996 and 1998 was not easy.
The firm often relied on Autocad to complete the work on time. One problem was
Figure 14.2 Canteen plan with teamwork users’ reservations indicated.
148 Aziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South AfricaAziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South Africa
the number of workarounds required, a typical growing pain of new software with new features. By 1998 Haneef made the commitment to make a permanent change to the new application migrating the staff to the one program. His expectations of the software grew with noticeable improvement in the program. He began training staff, setting standards, and developing methods of how to apply the program to the firm’s work.
Figure 14.3 (a–d) Evolution of 2-D drafting to BIM modeling.
14.3 CAD and BIM Use 149
Haneef began to notice that design benefits were suddenly emerging from using the new package, including:
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• The ability to resolve issues early, forcing the firm to make critical design decisions early. Color Plate 11 and Figure 14.5 illustrate 3-D modeling in-tegrating the design and building systems. Figures 14.6 and 14.7 show the completed building.
Figure 14.3 (continued)
150 Aziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South AfricaAziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South Africa
Figure 14.5 Canteen Project; IFC of HVAC sytems are show in Color Plate 11. The HVAC sysetms’ see inte-grated with the architect’s model.
Figure 14.4 BIM virtual models also can be viewed as a traditional 2-D floor plan.
14.3 CAD and BIM Use 151
Figure 14.6 Canteen Project. Sun study, top view. Interior and exterior perspective views of this project can be seen in Color Plates 12, and 13. Sun studies and shadow casting are often required for planning building permission.
Figure 14.7 The Canteen.
152 Aziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South AfricaAziz Tayob Architects, Inc., Pretoria, South Africa
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• The ability to resolve sections, of which the 3-D sections were especially informative to the firm.
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• Materials and color could now be studied much earlier.
The commitment to the new software was proven by a collaboration on a prison project the firm did in 2000. The collaborating firm did not use ArchiCAD.
Each firm supplied equal numbers of staff. For the 26-building project, in the time Aziz Tayob architects produced three-fourths of the work their collaborating part-ner did the remaining quarter. Tayob’ firm could update their model and drawings using Archicad a day. The collaborating firm took a week to complete the same changes in their CAD system.