Construction in the Digital Age.

In the field of construction and renovation, digital transformation is far from anecdotal. Time savings, collaborative platforms between different trades, cost and deadline management... Certain tools, such as BIM, are revolutionizing the sector. Even when the projects are titanic.

Goodbye paper and pencil, welcome to the digital age!

Not so long ago, building or renovating mainly meant drawing plans using the traditional paper and pencil! Today, these manual tools are considered obsolete in the construction sector. And for good reason. Digital technology has not only revolutionized our daily lives, it has also enabled a large number of industries to save time, and even eliminate potential errors. And the construction sector is no exception.

The example of Notre Dame de Paris

This is demonstrated by the work currently being carried out on Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was ravaged by fire in April 2019. Gone are the sometimes approximate plans—if they haven’t simply been destroyed—of the successive architects of the great cathedral. Today, Notre-Dame is the subject of a complete 3D digitization carried out between 2014 and 2016 by the company Art Graphique Patrimoine. Until that infamous fire, the work of this company had gone somewhat unnoticed, but today it is an extraordinary tool for all the project managers on the site, who can, in great detail, study the wooden framework destroyed by the fire and simulate the reconstruction work. So much so, in fact, that a sponsorship agreement has been signed between the public institution responsible for the conservation and restoration of the cathedral and Autodesk France, the leading publisher of 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software.

Its goal: to provide all those involved in the project with BIM technology (Building Information Modeling) and the associated management and communication software. “This collaborative and intelligent working method allows the project stakeholders to benefit in real time from a shared and evolving 3D database that brings together rich information necessary for the smooth running of these operations,” the two organizations stated in a press release published last April.

The objective: to enable all those in charge of the reconstruction to save 6 months in the process.

Towards e-construction

Because it’s a fact: by entering the digital age, the construction sector has set itself the mission of building better, faster, and cheaper. Better, because the virtual building models generated via BIM objects make it possible to carry out analyses and simulations (energy, structural, etc.), checks (compliance with standards, budget, etc.), but also to visualize the finished product even before the first stone is laid. Faster, because all the elements of a BIM model interact with each other. Concretely, if you move a wall, the windows, doors, and structures attached to that wall move as well. Cheaper, finally, because the 3D modeling of future buildings makes it possible to check the financial feasibility of a project and compliance with deadlines very early on, and to keep an eye, throughout the project, in real time, on construction costs.

Interoperability between different trades, collaborative project management, time savings...

A bright future for all digital tools

Digital tools are far from being gadgets in the construction sector. So much so, in fact, that in the future we may no longer talk about construction, but about e-construction!