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| Hochtief Researches Solutions to Building Management in 4D To create assured prerequisites for subsequent smooth building operations, Hochtief Facility Management GmbH is currently investigating a ViCon solution geared specifically to the needs of facility managers. At the 2006 Hannover Messe, the company is showing something that may soon make planning work easier: facility management in the fourth dimension. The goal of the research project is to add this innovative field of virtual planning to the services which Hochtief already offers clients throughout a building's value chain: design and planning, financing, construction and operation, all-inclusive solutions from a single source. In the near future, ViCon will help to ensure the basis for making dependable decisions for subsequent facility management even before a building is actually erected. The new technology shows a building in its natural setting in photorealistic manner, depicting all aspects, such as the facade, the shapes and colors. In addition, one of the many options which ViCon opens up is exploring the building's interior. On a "virtual tour", a visitor can even enter the individual rooms. This could provide FM specialists with a digital model for planning space efficiency in a shopping center, for instance, or for optimizing the process sequences in a production bay or a hospital. This is one of the great benefits which ViCon offers: the ability to enhance the 3D depiction by the addition of the relevant time-frames. A 4D simulation of this kind will, for example, enable the architecture of a medical establishment to be examined as to whether it permits an optimum "patient throughput rate", which is important for ensuring that expensive medical equipment is used to maximum capacity. This, in turn, would enable planners to determine at an early stage whether a hospital can later be run economically. Moreover, the virtual model permits the temperature distribution in a building or its energy consumption to be simulated realistically before construction work even commences. This contributes to ensuring reliable early forecasts of operating costs and subsequent optimum utilization of the building. The data could then help to provide cost transparency throughout a property's life cycle. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |