Top of the Building Information Modeling revealed

KENNESAW, Ga. – The winners of the Tekla Global BIM Awards have been chosen after the evaluation of competing models of unusually high standard. In the BIM Project category, Derby Business Park in Espoo, Finland, by Engineering Office Mäkeläinen, was the best. The Concrete award went to the Park&Ride De Uithof in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and the Steel award to the Emirates Air Line London Cable Car. Special recognition was given to the Icebergs – Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.

Derby Business Park was selected as the best in the BIM category and is based on exceptionally efficient and innovative structural and MEP design. The building information model, by Engineering Office Mäkeläinen, was complete from foundation to detailing of reinforced concrete elements. HVAC and electrical designers used the Tekla model as the basis of their work, and also utilized at the construction site. The project faced the challenge of a tight schedule, but thanks to Tekla’s BIM software, the team managed to accelerate the process and deliver on time.

The winner of the steel category, Emirates Air Line London Cable Car, carries passengers over the River Thames. The cable car, modeled by Watson Steel Structures Ltd., includes three 80-meter towers with a structure that called for extremely accurate measuring and fabrication to make the parts fit together.

The jury selected Park&Ride De Uithof by Hurks Delphi Engineering, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands, as the winner in the Concrete category. The large garage has no straight faces, and it was thoroughly modeled down to concrete reinforcement bars. The reinforcements have been produced partially automatically directly from the geometrical data in Tekla model.
Icebergs – Louis Vuitton Foundation by Pouma and Iemants N.V. received special recognition from the jury. In the Icebergs, located in Paris, the project team utilized BIM throughout the project to turn the stunning and enormously complex into reality. The winner of the public vote was The Capital Market Authority office tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, modeled by Eversendai.

The winners of the competition were chosen by a jury of the world’s leading BIM experts: Kim Inhan, Professor at Kyung-Hee University, Korea; John Moebes, Director of Construction at Crate & Barrel; Miklós Szövényi-Lux, the Vice President of Business Development of Graphisoft; and Chris Sleight, Editor of International Construction magazine. Tekla was represented by Executive Vice President Risto Räty.

“This year the projects competing in the Tekla Global BIM Awards were of exceptionally high standard,” says Risto Räty. “The participants were strong and advanced, and many models were very complex regardless the function of the structure. The Tekla customers managed to impress us with these challenging projects,” he continues.

The entries to the Global BIM Awards competition were the winners of regional Tekla BIM competitions held by Tekla area offices and resellers during 2012. The competition was divided into three categories: BIM, Steel, and Concrete and Other. Forty-two exemplary projects competed in Tekla Global BIM Awards 2012 and over 2,300 votes were cast for the different Tekla models presented on the competition website.

More information about the competition, winners and other entries is available on the Tekla Website.