Norwegian builders in the driver’s seat

These startling facts, according to Jøns Sjøgren of the Norwegian “buildingSmart” group, are why so many people are working so hard in so many countries to implement the new Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard.

Together with the buildingSMART steering group, Sjøgren organized an international conference in Oslo in 2005, where the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) discussed its path forward. IAI has member organizations in 35 countries, with Sjøgren as chairman of the Nordic chapter.

buildingSMART can cut costs, save time, and increase the quality of building projects, says Jøns Sjøgren, chairman of the Nordic chapter of IAI.

”In Norway,” he explains, “we were lucky enough to receive government funding to explore the buildingSMART concept through a cost-cutting initiative for the building sector. At the same time we were deeply involved in the international work to implement the IFC standard.

”To raise awareness of the standard’s many benefits among the different professions and industries involved in construction, we decided that terms such as IFC and IAI were not sufficient. We needed a term that could be easily grasped by everyone and convey these benefits; namely, that implementing IFC can cut costs, save time, and increase quality. That is why,” says Sjøgren, “we started to market our efforts as the buildingSMART initative.”

Jotne EPM Technology’s model server forms the hub of the wheel in buildingSMART’s work to streamline information-delivery manuals internationally.

”Making different systems on different platforms work together is, in short, what EPM Technoogy helps us achieve,” says Sjøgren.

IFC opens up new opportunities for simulating building projects, bringing together data from many sectors in visual models. Thus, it will become easier to detect possible errors, misunderstandings and miscalculations well before the first hole is dug in the ground. In other words, mistakes can be found using software, not concrete.

Using IFC, it also becomes possible to combine data from many disciplines, such as geographical, energy and climate-related information. Before its design leaves the drawing board, a house can be studied in its landscaped setting from all possible angles, even underneath. Possible dangers of flooding, landslides and other climatic challenges can be easily detected.

In Norway, the IFC standard and the buildingSMART way of working is now being tested in large building projects at Tromsø University College (HITOS) and Akershus University Hospital outside Oslo. According to Sjøgren, ”Tests have already revealed that calculations normally taking up to three months for an engineer can be completed in three minutes using IFC.”