BIM and green building are two themes that are gaining more and more importance in the construction industry. The ToB3 project seeks to promote both these themes and above all their synergy. Combining the potential of BIM with the sustainable approach to construction could create a virtuous circle that amplifies the advantages of both themes.
Maturity of BIM
The maturity of BIM is still at its initial levels, even if in recent years the whole AEC sector has given a strong acceleration to the use of this paradigm; the road is marked, the future is BIM. There is still a lot to do, from all stakeholders, but now BIM is no longer just a research topic or a bureaucratic obligation to be fulfilled; more and more people are appreciating its advantages and it is becoming a business, and this will undoubtedly be a flywheel for its rapid development.
Bioconstruction on the rise
The objectives of green building can be summarised in the following:
- energy efficiency;
- the improvement of the health, comfort and quality of life of the inhabitants;
- protection of the environment through the limited use of non-renewable resources, reduction of waste and pollution.
A wide variety of materials, techniques and solutions are already available to meet these objectives. Often these are innovative techniques, materials that are sometimes difficult to find or more expensive; this leads, at present, to a certain difficulty in the large-scale application of green building. In recent years, thanks to a growing awareness of sustainability issues, green building is becoming more and more widespread.
A real project
In this article we would like to point out a concrete application of green building that already has the prerequisites to exploit and multiply the advantages of BIM.
We are talking about the TECLA project which involves the construction of houses designed by Mario Cucinella Architects and engineered and built by WASP. Inspired by the wasp potter’s vespa, WASP develops construction processes based on the principles of circular economy, capable of building 3D-printed homes in the shortest possible time and in the most sustainable way. TECLA is the first habitat built using multiple Crane WASP collaborative printers simultaneously. The huge 3D printers use raw earth found at the construction site, a biodegradable and recyclable zero kilometre material that will effectively make the construction free of any form of waste.
The project is under construction in the province of Ravenna (Italy).
This project is a splendid example where the advantages of BIM design for green building construction could be appreciated. Having an accurate digital model of the project could transfer a lot of information to the printing system, i.e. the construction of the houses; in this way a virtuous short circuit between the design and construction phase is achieved with obvious advantages of time saving and error reduction.