Create and optimise design solutions earlier and faster
Statsbygg plan to use IFC
Compare proposed designs against requirements
IFC can capture early design information

Using IFC for Early Design

Increasingly, clients, building owners and operators are looking to create and optimise design solutions earlier and faster. They then want early design solutions to be used seamlessly in design and construction and on into operation and maintenance. If this can be achieved, solutions can be used to improve design and build quality, building and operating costs, energy use and sustainability.

IFC offers a potential solution to the seamless sharing of information through the project lifecycle starting right from the earliest design stage.

Statsbygg are major clients, owners and operators of buidings in Norway. As the State Building Planning Authority, they are concerned that buildings conform to required minimum design and construction parameters. These are outlined in their standard Planning Guides which are used as the basis for producing Construction Programmes for specific projects.

Statsbygg have been testing the use of IFC as an alternative method for specifying the parameters in Planning Guides and Construction Programmes. The aim is to capture Planning Guide and Construction Programme requirements as constraints and planning rules. Design quality can then be automatically validated by comparing proposed solutions with the captured requirements.

Can this be done? The process of comparing proposed solutions against requirements is similar to checking designs against building regulations and this has already been proven through the ePlanChecking project in Singapore and elsewhere.

Testing has been carried out so far on the Building Planning Guide and on the Construction Programme for Bodø College, a tertiary education institution within the Arctic Circle. This has shown that IFC contains many of the capabilities required for identifying early design parameters including:

  • Approvals
  • Building components
  • Classification of components
  • Constraints and rules
  • Distribution components (pipes, cables, ducts)
  • Documents associated with the project and the various components
  • Materials specifications
  • Property sets
  • ... more

The aim now is to take this further and validate the use of IFC early design concepts on a real project, to see how checking of proposed design solutions works in practice and to refine the IFC model solutions and associated working methods based on experience.