The former Shredded Wheat factory project is now a commercial and residential development, pictured, in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. It will have 643 units and more than 7,100 doorsets. Using ASSA ABLOY’s Openings Studio software, the London and Dublin-based architect ColladoCollins has been able to save weeks of time and manpower when specifying and managing ironmongery schedules.
Openings Studio, a BIM software tool, was developed for the process of door scheduling and visualisation. A user can focus on the design, installation and management of door openings – all within an information-rich environment.
Specifying as many as 7,100 doorsets can take time. Using traditional methods, information would be provided in countless separate schedules and documents, which would require a Revit operator to manually create and update, and with someone else to check for errors. As a project develops, information may become out of date and therefore require a door to be flagged up and re-sent for advice. That makes the prospect of human error still a possibility.
For these reasons, ColladoCollins began to work with ASSA ABLOY Project Specification Group to integrate Openings Studio with their own Revit model, allowing the firm to be able find all the relevant information and ironmongery schedules in a single place, delivered in one document.
Martin Russell, Project Leader at ColladoCollins, says: “Moving to BIM was a natural progression for us, and as market leaders, ASSA ABLOY was the obvious choice to assist us. Utilising the advice from Eric Spooner, BIM Manager at ASSA ABLOY, as well as the Openings Studio software itself, we have managed to free up our team from tirelessly working through door hardware schedules. This means we can focus on architecture and aesthetics, knowing the specification and integration of the ironmongery is in hand and will seamlessly feedback into the project within the allotted timescales.
“The information and advice provided by ASSA ABLOY has vastly improved the integration of door hardware within the former Shredded Wheat Factory project. With a project of this size, sharing information can be quite a task – from large file sizes to sourcing relevant information. The prompts from Openings Studio make transforming information clear, concise and generally easy to follow.
“At ColladoCollins, we pride ourselves on designing and delivering high quality buildings with a sensitive, sustainable approach, utilising a strong design ethos with a strong technical background whilst understanding the commercial challenges facing our clients. Openings Studio enhances our ability to provide this service and we would seize the opportunity to work with ASSA ABLOY on similar projects in the future.”
Eric Spooner, BIM Manager at ASSA ABLOY, adds: “As Openings Studio flags up any queries and automatically updates in live time, it is easy to see any discrepancies and changes within the schedules. By re-sharing the model information, it then also allows us at ASSA ABLOY to view the changes and feedback to architects – allowing us to work in close collaboration at every stage of a project.”
