At a time when ‘sustainability’ and ‘green buildings’ are the current buzzwords in the architecture and construction industry now is a great time to look at what these words mean to us in India, as more than three decades have gone by since the advent of these terms in the profession. This is also a very pertinent decade in the history of your country, when we are at the cusp of being a hundred-year-old country even if as a civilization, we are several millennia old. Now is a great time to see how far we have come, introspect and identify what worked and what didn’t and talk about ideas to chart out the path to a better future!
Through sustained efforts of practitioners, policy makers, industry leaders and stakeholders across all levels, the Indian architecture and construction industry is fairly familiar with concepts, systems, products and mechanisms of building green. Almost everyone is aware of ideas of reduce, recycle and re-use or opting for local materials, adopting passive cooling techniques, etc. Hence, a conversation on green buildings of the future should surely move beyond these topics.
As we move ahead with the integration of IoT with uninterrupted high-speed, cable-free internet with the process of creating and operating buildings we have the unique opportunity of re-imagining the ways in which we Design, Build and Operate our built environments.
Designing our built environment: Two critical aspects will determine the process of design in the future Collaboration and Digital delivery. Gone are the days of the architect or designer being the ‘master craftsperson’ who ‘leads’ the design process. Now, almost all stake-holders are equally important and most of them are on-boarded from day one. Without genuine collaboration, projects cannot expect to achieve the desired outcomes without frequent and meaningful collaboration from all stakeholders which also includes the Owner / Client and the teams that will do the construction (not just those involved in designing). In certain kinds of projects even the teams involved in operating the facility are also included in early design conversations.
This is a process that is followed world-wide for large and complex projects and has reported significant benefits from the sustainability and financial perspectives. Obviously, digital delivery compliments this collaborative workflow in a big way. With BIM (Building Information Modeling) being extensively used now across the country we are seeing an exponential growth in digital delivery of projects where the same central data source (model) is used by the architect and other designers, all consultants and engineers, fabricators and contractors and is eventually handed over for operations and facility management team.
During the Construction stage also the IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) approach can become a game-changer for large and complex projects such as sports arena & stadia, convention centres, hotels & resorts, healthcare facilities, manufacturing units, etc. All these typologies involve multiple decision makers whose inputs impact each other therefore working collaboratively on a single and constantly updated data source is most valuable. Technology heavy projects with lots of systems and networks that have to be designed and executed often face issues of coordination and synchronization.
The IPD model enables designers, engineers, fabricators and contractors to identify such conflicts and resolve them at an early stage this ‘clash detection’ phase is now one of the biggest benefits of handling projects on BIM platforms. With greater accessibility of RFID tagging, hand-held scanners and high-speed internet the same digital model is also used for fabricating the building components. The entire project construction schedule and sequence of activities can be integrated into the model. More and more projects now make their components off-site and then assemble them on site thus becoming more sustainable in their process. Material wastage and consumption of energy and water at site is significantly reduced, pollution at site is almost eliminated and there is greater control over quality and punctuality.
Each component is tagged in the model and then given a QR code at the factory / workshop, before being dispatched to site for assembly / installation. At challenging and dense urban, down-town sites this also facilitates the ‘Just In Time (JIT) delivery of components making life much easier for construction teams and project managers. A lot of statutory approvals, clearances and legal risks are also minimized by an integrated digital delivery of projects.
Once the project is commissioned, the same integrated model can be used for Operations & Facility Management. If this is done successfully, one could say that the project has truly been ‘integrated’ and ‘collaborative’. With current tools and expertise available in India, this is no longer a far-fetched goal, but something that all large building and infrastructure projects can adopt. Several FM tools that are currently in use are compatible with BIM models that are used by designers, contractors and project managers. At this stage, the models may become very information heavy and some of that data and geometry might have to be archived or simplified for ease and speed of use.
As-Built drawings, warranty documents, vendor details, inventory of fixtures, fittings, furnishings, appliances, etc for every space and room in the entire building / campus is now available at a click, along with supporting visuals. For non-technical staff operating and managing the building, this is a very user-friendly way of understanding the building and identifying areas and issues that require attention. Preventive maintenance, Space allocation and booking, Occupancy management, Scheduling repairs, etc can all be connected to the same integrated database.
Another layer of ‘smartness’ can be added by feeding in live data from the building to the model the data from electricity and water meters, thermostats, CCTV cameras, apps for repair incidents, renewable energy generation, waste generation and recycling, daylight
and motion sensors, etc. Any data that is useful for the smart and sustainable operations of the facility can be connected to the central model. All of this can be represented on a Central Command and Control Dashboard.
This approach of building a ‘Digital Twin’ of buildings and campuses is being practiced across the world especially for green buildings and large facilities like factories, docks, refineries, airports, convention centres, sports arena, resorts, etc which prioritize sustainability and operational efficiency.
None of this is too expensive or technologically very high-end; we already have the resources, technology backbone and the people with required training to deliver this. What is needed is just the will to take the initiative and put in that extra push that is required to change the system. Status quo is always very comfortable and convenient for most, but a new idea will be much more rewarding and impactful in the long run. It is now up to our designers, architects, engineer’s builders, contractors and project owners to pick up this challenge.
As India turns 100 in the year 2047, our vision for a truly sustainable and smart way of designing, building and operating our buildings and cities should start with such an integrated and collaborative approach that leverages the benefits of digitization and data.
The author is Prof. Sangramsinh Parmar, Associate Professor and Lead, Space Design, School of Design, Anant National University.
