The need for better outcomes in the A/E/C industry has challenged conventional wisdom and time-honored project delivery methodology. The status quo has not kept pace with ever more compressed schedules and tighter budgets. The emerging project constraint trends have caused a convergence of design practices, construction processes, and project management systems typically hamstrung by contractual language. As a practical matter, participants have moved toward integration—first tentatively and now more actively. Many practitioners are motivated to consider concurrent design and construction processes, narrowing the gap between what is design and what is construction.

To support integration, virtual design and construction (VDC) uses multidisciplinary performance models of design and construction input such as building information models (3D), CPM schedules (4D), and cost estimates (5D) to simulate and validate project objectives.

VDC validates risk and offers these other benefits:

• Virtual detection of spatial conflicts
• Alignment of design, procurement, and construction strategies
• Integration of project control for scope, schedule, and budget
• Visualization of operations and maintenance activities
• Sensitivity analysis of alternate construction sequences based on
  o Production rates
  o Crew sizes
  o Preassembly
  o Equipment and material lay-down placement.

Although a significant trend, VDC is not the panacea for what ails the industry. The full potential remains hostage to dated notions of risk and a software market dominated by narrow points of view. Nonetheless the talent, tools, and training are available for any firm to start reaping the benefits today.

As corporate architects we are being challenged more today than at any other time in our careers. Fewer projects are being authorized, the time to completion is being shortened, and corporate America is facing more pressure to deliver more complex projects for less time and less capital.

One solution is to add VDC to our toolbox. Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE) defines VDC as “the use of multi-disciplinary performance models of design-construction projects, including the Product (i.e., facilities), Work Processes and Organization of the design-construction-operation team in order to support business objectives.” We can now virtually design our projects and provide the necessary information to equip our corporate leadership to make the most intelligent decisions with regard to the built environment. We can create models to answer just about any question that needs an answer to support the project: What will the facility really look like as opposed to an artist’s impression? What if we explore several different exterior materials? What materials are being considered, and what are the maintenance costs associated with the new facility?

At the core of this virtual world is the “backbone model” of the facility. Design professionals develop the 3D model. Different disciplines can communicate and coordinate the design using existing software and can detect interferences, publish reports of the clash, track interferences, and provide a 3D image of the condition. This model can (if necessary for permitting reasons, for example) extract a traditional 2D set of bid documents. An even better method is to make the model the actual bid document and provide it to the successful contractor, who can add more detailed information to the backbone during the shop-drawing phase so that when the project is complete, the “as-built” documentation is, in fact, “as-built.”

Another advantage to this virtual model is that critical information about the project is never lost. Traditionally, the design team increases their knowledge about the project up until bid time. The successful contractor receives the drawings and specifications, but some of the information is lost and has to be relearned. The same process is duplicated with every subcontractor for every trade. This “lost information” costs money and time and creates mistakes.

If the project is a renovation of an existing facility, we can now electronically scan the entire facility and transfer that data into the computer model. Gone are the days of trying to survey the faculty and never having the data close at hand, finding that information has been omitted or missed and the inevitable “unforeseen field conditions” that create changes in the field, costing both time and money. The scanning technology is so precise that we can read the labels on the equipment!

Standard equipment used throughout the entire corporation can be modeled and object-enabled to quickly identify changes in dimensions and costs. Most equipment manufacturers already have their equipment modeled and will provide the model to the design professional. These object-enabled models can extract their information directly into estimating software. Real-time estimates are accurate and can be standardized throughout the corporation. With the unavoidable “VE” (misleading, in that "value engineering" adds very little value, and cutting costs is the main objective), the effects in both costs and physical properties can be measured by each suggestion. During this process many errors and omissions occur. For example, perhaps careful investigation in the traditional process accepts a revision to the air handling equipment. Clearances are checked and the substitution is accepted. However, one unit is missed and a portion of the facility has to be redesigned and rebuilt. This equals time and money!

By keeping the model current, another benefit can be realized by the following example. During the construction there is an unavoidable interruption in The Work. With this virtual model, the element of time can be introduced so that many different alternatives can be explored, not just the “gut” feeling of what would be the best course of action. The design and construction professionals can develop different strategies and analyze the outcomes, while the computer can do what it does best—process information. The result is the best solution, which can be explained empirically to corporate leadership.

While we as corporate architects are always dealing with change, this is a paradigm shift in the way we develop our projects. Corporations, contractors, and even government agencies are all developing components of this new virtual-construction world, as an article in the July 11 edition of Engineering News-Record made clear ("Maturing Visualization Tools Make Ideas Look Real"). The next generation of professionals is already learning about this virtual world in universities across the nation, and competition internationally is becoming more intense. Having another tool in our toolbox is never bad business.

Michael Lingerfelt, AIA, of Walt Disney Imagineering is a 2005 Advisory Group member of the AIA Corporate Architects Group.