This month’s TocciToday is out, here is the intro to pique your interest!

Buildings – like cars and people – require maintenance and the occasional surgery to live long, productive lives. At a time when we are all looking at preventive care or restoration or repair, and considering that 90% of the a building’s cost occurs during operation, we thought we would take this month to provide you with solutions for extending the life and efficiency of your building. Each of the articles below details a specific project’s initiatives to extend the life cycle of a building and one set of solutions for saving money or energy once a building is in operation.

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What do you do when you have two abutting countries, one of which drives on the right side of the road and the other drives on the left and drivers are often crossing the border? Pass them through a flipper bridge of course.

Such is the case between China and Hong Kong. Drivers in China drive on the right and in Hong Kong they drive on the left side of the road. There is a lot of traffic between these two counties so there was recently a competition to design the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) and Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF).

One of the entries was this ingenious “Flipper Bridge”  by the Dutch firm NL Architects. This elegant solution passes drivers through a figure eight so they automatically end up on the correct side of the road without having to stop or take any awkward turns. Not only extremely function this concept is also lovely, resembling a string of pearls from an aerial view. Alas, it was not a winner; the officials choose a project entitled “Under the Same Roof, China, Macau and Hong Kong as one big family.”

Photos courtesy of www.fastcompany.com

Through the exacting contemplation of context, function, and form, Santiago Calatrava’s design for the Quadracci Pavilion has been captivating patrons of the Milwaukee Art Museum since 2001. This addition to the museum is a masterful fusion of old world craft and cutting edge technology.  The building was hand built largely by pouring concrete into unique wooden forms, but it also features advanced engineering in the Burke Brise Soleil. This wing-like sunscreen opens and closes throughout the day and includes ultra-sonic wind sensors which automatically close when wind speed reaches 23mph or greater.

The building showcases Calatrava’s signature style, including prominent geometric shapes, soaring arches and a harmonious balance of light and strength.

We thought this Friday before the start of summer deserved a little eye candy, and so we have quite a treat. This short film, created by Alex Roman from Madrid, is called The Third and The Seventh, and according to the artist it “tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces.”

It is all CGI except for: the photographer (shot on a greenscreen), pigeons, time-lapse growing flowers, airplane and sky backgrounds.

Of course, we at Tocci are interested in this from a Virtual Design and Construction perspective, and while this level of artistic visualization is often cost-prohibitive, it is always inspiring to see new applications for architectural modeling.  The programs the artist used are: 3D Studio Max, Vray, AfterEffects and Premiere Pro. After the film we also have another short clip from Roman where he explains how he made the film.

Enjoy!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

The Making Of The Third and The Seventh

Exeter Shot — Making Of from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

A significant contributor to extending the life cycle of a building is maintenance, preventative and otherwise. However, most buildings aren’t maintained properly because facilities management doesn’t have the right information in the right place at the right time to perform work orders.

Preventative maintenance information tends to be documented in multiple locations—dynamic databases, static digital files (PDF), or paper hardcopies. Without integrated preventative maintenance schedules equipment is often not serviced properly, which, at best, causes operational inefficiencies, and at worst, causes catastrophic failures. For instance, during an occupied-renovation of Maryland General Hospital, a catastrophic failure occurred in the existing chillers. The adhesive in the chiller bearings which caused the failure, was supposed to be replaced every 10 years, but it hadn’t been replaced for 15 years when it clogged the oil filters. Here is the cost break down:

Even when repairs are performed, workers often don’t have access to all of the information that they need: warranty information, service contract information, part numbers and manuals, drawings, contact information, etc. There is a cost associated with this: time. Birgitta Foster from Sandia National Labs calculated this to be $2.4M annually for her facility. She presented an integrated solution to the facilities management team, who estimated time savings from this solution:

Other costs associated with missing information occur when workers perform repairs on items under warranty or services contract. In essence, facilities are paying twice to maintain those items.

One of the ways that owners, specifically Maryland General and Sandia National Labs, realize those potential savings is by integrating all facilities management information into a consolidated database that is accessible from a number of locations through various means. Although solutions like these generally include a BIM component, the BIM isn’t as integrated as Tocci would like it to be. Since the BIM has the potential to hold all project information and data, we would like to see the BIM as the center piece of turnover and facilities management, rather than one of the many media to access potentially uncoordinated information. Until BIM truly integrates into facilities management applications and systems, it is relegated to a supporting role during facilities management. Although there are custom applications available and some companies are able to provide custom solutions to clients, the industry needs a more flexible solution to capture the untapped savings of preventative maintenance.