Integral design and construction with gaming industry techniques

Over seven years ago Arjan de Haan started the eponymous Buro De Haan. Thanks in part to his unique philosophy on the design and construction process and his fascination with 'continuously building better', the architecture and IT company now has over eighty (!) employees. Buro De Haan developed an exclusive sharing portal and makes grateful use of techniques from the gaming industry to fully experience a building and test it in every detail, even before one shovel is driven into the ground. But the agency goes much further than that. An interesting conversation with the instigator of it all, as De Haan describes himself.

Climate and environmental challenges, a shortage of "hands on" people, more prefabrication and greater complexity of installations means that we need to look at a design and construction process differently, according to De Haan. "We have a great fascination with better building and believe that an integrated approach is essential, including embracing IT in the construction column. This is also the reason we have such a broad orientation as a firm. We have planners, architects, engineers, structural engineers, installation specialists, IT professionals and dimensional engineers. It enables us not only to provide the complete design in 3D, with attention to all installations, but also to test the design, to experience it and with that input even to control a prefab factory."

Integral design

Buro De Haan applied this method of integral design, among other things, to Plastchem's new factory in Hardenberg. According to the client, the existing factory building had outgrown its capacity. "So the new factory had to be bigger, but also more modern. Typical for such a factory building is actually that the machinery is leading and also takes up the vast majority of the budget. So the new building had to be designed from an optimally designed production process, taking into account all stakeholders." Through its in-house developed sharing portal, Buro De Haan manages that excellently. "Software for sharing documents, 3D models and planning has existed for some time, but not bundled in one portal.So that makes our sharing portal unique. Not only us as the designing party, but also all other parties involved, such as installation parties, concrete and steel suppliers to even the suppliers of the production lines and all accessories, work with the same data." 

Gaming industry

"As an agency, we place great value on imagining projects," De Haan continued. "We bring the gaming industry to construction, so that a building can be experienced digitally via Virtual Reality, thereby optimizing the construction process. We have made this concrete at Plastchem. The factory is completely "gamified. Via a viewer one can not only walk through the building digitally, but also virtually test all machines and installations, make cross-sections, measure things, etc. The stakeholders from the factory, from the director to the production staff, also made grateful use of this technology to eliminate imperfections in the design at an early stage and to set up the production process as efficiently as possible. For us as agencies, it is definitely an added value to be able to facilitate our clients and stakeholders in this way. Since you simulate the entire construction process in advance, you are never faced with surprises during execution. Potential nuisances for the surrounding area also come to light much earlier, which you can anticipate in time."     

Factory control

Buro De Haan plans to make the digital sharing portal available to third parties as well. "It was not the initial idea, but we have been approached by several parties to market it widely, also for projects of which we are not the architect." That the portal is of great value is also evidenced by the fact that people at Plastchem preferred to work with the viewer, rather than the physical drawings. "On paper, for example, a safety fence may be fine, but by viewing it digitally you get a much better feel for it, you can put it in context, and an item may just have to be moved slightly or sized differently," De Haan points out. "And then once all the digital signals are green, the data from the 3D model can even be used to control a precast plant. For example, a detailed 3D model from our software fully controls GroenPrefab's HSB factory. It results in a highly efficient production process with minimal chances of error. That is integral design and construction in optima forma and in our eyes the only way to take the construction column to the next level." 

"Have you become curious about Buro De Haan and would you like to help with our mission; Better Building? That's convenient, because we still have several vacancies open, so take a look at our website."