Personal accounts of BIM

BIM would not exist without Saint-Gobain's partners and customers. Saint-Gobain is bringing this project to life together. This is why Saint-Gobain wanted to allow all of the participants involved in BIM to express themselves here.

Personal accounts from our customers

 

All of Saint-Gobain initiatives relating to BIM are designed working together with project owners, general contractor and building companies. Their expectations and feedback are the factors that enhance our thinking, and drive Saint-Gobain to improve on an ongoing basis.

 

Denis VALODE, of Valode & Pistre, the architect of the Saint-Gobain Tower

“We are using GlassPro Live, the physico-reality service developed by Saint-Gobain, as part of building the company’s new head office. This service enabled us to obtain an accurate representation of the materials used, based on technical and aesthetical characteristics. It’s a design-assistance tool, a relevant and convincing simulation tool, which enables users to make the best choices of materials.

Compared to the conventional methods of prototypes, we can have a scientifically accurate preview of the building. You can see the building how it will be, before its construction.”

 

 

 

Lucas BERTRAND, BIM Manager at MBA Engineering, a design office 

“We pooled our knowledge and our expertise with Saint-Gobain Eurocoustic throughout the process. We genuinely operated in tandem. We have saved precious time thanks to this collaborative method, and anticipated any faults as accurately as possible.

I am convinced that BIM is the future of the construction sector. Saint-Gobain Eurocoustic has played the role of a genuine forerunner by adopting a position at a very early stage. The company is now even more of a trusted operator, in our view”. 

 

Joe CALABRESE, Engineer and Project Head at Inso, the company responsible for the works 

“Eurocoustic has provided us with a customised response since the beginning of our collaboration. They stringently complied with the initial model, and have demonstrated a highly detailed understanding of our requirements. Lastly, I would like to applaud the good deadline management skills shown by the Saint-Gobain teams. This is simply crucial in our business!”. 

 

Internal involvement at every level: they are talking about BIM too

 

Our teams are also fully involved in the BIM issues inside the company. We are giving them an opportunity to speak up here.

 

Thierry GAY, Research Manager at Lapeyre Industrie

“In the future, BIM will be a new way of working and of managing a construction project, so that all of the participants save time, and the building is delivered to the end customers more quickly”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orane MICHEL, BIM project Manager at Eurocoustic and PLAFOMETAL

“I have been the Project Manager for BIM solutions for ceilings since end of 2016. My first experience of BIM involved supporting our clients for producing lay-out drawings for 3D model's ceilings as part of the Ajaccio Hospital Project. Initially, Eurocoustic focused on publishing a few BIM objects for digital communications. However, we very quickly took charge of configuring and calibrating objects. The potential of BIM is huge. It could become the benchmark for construction projects in the future”.

 

 

 

 

Louis CORNELOUP, BIM Digital Project Head at Saint-Gobain

“I see two main advantages with BIM. First of all, nobody wants a Completed Works File that consists of 42 500-page folders any more. 

With a digital model, you can find the stock reference for the lights on the 30th floor of your building in a few clicks. We have not yet reached that stage in practice; however, this is the direction that we have taken thanks to the digitisation of data. By extension, it enables you to perform financial calculations on your building’s life cycle. If we return to the example of the lights, knowing the stock reference for the 27,432 lights on the 30th floor, and therefore knowing how long they’ll last, will enable you to estimate the number of lights for which you need to record a replacement provision every year throughout the operation of the building. You can certainly come up with an infinite number of examples.

The purpose of BIM is to be used on a very broad basis by all of the participants involved in the construction sector, and not just by project managers. BIM is a new way of working, which corresponds to an underlying trend, i.e. the digitisation of the economy and the automation of tasks. BIM provides an opportunity to build faster, better, and at a lower cost”.

 

Christian GERARD-PIGEAUD, Marketing Director at Glass Bâtiment France

“We have been developing technologies that simplify construction roles for several years. For instance, we are working on virtual reality, including the production of physico-realistic images resulting from calculations, in order to simulate the effects of a window pane on a building in its environment. Something that formed part of design research is gradually becoming a very practical working tool, which will be enhanced by our customers’ digital models in the future, in order to meet their requirements as closely as possible. 

Meanwhile, this trend is merely the beginning of a change that awaits us at every stage: from design-assistance and studies to the exoskeleton for the fitter.

Saint-Gobain’s approach is unique. Obviously, the technology and the services that will be offered must be the best in each business line every time, although they will also be combined, in order to provide a common entry point and dissemination tools, so as to reach all of the operators involved in the same project. The extent of the Saint-Gobain brands’ areas of expertise must then attract the interest of professionals in every sector, in order to become the preferred industrial benchmark for participants in the construction sector of the future”.

 

Vincent DUMONT, Technical advisor at Placo®

“The main challenge for BIM is to simplify business communications with our customers. 

An increasing number of construction sites are already set up with a BIM model. Meanwhile, BIM will become the standard that will radically change our way of working by aggregating construction trades in a smooth way.”

 

Bessaou YALAOUI, Technical advisor at Ecophon

“The BIM is an illustration of the digital transformation. It is a collaborative platform which perfectly fits with the new information technologies.  Taking hold of the BIM implies changing the way we work together so we can solve the building triple equation: Conception, Construction and Exploitation. We are well aware that every actor of the industry has specific needs that should be addressed. That is why we provide turnkey solutions, adapted to their needs. To finish, the BIM open to the way to a more sustainable construction process that reduce environmental hazard, from the very first steps of a project ”

 

 

 

Benoit ESQUIAGUE, Business Manager at Placo®

“BIM makes construction sites accessible to everyone: in fact, thanks to BIM, I found out that everyone can take ownership of the construction site and of its key stages without actually being an expert in every field. This enables all of the construction trades to become heavily involved in a project, and to make the end customer the focal point of the process. 

I have been able to experiment with many technologies during my career, including photogrammetrics, 3-D scanning, modelling software (Révit and Archicad, etc.), and software for 4-D, 5-D, or 6-D, etc. as well as augmented reality. At Saint-Gobain, our approach is different, as we are addressing BIM in open data mode. This enables us to retain a certain degree of independence and to choose freely."