Loebermann + Partner

SWG (Siemens-Wohnungsbau-Gesellschaft), Erlangen, Germany
4990 square meters

Project: The SWG project is a 45-unit residential complex built in the heart of Erlangen and completed in the spring of 2008. The apartment sizes vary from 2 to 5 rooms, and the project also includes a 79-car underground parking garage and storage facilities for each unit. The units on the first floor include small gardens and the penthouse units have a roof deck.

When working on residential complexes, renderings are particularly important as they are used by the client (in presentations, brochures, websites, etc) to market and sell the project. On this project, the ability to quickly and cost effectively generate a large amount of photo-realistic renderings was paramount.

BIM Experience: The visualization and rendering capabilities of Revit Architecture were crucial for this project. As the design of the exterior and interiors progressed and the Revit building model became more detailed, design visualizations were required for client reviews as well as for meetings with the unit owners. The highly detailed, photo-like renderings that can be quickly produced from the Revit model allowed the client to easily picture the building as the design emerged and provide early feedback to the design team. Design visualizations were also important for the owners who—even during early planning phases—were providing input and making decisions regarding the layout, and the materials and finishes for their particular apartment.

The use of Revit Architecture and its coordinated, consistent design model also streamlined Loebermann’s entire architectural planning process, allowing the design team to react quickly to design changes. Throughout the design process there were many changes—from both the client and the unit owners—that needed to be quickly incorporated. The ability to make changes anywhere in the Revit model and have all the related documentation, schedules, and so on, update automatically enabled Loebermann’s design team to efficiently and accurately accommodate all these changes with estimated time and budget savings of up to 25%. In addition, the software’s visualization features helped the design team communicate those changes back to the originators to verify that the updates met their expectations.

5-Star Hotel, Adana, Turkey
45,500 square meters

Project: This project is a new 5-star hotel being designed by Loebermann in partnership with 2Design of Istanbul, Turkey. The 12,500 square meter site is located prominently on the banks of the River Seyhan in Adana—one of the largest and most dynamic cities in Turkey. Loebermann and 2Design were awarded the project in the beginning of 2008 after winning an international design competition. Loebermann + Partner provided architectural planning and preliminary design services on this project. The hotel complex will include 245 guest rooms, 2 restaurants, 4 bars, a 5500 square meter conference facility with 5 meeting rooms and 2 ballrooms (1200 and 600 square meter), as well as 2500 square meter spa with workout rooms, weight rooms and two swimming pools. The hotel is scheduled to open in July of 2009.

The project’s prominent setting and complex building form (i.e. the curved form of the building and its graduated terraces) made it essential that the client and investors were presented a whole vision of the project—not just simple blueprints—to inspire their emotions. Therefore the creation of high-quality visualisations and photo-realistic renderings were critical for this project.

BIM Experience: Like the SWG project, the design team relied on BIM with Revit Architecture software to quickly generate a lot of renderings directly from the design model. For the competition presentation, it was necessary to produce these renderings directly from early conceptual models and even though the design was conceptual, the Revit building model was quite detailed—resulting in very high-quality, photo-realistic renderings. As the model developed and was fleshed out, the renderings were used to effectively communicate the design to the project’s client and investors. The use of these visualizations—some of which featured the Revit building model integrated into the surrounding cityscape—were essential right up to the building application stage (now completed) and will continue to be used into the detailed design and engineering stages.

Beyond design visualization, Loebermann’s design team has realized a series of efficiencies throughout the design competition and their ongoing design process. Revit design options allowed the team to develop several alternative design concepts within a single building model. They then toggled those variations on and off for visualization purposes and to calculate gross volume and other figures needed to evaluate and optimize the design against program requirements. The parametric change management features of Revit automatically kept drawings as well as other documentation and quantities such as schedules, building component lists, and room/floor area summaries coordinated with the design and therefore constantly up-to-date.

As the design progresses, the use of Revit groups has been particularly helpful. A Revit group is a collection of design elements associated with a repeatable item (like a hotel room) that is created once and then reused throughout the building. Loebermann has created groups for the project’s different types of hotel rooms and suites. When changes to a room plan occur the team can simply change the master room, which automatically updates all occurrences of that room in the design model. In addition, the parametric nature of the Revit model allows the design team to vary or exclude certain elements from a particular room without affecting the master or any of the other room instances.