It redefines it, in its approach to construction and the impact of that construction on the surrounding area..
Ricketts says local authorities were using a combination of approaches, from trawling through records (building control, planning and housing), to looking at GIS mapping, and even cycling the borough.In the end, his team used 3D modelling to help them identify the buildings above 18 metres, but many of them turned out to be private buildings, making it necessary to link with Land Registry and Companies House in order to find and contact the owners to obtain the data.
He adds that it’s difficult to make sense of so much information in a single Excel spreadsheet, and says it ended up multiplying exponentially..Although Ricketts is keen to begin to harness the benefits and opportunities that will come from digitising the planning system, he agrees with Sharp’s observations about security and the possibility of accidentally sharing too much.He believes it will be much better to build in the necessary data security right from the beginning of the process, and says that will be a key next step to address.
This will mean that applicants will share with the local planning authority only as much as is actually needed.Unlike the 2D plans and PDF documents currently in use, BIM and digital technology enable applicants to segment their designs, making this possible and less prone to mistakes.. Ricketts says that next steps will revolve around using the Gateway One process that’s come out of the Hackitt Report and the Building Safety Bill, and will involve extracting and digitising important fire safety information from architecture and engineering models.
The Building Safety Bill specifies that information must be held securely on a digital platform, and it’s much more sensible to start doing it now, rather than having to catch up later once it’s all gone through the paper-based planning system.
The importance, value and scalability of digitising these building safety processes will be evident to everyone..The initial projected cost of £70 million was determined to be prohibitively expensive, and so the client asked for this to be reduced.
Our team went through a process of evaluation and analysis.We adapted and optimised the factory size and construction techniques in order to substantially and successfully reduce the cost.. Something even more interesting happened in the process, however.
As we began to evaluate the facility, we began to ask different types of questions.This led to some interesting realisations.