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Case study: Mexico City International Airport project

The case study demonstrates the importance of BIM in large projects in terms of time, cost, waste management.

In this section, we introduce you to two case studies of BIM adoption in Mexico and the UK. You will also consider how BIM implementation may not lead to desired productivity improvements.

In this video, Dr Effie Mpakati Gama outlines the benefits that BIM offers to large-scale projects using Mexico Airport as an example.

The Mexico Airport BIM was masterminded by NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants), part of Royal HaskoningDHV. NACO, a design partner of master architects Foster + Partners and FR-EE, was involved at all stages of the design process of this 770,000 square meters airport.

NACO, well known for its expertise with BIM, was considered most able to undertake functional planning, IT and baggage handling system model design for the new passenger terminal building, as well as the control tower, area control centre and the ground transportation centre.

In total, 50,000 virtual model elements were created for the project using BIM.

‘it’s estimated that 1.5 times more staff would be needed to produce the same amount of drawings without BIM’ (Royal Haskoning DHV, 2018)
With BIM:
  • Labour costs were reduced;
  • Access to information was improved; and
  • Time was saved when making alterations.
You may also be interested in the project site of the architects, Foster + Partners.

Your task

There are many projects worldwide where BIM has been incorporated.
Can you add some examples from your own locality?
In your analysis include these details:
  • Location
  • Type of building
  • Savings that were made
Please share any links that relate to your example(s).

References

Mexico City International Airport wins prestigious AEC Excellence Award Royalhaskoningdhv.com. (2017). Mexico City International Airport wins prestigious AEC Excellence Award. [online] Available at: https://www.royalhaskoningdhv.com/en-gb/news-room/news/mexico-city-international-airport-wins-prestigious-aec-excellence-award/7661 .

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An Introduction to Building Information Modelling

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