Hospital designed in three days

Over 70 architects, planners, engineers, facility managers, building owners and industry experts from 14 countries have completed the planning and design of an acute hospital in just 72 hours.

Claiming to revolutionise the hospital planning process at Build Hospital Live 2009 in Oslo, Norway, participants accomplished in three days a process that normally takes months.

Initiated by the Norwegian buildingSMART project and the ByggReisDeg construction industry fair organizers, Build Hospital Live is a digital classroom and laboratory that fosters collaboration using open standards in the medical industry.

A highlight of the event saw MJ Medical join forces with other international teams to collaborate in live virtual BIMStorm (Building Information Modelling) forums, using interoperable clinical design tools (including Onuma Planning System and Revit Architecture) to demonstrate how knowledge can be shared without boundaries to create world-class hospital designs.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the process of generating and managing building data during its life cycle. It uses three-dimensional, real-time, dynamic building modelling software to increase productivity in building design and construction to achieve high-performance, sustainable healthcare facilities.

MJ Medical’s technical consultants focused on redeveloping a 2,000 sq m emergency floor into an emregency department with imaging capability. Using the online Onuma Planning System, the team produced a detailed department with room relationships, which enabled the onward production of detailed equipment lists, overall capital equipment cost estimates and exemplar technical room layouts for the redeveloped department.

Throughout the process MJ Medical’s technical outputs were shared with all participants who could extract relevant information for their analysis such as energy consumption, life cycle costing, and equipment parametric detailing.

Kimon Onuma, FAIA from Onuma, Inc said: “MJ Medical were instrumental in creating a chain of events in BuildHospitalLive Oslo, and provided valuable input with their expertise in medical planning. They focused on the emergency floor of the hospital and proposed an alternative plan within the constraints of the building. MJ Medical produced a detailed equipment list and layouts of the rooms.”

He added: “MJ Medical collaborated within the openBIM of Build Hospital Live and shared their designs via the Onuma System, which made it accessible to other teams. This generated interest from Gehry Technologies, USA who worked with MJ Medical’s scheme to analyse the functionality of the whole building. Balfour Beatty Construction, USA then continued with the plans and produced cost and engineering analysis of the project. Deborah MacPherson and Cannon Design, USA were then able to comment on standards and use of data for emergency planning.

“We presented the results as it was happening at the Sustainability and buildingSMART conference with broadcasts around the world. Certificates of participation were awarded to 23 groups.”

Tim Salmon from MJ Medical said: "Being involved in the Build Hospital Live BIMStorm enabled our technical teams to explore the infinite opportunities of virtual Building Information Modelling and to collaborate with global healthcare organisations.

The next BuildHospitalLive 2009 event will take place in Washington DC from 7-10 December during the BuildingSMART Alliance International Conference during ecobuild America.