Integrated Project Delivery
Integrated project delivery (IPD) is the early and ongoing collaboration of cross-functional project teams including designers, builders, fabricators, and owners. A key feature of IPD is the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to support project collaboration and decision-making.
Many universities are now incorporating interdisciplinary design studios to expose students to IPD concepts. In this section you will find material that supports this concept as well as examples of best practices in collaboration.
IPD in Education
This paper offers insight into the use of interdisciplinary collaboration studios in today’s architecture and engineering educational programs, and profiles best practice examples of the incorporation of IPD at several schools across the United States.
Autodesk China: A School and Enterprise Collaboration
This case study describes how Hubei University of Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, WISDRI Engineering & Research, and Wuhan Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute worked together in the first digital architectural design school/ enterprise class in China. With help from the Autodesk China employees, industry and academics collaborated using Autodesk BIM solutions to remove the gaps between schools and enterprises, and theoretical and practical teaching. They explored a new design and collaborative model for future development of the architecture industry, jointly fostering innovative design talents and directly connecting the cultivation of talent with market demand.
Autodesk BIM Portfolio used by 20 teams at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011
The teams that competed in the 2011 Solar Decathlon designed and built cost effective, energy efficient, and attractive solar powered houses. Many of the teams included students from more than one University so collaboration and IPD were key components to their success. This video features five of the teams and highlights who they all worked together using the BIM Portfolio.
Educating the Master Building Team: Leveraging BIM to Enable the Development of Collaborative Knowledge (Video)
How does BIM affect the architect’s obligation to collaborate with engineers and constructors, and bring them into the design process? As BIM leads practice to more integrated methodologies does design process change accordingly, and should architects be trained more formally in collaboration and integrative process? Hear John Messner, Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, discuss these questions and see how his University is incorporating IPD and collaboration today.
Autodesk Builds LEED CI Platinum Certified Headquarters (Video)
Autodesk expanded its presence in New England with a new headquarters for its Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Solutions Division. This project was an opportunity to implement several trends in the building industry, including integrated project delivery (IPD), sustainable design, digital design-to-fabrication, and the technical process underpinning all of them—building information modeling (BIM).
Auburn University and Tongji University
Auburn and Tongji faculty collaborated and developed a joint BIM Thesis Construction Management Collaboration Course. This international collaboration course highlights and supports BIM in Construction Management using the Autodesk BIM Portfolio.
- 15 senior undergraduate students from each school participate
- Semester long course includes 5 weeks in China for collaboration
- Students study a building in China and compare the costs and schedules in the United States vs. China.
- Collaboration includes exchanging/sharing information & comparing/studying the results.
Autodesk BIM Curriculum – Multidisciplinary Coordination
In unit 4 of the BIM curriculum, students learn how BIM tools can be used to support a multidisciplinary design process. They learn how to:
- Create a dimensional framework that helps coordinate design work of team members using a series of linked models.
- Place placeholder elements in a preliminary design model to encode the architect’s design intent.
- Link Revit models and copy shared levels, grids, and reference planes, as well as elements that are relevant to the design work of specific disciplines.
- Model the elements typically placed by structural, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical system designer
- Link and integrate model created by many disciplines and using coordination review and interference checking to look for conflicts.
