Integrated Green Design
Autodesk BIM solutions help ATP
Architects and Engineers design a green
shopping mall in Slovenia
ATP Architects and Engineers
Customer Success Story
Autodesk® Revit® Architecture
Autodesk® Revit® Structure
Autodesk® Revit® MEP
Before using Revit, our
design teams had to
manually coordinate
their efforts, which
greatly increased the
chances of errors. Using
intelligent Revit models
makes our project
designs more consistent
and coordinated.
Werner Blunder
Architect and Head of
BIM Management
ATP Architects and Engineers
Project Summary
In the Siska district of the Slovenian capital
Ljubljana, SES Spar European Shopping Centers is
currently developing a new 32,000-square-meter
shopping mall slated for opening in the fall of 2012.
The project has ambitious goals. In addition to
providing an enjoyable shopping experience, the
mall will be a vibrant part of the city. The facility
will offer visitors entertainment and cultural
opportunities, and act as a gateway to Siska’s
neighborhoods and transportation networks. The
€100m project will contain space for approximately
90 stores, as well as extensive balcony areas for
restaurants, and open spaces throughout the
facility. The facility also includes 1,500 parking
spaces on two levels. When it opens, it is expected
that the mall will provide 700 new jobs. Not only
is the project socially responsible, it will also be
environmentally responsible—designed to strict
energy and carbon-neutrality standards.
ATP Architects and Engineers (ATP) is responsible
for the project’s design. ATP is one of Europe’s
largest integrated design companies. Founded
in 1951 as a traditional architectural office, the
company is now an interdisciplinary firm that
offers integrated architectural and engineering
services. ATP has over 420 employees at its offices
in Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Budapest,
Zagreb, and Zurich. The company specializes in
designing innovative, sustainable building projects
that exceed client expectations.
An Urban Update
The project posed several challenges for ATP.
First and foremost were the expectations of the
client. “Overall, SES wanted the development to be
more of an urban district center than a shopping
mall,” explains Gerhard Oberrauch, ATP’s lead
architect on the project. “Our design had to adhere
to the client’s existing development plan, but
also integrate the facility with the surrounding
environs.” In addition, there were city and countryspecific
regulations to be considered, which differ
from the Austrian and German regulations that
ATP designers were used to. “We could only meet
those challenges with a perfect design,” says
Oberrauch. So ATP relied on Autodesk Building
Information Modeling (BIM) solutions to create its
‘perfect design’.
The Solution
ATP’s architects, structural engineers, and MEP
engineers all relied on integrated model-based
workflows for their design efforts. The design team
developed the project using an intelligent modelbased
design process with the Revit platform
products—enhancing cross-discipline collaboration
and helping the team avoid design conflicts. As a
result, the project design and documentation was
better coordinated and more accurate.
Image courtesy of ATP Architects and Engineers
Integrate design disciplines for improved project coordination
ATP’s reliance on an integrated Revit-based
design model also optimized project and
change management. Representations of the
design—such as 3D views, 2D drawing sheets for
plans or sections, and informational schedules
and take-offs—are direct presentations of the
underlying design model. Therefore, any design
change made by any member of the design team
was automatically reflected in all views of the
project and all project documentation, minimizing
errors in the finished plans and improving the
quality of the design.
Integrated Model-based Design
During design development, ATP’s architects
used Revit Architecture software. The ability to
create and visualize the design in 3D rendered and
perspective views of the underlying model helped
the design team better visualize the emerging
design and make more informed design decisions.
In addition, the bidirectional associativity between
the model and any view of the model, including
production drawings, kept the design and
documentation coordinated for optimized project
and change management.
ATP also used Revit Structure to design the mall’s
supporting structures, create framework plans,
and for integrated structural analysis. By relying on
an integrated modeling platform, ATP’s structural
designers referenced the Revit architectural
model for their design, minimizing errors due to
translation data loss or manual coordination with
the architects. Non-supporting components were
hidden, and then structural components such as
supports, beams, foundations, and loads were
Image courtesy of ATP Architects and Engineers
added. In parallel, the architects referenced the
emerging structural design for multi-discipline
clash detection and improved coordination. The
framing design was developed and the model
passed to the structural engineers for analysis. The
Revit Structure software simultaneously creates
a physical model for layout, coordination, and
documentation as well as an analytical model for
structural analysis, helping ATP reduce redundant
modeling efforts and streamline the analysis
process.
ATP piloted the Revit MEP software on this project,
using the software to design and document the
facility’s building systems, including the heating,
ventilation, electricity and sanitary systems. The
advantages of the integrated Revit platform and
the direct use of the architectural model were
particularly helpful for ATP’s MEP design efforts,
and the firm is now implementing Revit MEP for
future projects.
Transition to BIM
The strategy for utilizing BIM on this Siska
mall project was developed by b.i.m.m. GmbH,
a European technology firm offering BIM
implementations services. “As an integrated
interdisciplinary design firm, ATP’s in-house
groups provide all the design services needed for
a project such as this,” explains Anton Gasteiger,
b.i.m.m.’s managing director. “Revit is an ideal tool
for integrated design because all different design
disciplines access a central Revit project model
that is shared between users. For example, the
architect works independently in a local copy of
the model and the software synchronizes changes
made to that local model back into the master
project file. In turn, the architect refreshes the
local copy with changes from other users in other
disciplines such as the structural engineer and
the building technician. In this manner, all the
project design teams work in the same model
simultaneously.”
Because everyone involved in the project uses the
same building data model and can constantly add
to it in the course of the project, design processes
can run in parallel. One discipline builds on
another without any loss of information. Everyone
is accessing and adding to this central design
model, resulting in designs that are naturally
integrated and therefore better coordinated. With
BIM processes and software, discipline-specific
design workflows that were performed largely in
isolation are now closely integrated.
“The ability to work in an integrated fashion
using the Revit family of products has greatly
accelerated our design process,” says Oberrauch.
“For example, an architect inadvertently models a
support structure using an undersized beam. Since
all of the disciplines are accessing a shared design
model, the structural engineer immediately sees
the architect’s choice and provides feedback that
the beam size should be stronger.”
“Before using Revit, our design teams had
to manually coordinate their efforts, which
greatly increased the chances of errors,” add
Werner Blunder, architect and the head of BIM
management at ATP. “Using intelligent Revit
models makes our project designs more consistent
and coordinated. And whether a change is made to
a model, a schedule, or a floor plan, the software
automatically reflects that change across all
affected drawings and views.”
The ability to work in
an integrated fashion
using the Revit family
of products has greatly
accelerated our design
process.
—Gerhard Oberrauch
Lead Architect
ATP Architects and Engineers
Sustainability is Key
Owners are increasingly demanding facilities with
ambitious goals for sustainability. The new Siska
mall is exemplary in this regard. The project was
designed to meet very high energy standards and
also takes into account the carbon neutrality of
the materials used for its construction. For its
achievements in this regard, the building will be
subject to BREEAM certification.
In addition to energy savings and using resourcefriendly
materials, ATP’s design strategies were
aimed at reducing carbon emissions, linking the
facility to existing local public transport, and
providing a comprehensive infrastructure for
cyclists and pedestrians.
The Future is BIM
ATP is convinced that BIM represents the future
of building design and is leading the way. “Our
firm was an early adopter of CAD technology
and we are now setting new standards in Central
Europe for the use of integrated model-based
BIM workflows,” says Oberrauch. The company
is currently transitioning its employees from
AutoCAD software to Revit software. “We’re still
in the initial stages of this transition, but we are
already seeing the advantages of BIM and they are
very impressive,” says Blunder.
For more information, visit:
www.autodesk.com/bim
We are already seeing the advantages of BIM and they are
very impressive.
Werner Blunder
Architect and Head of BIM Management
ATP Architects and Engineers
Autodesk, Revit, Ecotect, and Navisworks are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA
and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names