From May 14th to 16th, the BIM4Ren consortium got together to hold its Second General meeting. The meeting was organised by our partner, the Research and Technological development centre Tecnalia at their premises in Derio, near Bilbao. A part from the partners, we where also joined by Tecnalia’s Chief of Technology of the Construction Division, Antonio Porro, to kick-off the meeting and Dr. Markus Färber, from the European Comission.
The technical progress and results were discussed, specifically during two workshops on how to design BIM tools for construction and renovation according to the pilot sites findings in Spain, France and Italy Stakeholders’ requirements, workflows and key performance indicators were at the heart of exchanges during the first two intensive days. The partners also had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Tecnalia, with the impressive Kubik experimental structure for zero energy buildings and the 3D printing technology being tested for construction materials.
It was surprisingly sunny considering we were in the Basque Country, in the North of Spain. The region is also known for it cuisine: Tecnalia organised an informal night gathering in Bilbao centre on May 14th were all partners could enjoy delicious local “pintxos” while interchanging technical ideas. A more serious dinner was also held the next day were partners could carry on discussing project issues.
On May 16th , SME Kursaal Green, a BIM4Ren partner specialized in insulation systems for façade retrofitting, conducted a visit of several buildings that had been renovated in the San Sebastian city centre, including the BIM4Ren pilot building. This building is a concrete and bricks historic house on the seaside that required a façade renovation, for which thermal insulation has been allowed for the first time under strict aesthetic criteria. This building acts as the project’s baseline pilot in Spain: it will allow us to verify the efficiency of a renovation when using the BIM-Based tools we will develop vs a traditional process. After the visit to the buildings, we had the opportunity to visit Kursaal’s premises where staff members gave us a very intresting talk on retrofitting techniques and materials and its relation to BIM.
The meeting has procured partners with a great amount of information that will boil down to important technical decisions for the project and will lead to important advances for the next six month’s work.
