As Atkins celebrates five decades in the region, Steven Anderson, Senior Product Manager at Atkins and Marc Durand, Atkins’ new Director of Digital Disruption for the MENA region, share how the engineering industry has come a long way in the last 50 years and the evolution of engineering design from a digital to a virtual reality model
Nowadays with buildings becoming increasingly complex in design and execution, traditional approaches are no longer suitable. Radical new innovations are required and Atkins is at the forefront of this movement.
Adoption of BIM
Atkins has been helping to shape the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) – the digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a building – since its inception. The team has been strategically proactive in leading the exploitation of BIM to implement better integrated design solutions for their clients’ projects after they recognised long ago that BIM represents the future for the industry.
When the design and build contractors consortium, appointed Atkins in 2006, to deliver the multidisciplinary detail design for the civil works elements on the Dubai Metro project, BIM systems were not commonly used in mainstream civil engineering, despite their roots going back to 1963.
Using Revit 2008, Steven Anderson, a Product Manager at Atkins, led a small team to drive BIM implementation and develop multi-discipline design models to demonstrate buildability and coordination on the Green Line section of the project.
Commenting on the process Steven said: “In 2008, BIM was mostly undercover, as we were also learning how to use and best implement the technology, solving design challenges and building models virtually before building them. This also gave the client and the construction teams an understanding of how the stations and other facilities would be put together with all the internal systems fully integrated.”
BIM has redefined project delivery in the design and engineering industry, changing everything from the design workflow, software used by engineers, to the design skills required, and the visualisation of the project with clients. When implementing BIM, Atkins focussed on four areas – policy, process, people and technology. phase and continuing through planning to the project‘s construction, commissioning and operation.
Massive shift to Virtual and Augmented Reality
As a result of these early initiatives, Marc Durand believes that Atkins is at the forefront of innovation and drivers behind digital transformation in the construction industry.
Atkins utilises digital tools to drive new and innovative ways of work with clients, by mixing software and technology into product delivery. An example of this is MR (Mixed Reality) technology, which offers the possibility to bring members from anywhere into a project eco-system, linking all the visualisations with engineering innovations.
Using VR to engage stakeholders in the design, helps to ensure a clear and comprehensive understanding between the client, the design intent and contractor.
Marc also added: “Atkins will continue to put a lot of resources into developing a whole line of products to drive further innovation within the organisation.”
The impact of future digital innovations
With the capabilities of clients growing, there will also be more rapid growth and adoption of digital tools. The latest computer technology will allow real time rendering with better graphics and displays, to enable better engagement with clients. This will also make it easier to immerse clients into the design eco-system to make sure they fully understand the design intent. It will enable the industry to ultimately design with clients in real time, with real time output, by placing clients into the simulation, before buildings have been built. Clients are moving into faster understanding, acceptance and decision making, including and deep dives into topics, without limiting the number of design possibilities.
Working with early computer technology in the 1950’s, Atkins developed stress analysis tools, project planning programmes and one of the first optimised structural computer aided design packages in the industry, eventually supporting their teams in putting computers to work across the business. Development in computer services also helped to quickly design things that were cheaper – but still needed the engineer to fit all the answers they gave together. Computers were so cutting edge that most of the time was used to test exactly what could be done benefit the business.
Today, this legacy of innovation remains in Atkins’ culture, enabling our teams to meet the technical challenges of their clients’ most complex infrastructure projects.
