Rigorous BIM
implementation across Europe and new assessment frameworks for external wall
insulation were topics in the spotlight when more than a dozen pan-European
building experts met in Liverpool recently.
The technical heads,
each representing member countries of the UEAtc (European Union for technical
approval in construction) were hosted by the British Board of Agrément (BBA)
for the four-day event, which aimed to share knowledge and discuss ways of improving
building design, safety and performance.
Rolling out BIM across
Europe and digitalising building product certification data was a focus of the
event, with discussions exploring the possibilities of embedding certification
data into Level 2 BIM modelling and enabling it to work with digital twins.
This would push intelligent reporting, which already exists within BIM, a step
further, improving the platform’s ability to flag up, for example, product
clashes and ensure total compliance for building designers.
“Although this concept
is embryonic at the moment and there are challenges to overcome, it was useful
to find out where our European partners sit in the debate, the progress being
made in their home countries and how we can work together to move the conversation
forward,” said Wendy Ajuwon, BBA Head of Marketing.
“The construction
industry is increasingly turning to digitalisation to solve issues – the BBA
recently held a roundtable event with the Westminster Sustainable Business
Forum to discuss this topic – and it is therefore really important to consider
the role building product certification has to play within the digital chain of
custody across Europe. It is also a very pertinent debate that looks to support
the Hackitt Report’s ‘golden thread’ of quality building information.”
The BBA is the UK
representative of UEAtc, a network of institutes within Europe and neighbouring
countries developing and maintaining voluntary technical approval processes to
support innovation in the construction industry.
The UEAtc is also
working to address issues within the external wall insulation (EWI) industry
(known as ETICS within mainland Europe) and how a new assessment framework may
be developed. The meeting heard that while European Technical Assessments have
been issued on the basis of ETA-Guideline 004 and a draft European product
standard for ETICS is in progress, many UEAtc members continue to issue
country-specific technical approvals which may differ from one other.
In some markets
initiatives have been taken to specify how ETICS should be installed and the
European Federation of ETICS manufacturers has issued guidance on this.
Nevertheless, problems continue to occur, installation techniques differ and a
potential lack of design knowledge has been identified. These issues were
discussed during the Liverpool conference, with the BBA presenting the UK’s
approach to the safety of ETICS systems in relation to resistance under lateral
and dead load and fire performance.
UBAtc, Belgian’s
technical approval authority, discussed how the systems respond to wind
resistance.
“The discussions, on
both digitalisation and ETICS, were really productive and allowed a large
amount of positive information to be shared,” added Wendy.
“It was very clear
that many of the issues we discuss in the UK are also being raised across
Europe and further afield, making involvement with technical bodies such as the
UEAtc absolutely vital for the UK construction industry to communicate
knowledge and best practice.”
