Read about the winner and shortlisted entries for this year’s Digital Excellence Award
Winner: Sir Robert McAlpine / Mace
As the manufacturing and assembly manager team for The Forge in south London’s Southwark, main contractors Sir Robert McAlpine and Mace, working in joint venture, came together with architect Bryden Wood to produce a raft of digital technology proposals to enable Landsec to achieve its innovation targets for the scheme. The team combined and integrated the use of Power BI project dashboards, Disperse, Converge, QFlow, QR codes for material tracking, and digital fire auditing and sign-off.
Runners-up
Alinea Consulting
Alinea’s data-led digital cost consultancy initiative has seen it move away from the traditional time-consuming process of manually updating project data to one where, once a cost plan has been completed, it is automatically uploaded onto the database platform and made available to all within an hour. By integrating its measurement, cost planning and database platform, the company can update its cost and data information as a design progresses.
Brewer Smith Brewer Group
Brewer Smith Brewer Group’s construction sequencing initiative, designed to give an added dimension to 4D BIM, was the result of identifying an industry-wide issue of buildability. The initiative effectively co-ordinates multiple trades – including brickwork, steel frame system, metalwork and structural contractors - mitigating risk and providing a centralised control point. The initiative is set to be rolled out across all future Mount Anvil projects.
Chetwoods
Chetwoods’ initiative analysing human emotional response to building and space design uses new technology in an innovative way. After capturing the data, it applies the findings to analyse the company’s current schemes and improve designs. The technology team provided in‑depth training on the initiative as it was important that the entire project team appreciated the technology’s capabilities and could effectively input on how it could best be used to achieve project objectives.
Future Joinery Systems
The BIM to manufacturing configurator is part of a two-year research project funded by UKRI and Innovate UK. Architect-led start-up Future Joinery Systems has created a platform that offers other architects and designers greater access to digital fabrication processes, using CAD and manufacturing workflow for joinery. As the design is configured dynamic costs are calculated, based on current materials, fittings and machining costs.
Kane Group
Kane Group’s digital innovation for precision setting-out for MEP services is a bold development in the past 12 months. The goals were to increase the accuracy of MEP services setting-out, enable the services to be installed much earlier in the building programme, and ensure services are installed as designed. The innovation also aimed to allow for the provision of a true digital twin as services match exactly to the BIM model.
Kilnbridge
Jobflow is a managed, digital end-to-end platform with mobile rugged tablet integration, health and safety requirement integration, automated GPS controlled data collection, and work item, plant and material management. It has cut construction and engineering business Kilnbridge’s paper trail by 95% and achieved annual direct savings of 1,000 tonnes of CO2, 8 million litres of water and 54 tonnes of solid waste. It also allows clients to see live scheme progress.
Lucas UK Group
The Digital EcoSystem initiative has eliminated labour variance from the company’s site operations, saving £800,000 of labour costs every year. It has also seen snag-free working reach a level of 98.5%, and achieve almost 4 million hours of working in over seven years since a reportable incident. The Digital EcoSystem is made up of continually evolving bespoke apps and high‑tech business operations, such as the 3D printing laboratory and drones.
Royal Bam Group / Creative ITC
The Digital Construction Workspace from Royal Bam Group and Creative ITC is a single, secure platform for collaboration hosted in Bam’s and Creative’s private cloud environments. It provides real-world superior performance for CAD and BIM, enabling architects, designers and engineers to work effectively from anywhere and any device and providing a scalable solution to support hybrid working, workforce mobility, business continuity and international collaboration.
Vinci Construction
The goal of Vinci’s Digital Driven by Desire initiative was to increase the efficiency of the design, construction and handover processes by incorporating digital technologies at all project stages. The programme’s five principles include matching tools and technology to people’s needs, keeping it simple, improving connectivity, and that all digital transformation is flexible, scalable, and able to adapt.
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