Towards a sustainable future with digital integral planning

The construction sector can’t ignore today’s decisive issue – sustainability – and certainly won’t be able to do so in the future. Because buildings are decisive drivers and sources of CO₂ – in their construction, operation, and “removal”. This is why, last year, we at ATP architects engineers launched the so-called “ATP Green Deal”. This establishes the framework within which we want to design and build climate-friendly buildings, together with our clients. And this is why we see ourselves as an important driving force for a sustainable future.

This huge level of CO₂ emissions is caused by not just the operation of a building in the narrowest sense. Factors such as its location and the resulting transport needs are at least equally decisive. Hence, we don’t only ask the question “How do I design a building?” We also ask in advance: “And where would be the best place to locate it?”

The “building stock” plays a key role in this debate, due to such issues as flexibility and repurposing. One also has to think about and plan a building’s demolition from the very start of its design. Not to forget: From the moment of its completion, a building is part of the “building stock”. So it must be continually analyzed and optimally used.

The most efficient buildings that we have in Vienna are our late 19th-century apartment buildings. 90 per cent of the city is made up of such buildings, which date from the expansion of Vienna between 1850 and 1900. They’ve been used in many different ways for more than a century, not least due to their volumetric form and standardization. This is real efficiency. Their thermal performance is also excellent because they’re built from brick and can generally also be improved even further in this area.
In comparison with these late 19th-century buildings, post-war industrial and residential buildings tend to be hard to “repurpose” due to their rigid structure and constructional quality. If the only options for such buildings are their partial or complete demolition, their CO₂ footprint is naturally very poor.

And what should happen in the future?
More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman architect Vitruvius put forward his theory that a building should combine three specific qualities: venustas – delight, utilitas – utility, and firmitas – firmness. This has basically remained unchanged. Delight goes hand in hand with design; utility is a question of function and flexibility; and firmness means that a building must not only stand up but also remain standing for many years. This theory remains valid today.

What has changed, however, is how we design. At ATP we started digitalizing the planning process in 2008 – as pioneers in Austria. Thanks to “Building Information Modeling” (BIM), we now no longer draw 2D or 3D plans but, rather, we model a digital twin of a building out of different elements. In practice this means that by clicking on an element in a digital model one gets all the relevant information: Who produced the element, when it was built in, how much it cost, and when it should be serviced, etc. Each such element has a story and it is these stories that make up the model. And this applies not only to constructional elements but also to the entire technical plant, such as ventilation machines, transformers, and lighting elements.

I belong to the generation of “classical” draftsmen and women and have been able to accompany this development as it has happened. And yet, or perhaps precisely because of this, I’m sometimes astonished by everything that’s possible today. I can see that digital integrated design still offers vast potential. For a sustainable future!