RBA Architects

Discover how RBA Architects win more work in less time. We compare their traditional ACAD-based approach vs TestFit-based approach, and explore 4 sites. Download it here: https://testfit.io/cs-how-rba-architects-streamlined-the-feasibility-phase-with-testfit/

How RBA Architects streamlined the feasibility phase

TestFit is the real estate feasibility platform that makes it easy to do site planning for developers, architects, and contractors who want to maximize site potential and get the right deals done faster. TestFit takes care of tedious tasks like counting parking stalls, drafting iterations, and calculating yield on cost by generating rapid concept iterations based on your parametric input.

Our AI configurators optimize the best design solutions for every site with real-time insights into design, constructability, and cost so you can save time on site planning, reduce risk on acquiring deals and increase potentials for all your sites.


TestFit

Bradbury Stamm

The project team at Bradbury Stamm utilized Green Badger on their Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority North / South Buildings project in Albuquerque, NM which has achieved LEED v4 BD+C Gold.

“Unless you like to do things the hard way, I would recommend that you use Green Badger for its ease of use. Especially at the end of the project and being able to export all of your reports and material cut sheets! Before using Green Badger I was having to track all of my materials and pricing using a spreadsheet provided to me in the project specifications. I have not managed a LEED project by myself before because we usually would hire a company that would manage all of our LEED projects for us. This project was a learning curve but without this program and evolving material database, it could have taken much longer to complete." – Taylor H., Project Engineer, Bradbury Stamm Construction

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority North / South Buildings – Albuquerque, NM (LEED v4 BD+C Gold)

Real-time project dashboards, instant verification of thousands of green building products, and the ability to complete in-field ESC and IAQ reports. Green Badger makes it easier for green construction projects to be built on time and on budget. Cut the time spent on LEED paperwork over 65% so you can focus on getting your green building complete on time and on budget – not on chasing paperwork.

Verify thousands of green building products instantly:
Instantly verify and document thousands of LEED v4 and LEED 2009 compliant products from our database, while logging them automatically to your project.

Seamlessly collaborate with your project teams:
Whether in the office or in the field, cloud collaboration lets teams work together seamlessly while easing the burden of personnel changes.

Eliminate cumbersome Excel tracking spreadsheets:
Manage all your documentation in one place while eliminating bulky spreadsheets, binders of product submittals, and piles of receipts.

Validate vital project information from the field:
Our mobile app offers real-time creation of IAQ and ESC reports – send customized PDFs from the job site validating compliance.

Green Badger

SHoP Architects

Thornton Tomasetti

These large-scale pavilions form an immersive entry environment to the 2016 Design Miami Exhibition. After SHoP Architects was awarded the 2016 Design Miami Visionary Award with an invitation to design the entry, the firm quickly reached out to Branch Technology to develop a design concept that leveraged large-scale 3D printing. Read more at: https://www.branch.technology/projects-1/2017/6/9/shop

Design Miami Pavilions

We are a prefabrication and technology company that specializes in large-scale 3D printing. Branch Technology offers a patented 3D printing process called Cellular Fabrication, C-Fab®. This unique printing method allows material to solidify in open space, creating a matrix of polymer in virtually any shape.

We are a construction and technology company that is inspired by nature. We use its teachings to build sustainably and efficiently through the development of hardware, software, pre-fabrication innovations, and solution-driven products.

Branch Technology

Arons & Gelauf

Effect analysis on the wind speed between multiple design variants to reduce the wind nuisance on the street levels. Learn more at: https://omrt.tech/projecten/greivestraat/

Greivestraat, Amsterdam

OMRT was founded in Amsterdam in 2018 and has been accelerating ever since. Our vision is to create an all-knowing computational brain that facilitates the full design process towards the most optimal built environment on all technical levels. We have developed two major technologies: Olysis and Ostate.

Optimizing the built environment by digital solutions. OMRT stands for shorter design times, optimal building performances and a sustainable environment. We created major generative design and parametric technologies to accelerate building teams.

OMRT

Delve by Sidewalk Labs helped a prominent Japanese real estate developer exceed their financial and quality-of-life goals for a large-scale, mixed-use project in one of Japan’s major cities.

“What Delve has accomplished is more than we had imagined.”

A prominent Japanese real estate development team engaged Delve, Sidewalk Labs’ generative design product, to identify and recommend best scenarios for a large-scale site that includes hotels, parks, and offices in one of Japan’s major cities. Delve generated thousands of design options, evaluating each scenario for profitability using an integrated financial model, offering scenarios that enabled the developer to review trade-offs and make real-time decisions.

Using A.I.-powered generative design, Delve created ~10,000 scenario variants that took into account the existing parameters, an adjacent parcel, public space, changes to local height limits, and the potential addition of local transit. Each scenario was then optimized for the development yield, using machine learning and the integrated financial model, while carefully evaluating the key quality of life metrics such as walkability and views for both the public realm and individual buildings.

At the end of the two-month engagement with Delve, 50 percent of the generated designs exceeded the benchmarks for the development team’s financial goals and quality-of-life outcomes.

“It has been a thought-provoking project, and a valuable experience to learn how urban development benefits from using technology, saving our team both time and money.”

Our Customer
Our real estate developer customer is an experienced and highly-respected leader in the global market. Their portfolio includes major districts, neighborhoods, and high-rises across major global cities. The company distinguishes itself by often serving as both the real estate developer and owner-operator for many of its projects. Their unique approach enables them to pursue urban development with an eye to the future, designing places that will thrive not only decades but centuries from now.

The Development Site
Our customer’s track record made them strong candidates for the development of the historic, centrally-located site. The large-scale parcel was identified by the municipal government as a prospective development site, with the request for proposals centered on the importance of activating the site. Priority outcomes included:

Walkability
Hours of daylight
Sunlight
Views
The development team used Delve to model development scenarios that included height limits, usage of the additional parcel, assessing the financial performance, and optimizing for quality of life outcomes. Delve’s machine learning algorithm solved for the important quality of life outcomes, and provided an updated financial model tied to each recommended design option. In addition, multiple scenarios for the adjacent development parcel were incorporated into Delve’s analysis.

Defining the Outcomes
Given the complexity and scale of the site, our customer needed their proposal to anticipate a number of flexible yet optimized development scenarios for the formerly industrial site. Key considerations for Delve included:

The inclusion of the adjacent parcel
Potential local transit
Public space
Changes to zoning requirements and local height limits
Our customer wanted to ensure that in every scenario they could deliver a program that would deliver the best financial returns on their investment.

Delve Generates the Solution
Using the original plans as a baseline, Delve was able to guide an optimal program mix by solving for value based on the developer’s inputs. The most crucial value driver was Delve’s recommendation to reduce the two largest uses, office and hotel, by 10 percent and 12 percent respectively, and introduce 40,000 square meters of new residential space. In the process of reconfiguring the program mix, Delve significantly improved the new hotel and office views to existing parks and the water by over 40 percent, based on our proprietary view scoring matrix, giving our customer the confidence, and a set of evidence-based data points, to underwrite 5 percent higher rents than originally modeled.

By refining the price points guided by Delve, the developer incorporated a total rent premium of 9.8 percent to their underwriting model across the three main program uses (office, hotel, and residential), 370 basis points better than the previously assumed 6.1 percent market premium ascribed to the baseline financial model. All trade-offs were weighed and achieved in real-time at the same time, whereas the traditional master/district planning process would have taken months given the magnitude and level of detailed changes incorporated into the development site. For large projects such as this one, where the total construction capital stack is in excess of ¥300 billion ($3 billion USD), months of pre-development time savings equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest expense and carry cost savings.

Delve’s final design output generated a stabilized unlevered yield of 12.1 percent, a 260 basis point improvement over the 9.5 percent yield underwritten in the baseline financial model. Through pre-development time savings, an optimized program mix, and premium rental pricing guidance, Delve was able to generate significant value creation for our customer and the development team.

This case study captures lessons from a paid engagement between the customer and the Delve by the Sidewalk Labs team that was completed in Q1 2020.

© 2021 Delve by Sidewalk Labs. All Rights Reserved.



Delve Case Study: Japan

Delve is a generative design product that uses machine learning to help real estate teams design better and faster with less risk. Delve identifies the best neighborhood design for a project based on the development team’s priority outcomes. 

By revealing the optimal design option, Delve helps developers meet or exceed a project’s economic goals while improving quality-of-life outcomes for residents and businesses.

To learn more about Delve and request a demo please reach out to delve@sidewalklabs.com

Delve by Sidewalk Labs

Novin Development Corp.

Learn how Novin Development Corp secured 7.4M in competitive TOD funding & their site 3x faster with TestFit: https://testfit.io/cs-testfit-for-affordable-housing-with-novin-development/

603A Street, Hayward, California

Scanalytics Inc

Client was looking to better understand movement and dwell times within their retail store to create a more efficient flow and increase sales conversions. 

US Cellular

2' x 2' floor sensor used to track footsteps in space when deployed under existing flooring.  Tracks movement anonymously through the environment to help understand space utilization.

The SoleSensor 2.0 is the industry-leading building management sensor for accurate and scalable space measurements and analytics, all while protecting privacy and avoiding disturbances to your spaces and visitors.

Living inside a durable foam-underlayment, the SoleSensor 2.0 floor sensor replaces your current underlayment, can be deployed under a variety of flooring types, and can be easily outfitted to cover entire spaces, floors, and buildings with ease.

Combined with our Atmos Operating System, we provide you with everything you need to monitor engagement data in your spaces, gather usage data and analytics, and make changes with confidence to improve the performance of your spaces.

SoleSensor

British international studio for architecture and integrated design, with headquarters in London. The practice is led by its founder and chairman, Norman Foster, and is the largest architecture firm in the UK. 

Foster + Partners

As part of Boston Dynamics’ Early Adopter Program, Foster + Partners has been exploring the use of Spot®, the agile robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with ease as a tool to capture and monitor progression on-site.

Read more at: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/archive/2020/11/foster-partners-collaborates-with-boston-dynamics-to-monitor-construction-progress-with-spot/#

Battersea Power Station development

Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges.

Boston Dynamics

Altrad Services UK 

Altrad is a global leader in the provision of industrial services, generating high added value solutions principally for the Oil & Gas, Energy, Power Generation, Process, Environment and Construction sectors. The group is also a recognised leader in the manufacture of equipment dedicated to the Construction and Building market.
3 reasons for choosing 4PS Construct: 
- We were looking for the system that represented the best athlete already on the Group’s radar.
- 4PS as the end-to-end ERP system offered good functionality across the board – cost control, purchase ordering, sub-contractor management, plant management, inventory control, CVRs, project accounting and more.
- It has the capacity to scale and add even more value in future.

Altrad's digital journey with 4PS Construct 

4PS Construct is an integrated construction ERP software solution for all your end-to-end business processes. It offers total visibility of your projects. Anywhere, at any time, on any device. 4PS Construct was voted Construction Management Software of the Year 2020 at the Construction Computing Awards and won the Construction Software of the Year Award 2019 at the London Construction Awards

4PS Construct 

Timbatec

A tower called "Semiramis", consisting of five oversized wooden plant bowls, is being built in Zug, Switzerland. The structure, with an extraordinary design, will be built in the middle of the new innovation district called Tech Cluster Zug.

The tower's columns are made of steel and the plant bowls, with a diameter of up to 33 ft, are made of cross-laminated timber panels. The team of Gramazio Kohler Research at the ETH Zurich, which conceptually designed the architectural timber structure, has also developed, together with various internal and external partners, a completely robot-supported assembly method for the precise positioning of the cross-laminated timber panels. Four robots working at the same time enable this method.

Read more at: https://www.timbatec.com/en/aktuelles/meldungen/2021.05.31-Semiramis.php

https://www.dlubal.com/en/downloads-and-information/references/customer-projects/001209

The Hanging Gardens of Zug

RWIND Simulation is a stand-alone program for numerical simulations of wind flow (digital wind tunnel) around buildings or any other objects and generating wind loads, i.e. forces acting on these objects.

This program was developed in cooperation with PC-Progress and CFD Support and can be used as a stand-alone application or as a complement to RFEM / RSTAB programs for static and dynamic analysis.

Explore Latest Case Studies

Discover all the latest real-world projects featuring the latest technology in AEC.