The Beijing Greenland Center project is an ultra-tall building featuring complex construction techniques and extensive detailed design work. To enhance project management, Liujian Group Company has integrated BIM technology. Through continuous research, they developed a BIM deepening design approach and management process centered around the general contractor. This innovation not only significantly increases the accuracy and efficiency of detailed design but also elevates the technical management capabilities of the project department.
1. Project Overview
The Beijing Greenland Center is situated in the Dawangjing Business District, Chaoyang District, Beijing, covering a total construction area of 351,524 square meters. Among its structures, Building 4 stands as a super high-rise tower reaching 260 meters. The building employs a hybrid structural system combining a frame and core tube, with steel beams and steel-concrete columns forming the exterior frame. Steel plate shear walls are locally applied within the core tube from the second to fifth underground floors. Equipment floors occupy the 42nd and 43rd levels, incorporating cantilever and ring trusses. The roof is constructed from steel structures and, upon completion, will serve as a landmark in the Wangjing area.
2. Technical Challenges and BIM Solutions
2.1 Key Technical Challenges and Responses
Due to its sheer size, complex design, and incorporation of new processes and materials, the project faces considerable challenges in detailed design. BIM technology, leveraging 3D models, enables the formulation of targeted implementation plans and fosters a BIM-based general contracting management mechanism tailored to the project’s unique characteristics. This approach addresses several issues inherent in traditional 2D detailed designs:
1) Design updates lag behind frequent drawing revisions, reducing efficiency.
Because surveying, design, and construction activities occur simultaneously, the project experiences frequent design changes and multiple drawing versions. This situation complicates timely updates by the detailing team, lowering productivity. BIM allows rapid updates by adjusting the model directly, significantly boosting design efficiency.
2) Complex procedures demand high labor and material costs.
Traditional 2D design methods fall short for some complex processes, necessitating physical verification and manual template assembly, which are resource-intensive. BIM transfers these tasks to a 3D model that visually and accurately highlights process conflicts, reducing costs associated with detailed design implementation.
3) 2D drawings struggle to clearly represent complex spatial relationships, risking inaccuracies.
In 2D deepening, spatial node positions are only partially conveyed through combined plan and sectional views, making it difficult to fully understand intricate spatial arrangements and increasing the risk of misinterpretation. BIM’s 3D visualization presents spatial data clearly, enhancing communication efficiency and accuracy.
4) Independent work by disciplines hampers holistic problem detection.
Each discipline often deepens designs in isolation, merely stacking drawings without comprehensive cross-disciplinary coordination. Many issues only emerge during construction, reducing overall design quality. BIM integrates all professional models into a unified platform, systematically revealing conflicts and preventing inter-disciplinary clashes.
2.2 BIM Technology Implementation
BIM-based detailed design enables general contracting management through a shared 3D model that supports three-dimensional detailing. Given the scope of a super high-rise project like the Beijing Greenland Center, multiple disciplines and diverse requirements must collaborate effectively. The project team developed a BIM deepening design framework encompassing the following key elements:
1) Establish BIM implementation standards tailored to project needs.
Precise control over the quantity and quality of models is critical to meet the detailed design requirements within time and budget constraints. The team defined model accuracy and standardized model representations for different project stages and disciplines, incorporating necessary data parameters and result formats aligned with site requirements.
2) Create a collaborative BIM-based management model.
Detailed design cannot be completed independently. Coordination among all stakeholders is essential to avoid construction issues. Regular meetings facilitate transparent communication, allowing all parties to confirm detailing work promptly, ensuring accuracy and constructability.
3) Develop targeted solutions for key detailing challenges.
The team applied different BIM software tools optimized for specific tasks. For example, drawing comparison software accelerated and improved the accuracy of version control. Revit was used alongside custom parameter families to verify pre-assembled adjustable arc templates, reducing pre-assembly costs.
4) Implement a BIM-based execution assurance mechanism.
BIM detailing results require coordinated multi-party support to be effective on-site. To guarantee this, the construction party and general contractor led the establishment of subcontractor management agreements, standardizing subcontractor workflows and ensuring overall execution quality.
3. BIM Deepening Design in Practice
This BIM deepening design strategy was developed through extensive research and practical application. Below are specific case studies illustrating the process:
3.1 Integrated Management Deepening
Plot 627, representing the super high-rise section, contains densely packed underground MEP pipelines, with complex and frequently changing coordination requirements. Some floors feature double-decker mechanical parking with limited space, demanding high quality standards for national awards, which complicates pipeline layout. To address these challenges, BIM was applied for integrated management deepening as follows:
3.1.1 Basic Modeling
BIM engineers created 3D models based on CAD drawings, identifying design issues early and coordinating with the design team. This 3D review is more intuitive than traditional 2D methods. Implementation standards specifying model accuracy were established according to project phase needs.
3.1.2 Collision Detection
After model creation, cross-disciplinary collision detection was performed to identify design conflicts, with customized reports enabling site managers to locate and resolve issues quickly.
3.1.3 Reporting and Adjustment Principles
A meeting with representatives from construction, design, general contracting, and subcontractors reviewed collision findings and established joint principles governing clearance requirements, pipeline routing, and quality standards to guide subsequent adjustments.
3.1.4 Comprehensive Management Adjustment
BIM specialists optimized pipeline layouts following agreed principles, prioritizing adjustments from top to bottom and from larger to smaller pipes to facilitate installation.
3.1.5 Model Confirmation
The revised model was reviewed in a confirmation meeting involving all stakeholders to ensure it met design parameters, construction expectations, and standards. Further adjustments were made as necessary.
3.1.6 2D Drawing Generation
Once confirmed, detailed 2D drawings were produced from the model, marking pipeline elevations, positions, and bend nodes. Sectional views were provided for complex areas like core tube entrances, computer room shafts, and corridors to ensure smooth construction. All drawings were signed off by the design team to guarantee accuracy.
3.1.7 Construction Supervision
Subcontractors executed pipeline installation according to these detailed drawings, with the general contractor supervising using the BIM model and site photos. Discrepancies were promptly addressed to ensure adherence to the coordinated design, enabling effective multi-disciplinary construction management and quality control.
3.1.8 Implementation Outcomes
BIM-based integrated pipeline detailing anticipated and resolved potential collisions and process conflicts prior to construction. Verified on Plot 625, this method improved first-level management detailing efficiency by at least 50% compared to traditional 2D methods and produced more accurate and detailed drawings. The 3D models enhanced stakeholder understanding of complex nodes and received strong endorsement from all parties involved, including subcontractors.
Early model adjustments involved multiple discussions with clients, designers, and subcontractors who often prioritized their individual perspectives. To unify opinions, BIM coordination meetings were organized, presenting collision data visually and collaboratively refining adjustment principles. This process ensured design approvals and minimized costly repeated revisions, establishing a BIM-based collaborative management framework.
3.2 Reinforcement Node Deepening
The project’s steel structure is highly complex, with many steel columns and steel plate walls complicating reinforcement detailing. Traditional 2D drawings often exhibit errors in bar perforation, anchorage, and connections at complex nodes where multiple beams intersect columns. While mature software facilitates fast bar arrangement, it lacks flexibility for local adjustments required during construction.
To address this, Revit was employed to model reinforcement for representative complex nodes. Although deepening a single node takes 1–2 days and significant manpower, a custom Revit plugin was developed to automate hook generation, stirrup arrangement, and collision detection between steel reinforcement and structural elements, complying with drawings and standards. This advanced simulation surpasses traditional software and manual methods, allowing automatic optimization of size and layout with design changes, reducing node detailing time from one week to one day, and saving labor.
Following completion, technical disclosures using drawings and models guided on-site construction effectively, resulting in successful implementation.
3.3 Additional Applications
BIM was also utilized for other detailed tasks, such as modeling the computer room to pre-determine equipment installation and pipeline layouts, optimizing spatial relationships and installation requirements. Structural opening verifications were conducted during modeling, supporting a “zero chiseling” management philosophy. BIM simulations of truss pre-assembly identified potential clashes with structures and formwork, verified assembly sequences considering tower crane capacity and radius, and enhanced work efficiency through 3D visualization.
4. Benefits and Analysis
BIM deepening design has become a critical part of the Beijing Greenland Center’s technical management, offering distinct advantages over traditional 2D methods:
1) Speed and Efficiency: BIM significantly accelerates detailing, exemplified by reducing complex steel bar node layout time from one week to one day, improving efficiency by nearly 86%.
2) Cost Reduction: Model-based adjustments eliminate excessive manpower and materials needed for physical verification, particularly reducing costs in truss pre-assembly.
3) Management Innovation: BIM facilitates a general contractor-led management model, with standardized processes and subcontracting agreements ensuring smooth application of detailed designs on-site. The “zero chiseling” approach is a notable management innovation improving construction quality and project image.
4) Clarity and Accuracy: BIM vividly presents spatial relationships and complex node geometries, making technical information accessible even to non-experts. The embedded real data supports effective analysis, improving error detection and overall design reliability.
5. Conclusion
Through BIM deepening design, the Beijing Greenland Center project has made the detailing process more intuitive and accurate, greatly lowering costs and errors, and boosting efficiency. The development of a BIM deepening design framework centered on the general contractor integrates standards, collaboration, targeted solutions, and execution guarantees. This approach ensures effective implementation and fosters unified communication among construction, design, general contracting, and subcontracting teams on a shared 3D platform, pioneering a new technical management model and improving overall project management quality.
References:
__AI_T_SC_0_ “A Brief Discussion on BIM Technology and Its Applications,” Value Engineering, Issue 23, 2012.
__Research on BIM-based Deepening Design Management, Journal of Engineering Management, Issue 04, 2012.
__Application of BIM Technology in Construction Process, China Academic Journal Network.
Authors: Yang Zhenqing, Zhang Lili, Zhang Xiaoling, Luo Yi, Wu Hua
Must log in before commenting!
Sign Up