HASSELL Scores Big with BIM Content Management

HASSELL is a leading international design practice with studios in Australia, China, South East Asia and the United Kingdom.  Architects and design professionals are brought together in virtual teams to assemble the best group for a project, regardless of physical location.  Many projects involve collaboration with other firms and consultants, adding an additional layer of coordination and complexity.  All of these factors add up to HASSELL employing a culture built on collaboration, creativity, and innovation in design thinking and delivery.  This multi-pronged culture drove HASSELL to deploy UNIFI as its single source of BIM content management for its design professionals and beyond.

The Perth Stadium – Multiple Firms, A Single Source of Collaboration

HASSELL has an impressive and exhaustive list of projects where they have put the UNIFI solution to good use – including projects involving only HASSELL employees as well as joint efforts with outside firms.  The Perth Stadium is a collaboration among HASSELL, Cox and HKS to design a 60,000 seat multi-purpose sports facility in Australia.  The stadium’s revolutionary design requires state of the art technology to ensure a free-flow of ideas and collaboration across the project team, managed by Perth Stadium builder, Multiplex, while also maintaining strict controls over the access and use of the BIM content.

A big question with any joint undertaking of this magnitude is how will all the libraries be shared?  The answer – UNIFI library sharing.  UNIFI’s library sharing feature enables project specific content to be securely shared with the globally distributed, multi-firm project team.  A Perth library held only relevant project content and was shared across the project teams at HASSELL, Cox and HKS, making it simple for the team to have a single source of approved building blocks for the Perth Stadium.

Security was another key concern with so many people involved in the project in distributed locations and firms, but HASSELL and its design partners could rest assured with UNIFI.  “The cloud is more secure than file-based solutions,” says Michael Ruehr, Revit Application Specialist for HASSELL. “We have total visibility on downloads and usage.  We were in the dark before UNIFI.”  No more Dropbox, no more email – UNIFI made it simple to share a single source of content that was approved and vetted by the design teams.  “UNIFI avoided a logistical nightmare,” says Michael.  Additionally, when people roll on (or off) the project, access is easily and securely managed through UNIFI’s administrative console.

“UNIFI allows us to work smarter,” says Julia Allen, BIM Manager in the HASSELL Melbourne studio.  Prior to UNIFI, Julia and the other BIM Managers were constantly being asked for content – whether it be a door, window or light fixture.  Julia estimates that 9 out of 10 people now easily find what they need by searching on UNIFI.  There’s an added benefit to these successful searches – less duplication of effort rebuilding content that’s already available.  “We don’t have people screaming for content because it is already in being shared across the company using UNIFI,” says Julia.  “It allows us to have a more efficient and refined library, since we aren’t letting any rogue content in.”

A Winning Formula

HASSELL’s website says, “We judge the success of the buildings and places we design by the way people use and enjoy them.”  At UNIFI, we measure success by how our customers use our solution to meet their goals.  In the case of HASSELL – they’ve pulled off a hat trick using UNIFI — enhancing project collaboration, improving workplace efficiency and deploying a single source of BIM content – which secures them an honorary position on a premier cricket team in the Perth Stadium.