UEA CROME COURT WINS CONSTRUCTION COMPUTING AWARD

The Project Team behind the design and construction of the UEA Crome Court Student Residences, led by LSI Architects, has won Collaboration Project of the Year at the 2014 Construction Computing Awards, as well as being a finalist in the ‘BIM Project of the Year’ category. The award was won in collaboration with Kier, Ramboll, Eurban, Clearbox, Building Services Design and Graphisoft. The project best demonstrated the advantages of collaborative working through the use of new technologies.

The practice, which is based in offices in Norwich and London but now sits alongside some of the biggest architectural practices in the country, was also a runner-up in the keenly-contested Building Information Modelling Project of the Year Award category again for the UEA Crome Court project alongside Graphisoft, Kier, Ramboll, Eurban, Clearbox, and Building Services Design.

Building Information Modelling, or BIM, is a set of collaborative tools and processes mandated by the government for all building projects by 2016 to produce more predictable and improved project outcomes for all stakeholders.

The awards were held at the Hotel Russell in London on the 20th November with companies from all areas of the construction industry in attendance.

BIM Manager and Associate at the practice Karl Thurston said “BIM is changing the way in which the construction industry works together for the better. UEA Crome Court was the first BIM Level 2 project in the East of England, meaning tools and systems are in place for the estates team to assist in the running of the building post-construction. It is LSI’s commitment to BIM that facilitated the exemplary levels of collaboration between architects, engineers and the whole construction team on the UEA Crome Court building and why ultimately the building is considered the ‘jewel in the crown’ of UEA’s East Campus masterplan and is setting the standard for mainstream sustainability elsewhere.”

Andy Boutle, BIM Manager at Kier, said: “We were very happy to be able to work on this exciting project and be a part of the first BIM Level 2 project in the East of England. Testimony to LSI’s vision,we were able to deliver Kier Group’s first 6D Asset Information Model via our BIMXtra platform.  This will set a standard for digital handover on BIM enabled projects to our Clients as we approach the UK Government’s 2016 BIM mandate.”