Every Child Matters

The Government’s Every Child Matters agenda is driving a new way of designing schools, supported by the Building Schools for the Future investment programme.

Bringing Stakeholders Together

These are very complex projects with many stakeholders (some of whom are inexperienced in design and construction) and the traditional methods of capturing needs, turning them into briefs and specifications and ensuring the delivered facilities satisfy those needs whilst achieving cost and time objectives are inadequate.

Document: Traditional VS ActivePlan

Working with Government

• Improves communication
• Improves accuracy
• Increases productivity
• Increases agility

This applies from the earliest stages of user consultation through detailed design, construction and operational management of the finished building

Document: ActivePlan Full Process

3D Models in Seconds

ActivePlan relates:

• People
• Activities
• Functions

to the built environment. Providing a collaborative environment where students and teachers can explore model layouts in 3D as interactive Virtual Reality models to fully understand options and make minor changes themselves.

Document: ActivePlan Virtual Reality For Education

Collaborative Design

Currently, each party works in isolation from an IT perspective, publishing documents that others have to interpret and usually manually rekey into their own systems.

ActivePlan

• Integrates data from different software applications
• Reduces wasted time
• Reduces potential mistakes
• Produces fully loaded floor plans and elevations more quickly
• Produces accurate schedules and room data sheets automatically

Users are finally able to move around a full VR model (SketchUp) of the rooms, departments and whole floors before they finally sign off.

Competitive Dialogue

To minimize the level of change post-tender, ActivePlan makes it far easier for designers to load every room and space with the previously agreed layouts, make any last-minute adjustments to each space in consultation with users using the 3D VR tools mentioned above. Once agreed, ActivePlan generates the fully load CAD drawings automatically with the related room data sheets and elevations or C Sheets.

• Improved productivity makes a previously uneconomic process affordable
• Improved user understanding
  • They can imagine how space will work in context with adjacent spaces
  • They feel part of the design process so stronger commitment to solution
• Less chance of unnecessary variations post-tender
  • Better budget and quality control
• Defined baseline at Financial close
  • Automated comparisons with any future variations including audit trail

ActivePlan

• Enhanced user engagement in briefing and buy-in
  • Fewer user group meetings needed
  • Affordability considered in real time
• Coordinated and version controlled information
  • Collaborative and concurrent design
• The means to properly consider sustainability and whole life implications
  • Coordinated and accurate production information
• Less need for post FC changes
  • Reduces additional costs and disputes

Asset Management

The combination of ActivePlan technology and processes delivers a more accurate and usable asset list and O&M that can help reduce running costs and improve availability of facilities.

• Automatically populates PPM software
  • Saves time and reduces mistakes/warranty breeches
• Relates assets to functional spaces and activities
  • More appropriate whole life considerations
  • Activity-based costing of facilities PBR
  • Enhanced helpdesk
• Intelligent buildings and the ActivePlan Facilities Information Model
  • Unique tags against every asset also by system/circuit
  • Barcode or RF tags

Knowledge Management

Retailers use ActivePlan to maintain records of previous designs and layouts and their success or otherwise to inform future designs. This is an automatic feature of ActivePlan and Healthcare clients and designers can re-use the information captured during the design and construction process.

• Encourages re-use of successful solutions
  • Reduces wasted design effort
  • Reduces costs by partial standardization
• More relevant post-occupancy evaluation
  • Provides an improved format for comparisons such as DQI
• Platform for continuous improvement

Virtual Built Environment Project

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust has commissioned ActivePlan and Salford University to develop a Virtual Reality application that will be used by teachers and students throughout the UK to design and build a virtual school. It will include references to the new Construction Diploma and also standard subjects that can be related such as chemistry and geometry.

ActivePlan is encouraging its construction clients to become involved in this initiative, contributing aspects of their BSF projects to provide a learning platform for local schools Apart from the long-term impact of improving the image of the industry as an interesting career, it is also believed that students will feel more included in the school development programme and be less likely to vandalise the finished buildings Document: Engaging With Schools

Building Schools for the Future

Document: Building Schools for the Future PDF