When architecture and design firm Cottee Parker sought to increase efficiency and productivity on ambitious construction projects such as Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, in the capital of the Austrlaian State of Queensland, it turned to Bluebeam Revu.
Naveen Dath, architect and director at Cottee Parker, said the new Queen’s Wharf [project concept pictured] is set to become a “globally significant destination”.
The mixed-use development including thousands of flats and shops as well as public space, hotels and a casino is expected to cost around A$3.6bn (£1.9bn) all up. Cottee Parker has been lead architect on the project since it began in 2013, with completion expected in 2024.
“When we were doing the initial schematic design stage in 2015, there used to be reams and reams of paper hiding underneath people’s desks, with all kinds of mock-ups and red lines and pen. We probably had to cut down a few thousand trees to generate all that paper,” said Dath.
The paper-based workflow made it harder for the complex project to meet its deadlines, partly due to the sheer number of documents that staff needed to check. Quality assurance processes were also unnecessarily laborious, with documents that had been marked up by hand requiring distribution to team members both across the large job site and to multiple offices across Australia.
Implementing Bluebeam Revu design and construction project management software meant Cottee Parker could produce around 5000 project documents month digitally, streamlining the QA process as well as reducing the chance of error.
“The ability to be able to collaborate across individuals, across teams, across offices, I think, is a fantastic benefit that we get out of Revu,” Dath said.
Erina Tibaldi, documentation team leader at Cottee Parker, said: “”Revu was a way for us to keep track of all the amount of information that we had, where paper was getting lost or you’re never sure if someone has actually printed that one off. Bluebeam helped us keep track of our QA.”
Using Studio Projects and Sessions as well has enabled some 50 team members working on Queen’s Wharf to update documents from different locations simultaneously, in real-time — contributing to efficiency, overall accountability and productivity across the project.
Since switching to a digital environment, the company estimates that it has cut its time spent reviewing and approving documents by 50%, according to the full case study on Bluebeam’s website, here.
Bluebeam is holding another series of Revu 101 training webinars for construction industry, architects and design professionals from 26-29 October, covering markup and measurement basics, drawing management and studio. Click here to learn more and register.
