A pharmaceutical company uses IFCs in its Helsinki regional HQ

The leading pharmaceutical company Pfizer opted to use IFC-compliant software in the design and construction of its Nordic headquarters in Helinski. Although the architects had used 2D CAD tools, the Finnish multidisciplinary consultancy Olof Granlund, who designed the building services and other elements, decided that creating a 3D model even at this stage offered significant benefits.

Using its own software tool SMOG, Olof Granlund did the 3D geometric modelling. A product or project model was created, using IFC objects. The building, with its high imposing lobby, was shown to the client at design stage through visualisations that explored lighting, furniture, colour variations and so on – all made possible through the use of IFCs and the 3D model. Other spin-off benefits lay in the area of electrical and other services.

‘Finally, the IFC design data was passed on to the FM database to be reused in the operational phase,’ concludes Reijo Hanninen, Olof Granlund. ‘Through IFCs we hope we will have achieved better building performance and life-cycle costs. The cost of the project model to the client, Pfizer, was €50,000 – so it represents remarkable value.’