Production Pulse Newsletter 2021_vol2_iss1

PRODUCTION PULSE I PULSE

NEWSLETTER VOLUME 1: ISSUE 2 – DECEMBER 2020 TER VOLUME 2: I SUE 1 – MARCH 2021

Project Highlight: Aurora Coast Cannabis Innovation Centre

The Aurora Coast Cannabis Innovation Centre is a research and development facility located in Comox, British Columbia. The centre is a high - security, Health Canada - licensed laboratory facility focused on cannabis breeding and genetics. The first phase of the project consisted of a one - storey heavy timber header house and a one - storey glass and steel greenhouse. The header house included offices, lab space, meeting rooms as well as equipment rooms to support the greenhouse functions. The greenhouse consisted of seven individual compartments to facilitate various breeding programs and disease resistance trials. At the start of the design process, the design team and the owner decided to prefabricate the two buildings off - site in a controlled environment to improve the quality of work, Building InformationModeling

reduce on - site waste, and accelerate the project schedule. The architect (local) initially defined the geometry of the building, our mechanical and electrical teams defined the spatial requirements for the building services, and our structural team confirmed the sizes of the structural panels and members. The building was modeled with Autodesk Revit to Level of Development (LOD) 350 to facilitate detailed coordination and clash detection. Autodesk Navisworks was used for the model coordination.

Greenhouse IFC Model from Supplier overlaid with the design Revit model.

Header House IFC Model from Supplier overlaid with the design Revit model.

During the design process, the suppliers for the header house and the greenhouse provided design input. The header house supplier was located in Germany and the greenhouse supplier was located in the Netherlands. Each supplier developed their fabrication models to a minimum Level of Development (LOD) 400. Since the suppliers were not using Revit software, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format was used to exchange models. IFC is an Open BIM format, developed by buildingSMART International. Both AE and the Architect imported the supplier ’ s IFC models into the design team ’ s respective Revit models to check openings and coordinate service penetrations through the structural wall and roof panels. Wherever conflicts existed, the suppliers adjusted their models to address.

Additional images: HERE

Esaly Wu

Eunice Fang

For additional information, please contact:

Structural Engineer

Building Structural Technologist