In the world of building management, digital twins are changing our interaction with and optimizing our buildings. This new technology, led by companies like Autodesk with their Tandem solution, is one that creates a digital model replica of a physical building, giving its owners and operators the ability to monitor, visualize and enhance performance in real time. Leading Nordic engineering consultancy Multiconsult, in collaboration with building owners and building management system provider Swegon, is at the forefront of this transformative innovation.
“We wanted to take the word ‘digital twin’ from a buzzword into something really concrete and tangible,” said Magne Ganz, BIM Specialist at Multiconsult. He further explained: “A digital twin consists of a digital representation of a physical building with a stream of live data that really connects the physical and digital building.”
The benefits of digital twins are substantial. As Barbro Brørvik Sæten, Digital Business Developer at Multiconsult, highlighted: “By using digital twins, you can remotely monitor your buildings. The building owner and operator get all the information they need on their building, its performance and operations, all in one interface and is visually presented in the model.”
Through their successful pilot project, Multiconsult and their partners have demonstrated the value of digital twins in providing comprehensive insights into building performance.
“You get heat maps, graphs and everything you need to see how your building is performing,” said Sæten, stressing the depth of information available.
Moreover, digital twins address the challenge of leveraging Building Information Modeling (BIM) data beyond the design and construction phases.
“We see that the BIM model is really utilized after the design and construction phase, so we wanted to utilize the BIM into the operation space,” said Ganz.
The collaboration with Autodesk Tandem has been pivotal in realizing the potential of digital twins. Sæten explained: “We chose Tandem as our platform for the digital twin pilot because it’s an open and non-proprietary solution, and it’s also easy for customers to use if they don’t have experience in using design tools such as Revit.”
Digital twins will enable owners and operators of buildings to streamline processes, optimize efficiency, and make informed decisions based on comprehensive data in real time. This changes the era of operation of buildings to being done sustainably and with data, according to Multiconsult experts.
