BAM uses Point Layout to navigate design challenges on the V&A Museum of Design Dundee

The V&A Museum of Design Dundee is Scotland’s first design museum and is at the heart of Dundee’s £1 billion Waterfront regeneration project. It’s a cornerstone of the quayside project, and so the design had to be unique, tie in the local granite geology, and link to the River Tay.

The unique concrete curvature of the V&A Dundee building, as well as the temporary works required, presented a number of challenges. BAM Construct UK couldn’t use traditional setting out and surveying methods since the internal geometries of the building continuously changed and the walls slope in two directions.

The project had a much smaller margin for error compared to traditional buildings. When a straight-walled building is constructed, there can be a difference of up to ten millimeters between plans and the final result. For the V&A Dundee, that gap could be no more than three millimeters – so accuracy was key.

BAM created a 3D model using a number of Autodesk products (Revit, Navisworks, Autodesk® Point Layout, Autodesk® AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Navisworks® Freedom Viewer, BIM360 Field, and Autodesk® BIM 360® Glue®) to minimize risk.

Autodesk Point Layout was essential to delivering the client’s vision and eliminating potential errors when navigating geometry complexities and setting out the walls. It allowed BAM to check the coordinates of the wall shutters, install a huge number of brackets and cast in steelwork plates, and install the structural steelwork to the upper floors and roof areas.

Combined, Autodesk’s tools allowed BAM to create an iconic building, solve the unique challenges it faced, and most importantly, keep on-track to deliver the project.

"To achieve this, our strategic relationship with Autodesk and others helps us along this journey to ensure the success of our digital transformation. Recent studies show that 86 percent of all organizations that attempt a digital transformation fail. BAM wants to be in the 14 percent that don’t. This is hard on your own."

Mark Taylor, Digital Construction Manager, BAM Construction Ltd