Innovation and digital leadership transform the construction industry

Tikab included in the consultancy team, led by ELU-Konsult, for the two sub-areas of the Slussen project, Land and Water. When Stockholm City chose not to deliver a detailed VDC manual for the 12 billion Slussen project, Tikab, responsible for the VDC work, had to assume the role of digital leader in an extreme project in one of the world's most traditional industries.

As a former BIM manager for a number of other projects, I understood quite immediately what the city's functional requirements would mean for a project the size of Slussen if all technical areas were affected by these functional requirements," says Johan Stribeck, Business Area Manager at Tikab.

The requirements set by the City of Stockholm were that all design should be done in 3D and with structured coding of object properties from all technical areas. From these functional requirements was born the idea for the approach and project that Tikab together with ELU-konsult would put into motion - they decided to completely abandon the traditional drawings and deliver only construction documents as 3D models with associated property data and descriptions.

Interest in the platform was immediately high, both within the team and among the clients and others involved in the project. However, there were concerns about the extent to which contractors were ready to build to these new digital documents and so we decided to fake a trial delivery. The trial delivery was completed once the first major collaborative contract of the project had been procured, and this gave us the opportunity to present and adapt the approach to Skanska," explains Johan.

The conditions at the start of the project were challenging. There was no procured contractor to discuss with and there was a lack of detailed requirements and national standards around digital delivery. The wheel had to be reinvented. Despite this, Tikab, in collaboration with ELU and the client, managed to push through the major change and steer the project in the right direction.

"The great achievement is about people in the context, i.e. that we have managed to get so many people in such a large project to work in a new way and change the product from the design team," says Johan Stribeck. It's important to have key people who are passionate about changing and implementing new ways of working, you get carried away by that passion, he continues.

In the wake of the Slussen project, Tikab has built an entire business area around supporting both companies and projects in their digital journey. The business area now consists of fourteen people and includes passionate and experienced BIM strategists, BIM coordinators, game developers and programmers. Currently, they are responsible for the digital workflows in projects such as the Rosenbad rebuild and the Stockholm Central Station flyover.

The Slussen approach has already spread to several other projects and I dare say that we have lit a spark that will be one of several factors that will really boost digitalisation in the construction industry. We are very proud of this," concludes Johan Stribeck.