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3D model-based design can help make future cities more livable, sustainable, and economically vital: Sunil MK, Autodesk

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Ruchika Goel
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Sunil.MK .Head ...Architecture.Engineering..Construction.AEC .Division.of .Autodesk.India ..SAARC

What are the issues facing building of smart cities and what kind of data would be needed to help make decisions?

Construction and infrastructure industry in India has been traditionally slow to adapt to global trends. The benefits in terms of sustainability, cost optimization, and efficiencies of scale that technology brings in is huge and industry players who have successfully integrated technology need to demonstrate this success. The government is in the process of drafting policies for the smart city initiative and also is on the threshold for the selection of the cities which would benefit under this scheme.

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Autodesk provides 3D Design technologies and innovation for enabling construction of smart infrastructure in India and also worldwide. Autodesk solutions for building information modelling (BIM) can help cities improve environmental performance, transportation and utility networks, and the impact of construction and maintenance. With intelligent 3D model-based design software, you can make better informed decisions for a smarter, more sustainable world through intelligent planning, design, project management and project execution.

In your view how are smart cities of future supposed to be?

It is very critical that our urban planners and policymakers need to plan and design cities for the future and not just for the present. Our cities are our design laboratories, where we can experiment and find solutions to our biggest challenges. Urban designers and developers, as well as city officials, students and citizens of all types can all collaborate to make our cities better. At Autodesk, we believe that design—especially intelligent 3D model-based design—can help make future cities more: livable, sustainable, resilient, and economically vital.

What should be the approach towards building a smart city?

As a first step, the government must make India’s top 100 cities livable. Smart city is a natural build out of this infrastructure. Complex projects can’t be built while ignoring basic infrastructure. There are technology companies who are spearheading projects to make the cities 'smart.' However, we need to make them sustainable and livable. Smart comes afterwards. To achieve this, we need planners, designers and engineers to plan, design, and digitally visualize all infrastructure parameters before we start any construction. Global cities like Barcelona and Tokyo have put sustainable techniques like solar energy, waste management, and mass rapid transport ahead of others. India needs to learn from them before we step up our efforts. In short, sustainable design is a must and a priority before we even plan any other activity first.

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Which new technologies are helping build smarter cities and what is Autodesk's contribution?

The BIM technology by Autodesk provides the capability of creating and using a data-rich 3D model for planning, designing, building and managing infrastructure and buildings. Combining BIM with some of the latest technology advancements can help us find better solutions faster than ever before. For example:

1) Tapping into the power of the Cloud, architects and engineers can simulate and optimize the energy use of building projects before they are built or retrofitted

2) Accessing 3D project models on mobile devices can make construction more accurate and less wasteful

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3) With city-scale 3D models that incorporate 'big data,' urban planners and engineers can create proposals for new designs shown within their existing surroundings, and conduct time-based simulations for population growth, weather impact, traffic patterns and many other factors

4) Collaboration and visualization tools can bring people (‘stakeholders’) together to create and gain consensus on buildings and infrastructure that achieve the highest degrees of utility, resilience and beauty

Cloud-connected workflows are made possible through Autodesk 360, a cloud-based platform that helps improve the way users design, visualize, simulate, and share work with others anytime, anywhere. Architects can create large-scale preliminary designs in context with InfraWorks 360 and collaborate with multiple stakeholders virtually anytime and anywhere.

Software like Reality Capture (ReCap) allows the designers and architects to bring existing point cloud data of existing structures right at the feasibility stage of project planning. Today using a variety of digitization techniques the physical world can be captured into a virtual world and the virtual information can be translated into physical design. One such technology is Scan to BIM, where the physical buildings and infrastructure can be captured as point cloud models, surface restructured and then converted into an intelligent BIM. This technology and capability becomes important when we consider that most smart city projects in India will be brownfield projects. When coupled with modeling and energy simulation software like the Rapid Energy Modeling, they can quickly figure out which structures are worth retrofitting, before sending in an expansive team of engineers and construction workers thereby optimizing resource and time.

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