Modern building projects require interdisciplinary design teams in order to deal with diverging stakeholder interests and the wide range of European jurisdictions. Only in this way is it possible to meet such classic design objectives as form, function and on-cost and on-time delivery while also responding in a meaningful and resource-efficient way to the growing demand for the three forms of sustainability:

• the optimal support of the building’s value creating processes (economical)
• the saving of resources and high energy-efficiency (ecological)
• high levels of user and operational comfort (sociological)

The traditional incremental approach common in Continental Europe has become increasingly unsuitable and must give way to integrated design. Integrated design as developed by ATP is a holistic, interdisciplinary process focused on both the creation of “a good building” and meeting the objectives of clients and users. It fulfills aesthetic, functional, ecological and social expectations, is technically feasible and can be implemented on-cost and on-time. It aligns itself with the client’s economic objectives and optimizes lifecycle costs.

The ATP design philosophy is based upon the causal relationship:

• Sustainable building development demands consideration of the lifecycle.
• The consideration of the lifecycle requires integrated design.
• Integrated design is optimally visualized by the BIM design tool

Which tool best supports the integrated design approach?