Points of View
Integrated Design/Digitalization/BIM
Our society is in a process of constant change – and this represents an opportunity for innovative companies.
Kees van Elst, Head of Consulting, Partner of Mint Architecture in “Standing still is not an option,” IMMOBILIEN Business, 11/2020
“BIM is the foundation for change rather than the tip of the flagpole.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Wohnsymposium. Die vielen Stufen der Digitalisierung im Wohnbau”, DER STANDARD, 30.10.2020
“In our office we haven’t drawn for a long time but, rather, developed a model with help from BIM that not only corresponds with the reality, but also does justice to the future needs of our clients.”
Horst Reiner in “BLUE:TECH – developing the future at the network meeting of the Travel Industry Club Austria”, WIRTSCHAFTSZEIT, 15.09.2020
“There’s no doubt that the current situation represents a great challenge for our company. However: The measures ordered by the government are powerfully driving our sector towards integral and digital working. We now have a unique opportunity to sustainably implement digital, integrated, and cooperative work in our sector for the benefit of all participants and the built environment.”
Christoph M. Achammer, 07.04.2020, on the impact of the measures imposed by the government during the corona pandemic.
“In our daily work, and also in our teaching and research, we are currently experiencing a massive developmental leap in the direction of the digitalization of our way of working. Obstacles that have blocked this progress for years are being blown away overnight.”
Christoph M. Achammer, 05.04.2020, on the impact of the measures imposed by the government during the corona pandemic.
“The thing that unites ATP and Mint Architecture is the culture of integrated cooperation. This means dialog, passing on and receiving knowledge rather than hiding knowledge from each other. And, at the end of the day, this also means the thing that drives both the left hand and the right hand, to which we ascribe these two functions: Enthusiasm, which comes from the heart. Because without enthusiasm, nothing can work. And enthusiasm is particularly important in our profession because it is the most wonderful profession in the world.”
Christoph M. Achammer, 04.07.2019
“In order to ensure that one can take advantage of all the possibilities offered by BIM for the benefit of the building, it is essential that all participants share a tried-and-tested culture of cooperation: integrated design. Our office in Zurich offers the Swiss real estate and construction sector access to a team of around 90 experts from the fields of architecture and engineering, economics and market analysis as well as connections with the entire ATP Group. With 800 architects and engineers, ATP has already been practicing integrated design for over 40 years and has been pioneering the use of BIM in every one of its projects, groupwide, since 2012.”
Matthias Wehrle, 04.07.2019
“Lifecycle-optimized construction demands that clients receive reliable forecasts regarding the lifecycle in the early planning phases – for this is when crucial decisions are made about the future. These forecasts can only be provided by a digital twin in the form of an effective BIM model.”
Herbstkongress 2018, Christoph M. Achammer, 29.10.2018
“We are currently working with Closed BIM, but we also see its drawbacks, so we're considering whether to go into Open BIM.”
Ursula Reiner in “BIM - a Construction Site”, Building Times, 7-8 2018
“We need a separate collaboration model for each project because we are dealing with segmentation, such as in an office.”
Michael Haugeneder in “BIM - a construction site”, Building Times, 7-8 2018
“In the future we must provide every sort of building with a range of flexibilities. Firstly, we should create lifecycle-oriented building structures; long-term load-bearing structures, medium-term building services, and short-term finishes. Secondly, we should learn from the automobile industry and develop buildings with a very high degree of recyclability. And thirdly, buildings have to have intelligent spatial and operational concepts in order to be able to react to changes of use.”
Christoph M. Achammer, 29.01.2018
“In the future the building site will become an assembly site. Many more things will be prefabricated as single batches. And this will raise them to completely new levels of productivity. A series of studies assume that the current waste potential is between 30 and 50 per cent.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “BIM: ‘The building industry’s current approach to digitalization is completely false’”, Solid, 11.12.2017
“The major challenge of integrated design is not how the software works but how the planner thinks … Digitalization will also reach the building industry and the plans of architects and engineers with increasing speed and finally contribute to that growth in productivity which the rest of industry has already achieved.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Following up – the development of BIM since 2015”, Detail research, 01.12.2017
“The use of digital tools is only effective if there is already an intellectual and cultural readiness.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Construction is becoming digital”, Standard, Special Issue, 30.11.2017
“We have to be aware of the fact that greater upheavals will occur in the next five years than in the past five hundred ... We are going to be confronted with new processes that we can’t even imagine today.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Digital dream or digital trauma?” Wohnnet, 24.11.2017
“In a few years we will see completely new planning and construction processes with real cost and timetable guarantees in the earlier phases.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “The future of building”, Nevaris, 01.11.2017
“We said to ourselves that if we want the BIM method to spread quickly we have to more or less give away this information to most of the building industry. 90 per cent of the market is made up of small companies who could never build up such a quantity of documentation themselves (BIMpedia).”
Lars Oberwinter in “Who’s afraid of BIM?” a3 Baumagazin, 01.09.2017
“The merging of the digital and physical worlds in line with the principles of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will also disruptively change the ponderous real estate industry. We consider it right to question every single process phase of the building industry, whose basic model hasn’t significantly changed in 150 years, and to help it adopt new methods for improving both productivity and quality.“
Christoph M. Achammer in “Digitalization as solution”, Solid, 23.08.2017
“We see user satisfaction and enthusiasm as key parameters for excellent health sector buildings. We work alongside stakeholders in questioning existing concepts, applying our know-how and creating new open spaces.”
Michael Gräfensteiner in “People are the focus”, Architektur und Technik, 03.07.2017
“We can use virtual building models to fine tune processes of interdisciplinary cooperation. We also see the advantage that BIM massively reduces lost communication time.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Digital disruption”, Die Presse Immobilien, 25.02.2017
“Thanks to our cooperative design culture we at ATP are perfectly positioned to benefit from its many advantages.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Generation Y? Generation BIM!” Holzmagazin, 01.02.2017
“In the future the building will have to be fully defined when the contract is signed. That is of course a challenge for architects and clients.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “All change in the building industry”, Bau & Immobilien Report, 01.12.2016
“Rather than the products of individual services it is the overall, joint outcome that counts. This means that the project team can focus all its energy on finding the best and most sustainable ideas and solutions.”
Thomas Herter in “Professionals work with professionals”, HLK, 30.11.2016
“4.0 – a magic code for anything and everything! And yet the definition is actually quite mundane: the connection of the physical and digital worlds. Not the extension but the connection. The creation of a so-called ‘phygital world’.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Industrial building 4.0 – Pioneer for new planning processes”, DBZ, 01.07.2016
“In this whole discussion we shouldn’t forget that the BIM-supported way of working is no more than a tool. The result of integrated design is a lifecycle-oriented building that is created by architects and engineers on the basis of their professional expertise and creativity.”
Gerald Hulka, in “40 years of integrated design” 01.02.2016
"Integrated design is also possible without BIM, but BIM isn’t possible without integrated design.”
Manfred Huber in “BIM: against rolling design”, Hochparterre, 13.01.2016
“All of ATP’s 550 architects and engineers work in all offices ... inside common virtual models. ATP’s BIM standard ... is one of the bases of the recently introduced Austrian BIM Norm.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Building Information Modeling”, AIT online, 28.08.2015
“BIM is the logical tool for the integrated design process and the prerequisite, for... aligning design and building processes with the benchmarks of other industries. Today, we can already see that the productivity gains on the design side are primarily qualitative because, ideally, the amount of work remains unchanged. The executing companies also experience considerable productivity gains… but the greatest improvements are to be expected in building operations.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Building Information Modeling”, AIT online, 28.08.2015
“Today’s buildings are so complex that only interdisciplinary cooperation between architects and engineers can lead to successful projects.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: Teilnahmerekord bei Concrete Student Trophy 2013. APA ots online, 26.11.2013, www.zement.at
“Whether voluntarily or not, the architect has more or less given up the ……. overall responsibility for design and can undisputedly be spoken of as the person responsible for no more than … the artistic aspects of a building.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Integrated Design. A coming-together of equals”, a3 Bau, 1-2/2013
“We can see that it works better when teams sit together in one building or in one space.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Integrated Design. A coming-together of equals”, a3 Bau, 1-2/2013
“The ability to influence the design process of a building reduces logarithmically as this process proceeds. And the costs of such intervention rise equally precipitously. This means that the key decisions regarding the future construction and – even more significantly – operating costs of a building are made while the client’s requirements are being ascertained and the preliminary design carried out (and this concerns all specialist areas - architecture, structural and mechanical and electrical engineering). This demands professional and responsible clients and an equally professional and competent integrated design team.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Nichts gecheckt”, a3 Bau, 06/2012
“We don’t want to leave any scorched earth to posterity. Our vision is that we use our buildings to make things better.”
Horst Reiner in: „Machbar ist alles – wenn der Auftraggeber es will“, Wirtschaftsblatt, 14th February 2013
“The design decisions which are taken at the very start are in reality the most important ones.”
Christoph M. Achammer in Real Estate Circle 2011 quoted in "Planung am Beginn ist entscheidend", Wirtschaftsblatt, 18th November 2011
“The use of an integrated design approach across the entire lifecycle of a building makes it possible to develop a single calculation which addresses the architectural, organisational and service qualities of a building. Only in this way will our buildings truly fulfil their responsibilities to the next generation.“
ATP CEO Christoph M. Achammer at the founding of the IG Lebenszyklus Hochbau quoted in "Lebenszyklus rückt in den Mittelpunkt", Tiroler Tageszeitung, 17th September 2011
“We must transform ourselves from a heterogeneous society based on mistrust into a homogenous one founded on trust.“
Christoph M. Achammer on the subject of "The Culture of Building" in: "ausgesprochen", Report Plus, Page 1, September 2011
“The integrated design of buildings is an essential prerequisite for their sustainable economic management. Professor Achammer has been pursuing this belief since the 1970s.“
Comment by the ATGA on the occasion of the naming of Christoph Achammer (on behalf of ATP Architects and Engineers) as “Architect of the Year 2011”, under the title "The future belongs to the clever" or "Against the continuation of traditional roles", 24th May 2011
“Without an integrated approach, sustainability is simply not possible.“
Christoph M. Achammer, "Nachhaltig schon beim allerersten Entwurf", Wirtschaftsblatt, 04th October 2010
Integrated Design ... an alternative to the widely used "sequential" method in which architects, structural and mechanical engineers ... work on a building - often independently from each other and, in any case, one after the other. "90 to 95% of all design processes take this form.“
Christoph M. Achammer, "Netzwerken für die Nachhaltigkeit", Die Presse, 17th/18th July 2010
“One secret of ATP´s success is the integrated approach in which architects and engineers tackle projects not one after the other but together.“
Alois Vahrner, Tiroler Tageszeitung, 24th July 2009
“By taking off their blinkers and cooperating over real problems, architects and engineers can learn with and from each other.“
Christoph M. Achammer, Wirtschaftsblatt, 25th June 2009
“If we architects, structural and mechanical services engineers don´t manage to find a common approach to designing and building we will...continue to play a declining role.“
Christoph M. Achammer, Architektur- und Bauforum, 15th June 2009
Refurbishment
“For us, refurbishment is always an interesting challenge ... However, as architects and engineers who have been working together integrally for over 40 years, this project represented the special task of refurbishing a training facility for both of these disciplines.”
Paul Ohnmacht in “Integrated design for Innsbruck – The rebuilding and refurbishment of two faculties”, tab, 01.07.2017
“The trend ranges from retail space with the character of storage space to showrooms ... We create between 200,000 and 250,000 square meters of retail space every year. Now only a third of this is new while the rest results from refurbishment or a change of use.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “A second chance for retail buildings”, Gewerbeflächen Immobilien, 01.06.2017
“The major challenge of all basic renovation work is the need for normal operations to continue.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “The retail building of the future: A real door to a virtual world?” Industriebau, 01.03.2017
“This recognition leads to the obvious conclusion that, in an integrated design team, one understands how to design a building sustainably and another understands how to make it especially user-friendly while another keeps a close eye on the design. These are regarded as equally important tasks.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Integrated Design. A coming-together of equals”, a3 Bau, 1-2/2013
“Shoppers and shopping centres are going grey together. 40% of all centres are desperately in need of refurbishment.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: "Einkaufszentren droht die Vergreisung", Tiroler Tageszeitung, 23rd September 2011
“Refurbishment is the agenda of building for the future. This is the message of Christoph Achammer of ATP (see the enclosed special supplement). ... Resources (including those which we use to build spaces) are, as we know, getting scarce. And this is why we refurbish and extend.”
Mathias Boeckl in: "Add-On", Architektur aktuell, Page 1, September 2011
“Europe is fully built. Quantitative growth is no longer possible and now it is time for qualitative growth.”
Christoph M. Achammer at the "20th International Industrial Building Seminar" at the TU Vienna, quoted in: "Nachhaltigkeit am Bau ist keine Frage von Gesetzen." Wirtschaftsblatt, 13th May 2011
Sustainability
“Flexibility and the minimal use of harmful substance are key aspects for commercial clients that are often largely ignored during the design process ... Mistakes that are made here can lead to a building which is cost-intensive to operate or in which unsatisfied users make repeated refurbishment necessary.”
Susanne Runkel in “Quality has its price”, Augsburger Allgemeine, 05.08.2017
“In my experience there is no contradiction between profitability and the aspiration to create good architecture. This is part of Vitruvius’ ancient definition of sustainability, which I still regard as unconditional: Utilitas, Firmitas und Venustas.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “Can shopping be a sin?” Architektur, 01.10.2016
“We should not forget – that the design process absorbs 1.5 per cent of the total life cycle costs but can seriously influence 50 per cent of these costs. As soon as the design is ready the investment and operational costs are more or less fixed. The notion that a building only becomes expensive when the contractors are commissioned is wrong. This happens much earlier.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Integrated Design. A coming-together of equals”, a3 Bau, 1-2/2013
“We don’t want to leave any scorched earth to posterity. Our vision is that we use our buildings to make things better.”
Horst Reiner in: „Machbar ist alles – wenn der Auftraggeber es will“, Wirtschaftsblatt, 14.02.2013
“In order to achieve the best possible results, efficient design tools and a lifecycle-oriented integrated design approach must be used from the very start.”
Jens Glöggler, MD of ATP sustain at the 2nd BVL Logistics Day in Tyrol in: "Sustainability as the Management Strategy of the Future", Lager(fläche) www.lagerflaeche.de, 14th November 2011
“Sustainability in building is not a question of laws. Laws can establish the framework but cannot represent complex processes.”
Christoph M. Achammer at the "20th International Industrial Building Seminar" at the TU Vienna, quoted in: "Nachhaltigkeit am Bau ist keine Frage von Gesetzen." Wirtschaftsblatt, 13th May 2011
“Four-fifths of the lifecycle costs of a building are covered by the operating costs and just one fifth by the investment costs. And only two of these 20 percent don’t relate to the design process, which means that by doing everything right at this moment we can save half the operating costs.”
Christoph M. Achammer at the "20th International Industrial Building Seminar" at the TU Vienna, quoted in: "Nachhaltigkeit am Bau ist keine Frage von Gesetzen." Wirtschaftsblatt, 13th May 2011
“Certification is a support to clients and designers in that it makes it possible to quantify sustainability in the design and building processes. This creates a certain sense of security that the term “sustainability” is more than just hot air.”
Matthias Wehrle quoted in: Sustainability will be quantifiable. (Zartes Grün im Werkzeugbau. Nachhaltigkeit im Industriebau. Positiveffekte für Klima und Mitarbeiter.) Der Standard, 26th/27th February 2011
“Aesthetic and socio-cultural expectations about life-cycle oriented buildings are essential parameters for the successful industrial architecture of today.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: Integrated Design comes from Industrial Building, Wettbewerbe Architekturjournal, 291/292, December 2010
“The aspect of sustainability must be clearly addressed from the very first preliminary design. … We investigate, for instance, lifecycle costs and the concrete impact of integrated design upon sustainability.”
Christoph M. Achammer, "Nachhaltig schon beim allerersten Entwurf", Wirtschaftsblatt, 04th October 2010
“A shift towards closed-loop material cycles is also long overdue in the building industry.”
Jens Glöggler, ATP sustain, in: "Gebäudezertifizierung und nachhaltiges Bauen. Ökostandards in Österreich", Zuschnitt 39 attachment, Interview: S. 16-19, September 2010
“The design ... determines after all 30 percent of the investment cost and 50 percent of the entire life-cycle costs. “This is a huge tool over which we have control.”
Christoph M. Achammer, „Netzwerken für die Nachhaltigkeit“, Die Presse, 17th/18th July 2010
“After the completion of the preliminary design, 50% of the possibilities for optimising the life cycle costs of a building have been exhausted; when the detailed design is ready just 20% remain and when the tender documents have been completed the opportunity has gone....”
Christoph M. Achammer, Technikum Kärnten Forschungsgesellschaft
“The key to sustainability lies in space planning; closed building forms have a number of positive effects in terms of resource and energy efficiency.”
Christoph M. Achammer, Konstruktiv, 7th/8th July 2009
“Both the direct relationship between the sustainability of a building and the corresponding increase in its real estate value and the desire of our clients for ways of certifying their workplaces are additional attractions for us.”
Jens Glöggler, ATP sustain in: Die Presse 18th February 2009
“Life-cycle oriented building design regards buildings as systems and this method is a key aid in the calculation of the true costs – and particularly the energy costs – of buildings.”
Architektur und Bau Forum, 9th February 2009
Education/Career
“But we place our knowledge at everyone’s disposal. We belong to a sharing economy in which we have to share knowledge. If one retains and fails to share knowledge it won’t be productive. We’ve invested in this – and that’s exactly why we are now amongst the leaders.”
Christoph M. Achammer in “BIM: ‘The building industry’s current approach to digitalization is completely false’”, Solid, 11.12.2017
“Many years ago we established the ATP Academy in which we offer our own training to our entire group of companies ... for example on the subject of ‘Supporting competitions with building services’.”
Thomas Herter in “Questions to …” bauingenieur24, 27.11.2017
“I can see that the next generation of my colleagues - who are today around 30 - is already ideally prepared for working in networks.”
Christoph M. Achammer in: “Integrated Design. A coming-together of equals”, a3 Bau, 1-2/2013
“The science of “Building Membranes” (is) one of the few innovation-rich areas of the building industry which, despite its great economic significance, attracts very little research…”
Professor Christoph M. Achammer quoted in: Studying Zero Emissions. The building of membranes as an area of research (“Master of Engineering” - Programme “Membrane Lightweight Structures” of the Centre of Continuing Education of the TU Vienna). In: Die Presse/Bildung, 5th/6th February 2011
Cooperation and networking are, for Christoph Achammer,..., Professor of Industrial Building at the TU in Vienna (...), essential pre-conditions for sustainable building. … Achammer has already noticed that some of his students are starting to think differently.
Christoph M. Achammer, „Netzwerken für die Nachhaltigkeit“, Die Presse, 17th/18th July 2010
“Investing in employees – that was another of Christoph Achammer´s reactions to the crisis. And as well as expanding training, ATP decided to put more resources into acquisition and research.”
Architektur und Bau Forum, 27th July 2009
“The discussion of the new curriculum is not about learning more but about a basic change in the relationships between the individual disciplines.”
Christoph M. Achammer: Sustainable Designing and Construction – without learning?” Podium discussion of the Sustainability Committee of the Federal Chamber of Architects and Engineers. Vienna, 18th May 2009