Based in Brisbane, AEQ Architects designs residential, commercial, retail, industrial and hospitality-industry buildings. Their projects extend to residential apartments, childcare centres, car dealerships, TAFE buildings, townhouses and office blocks.
AEQ is now using NBS Chorus to streamline their projects and create a more reliable workflow.
“In the past, our specification process was quite complicated and reliant on a manual review process. We had to go back and forth, checking what we had in our projects in ArchiCAD and what was inside Word documents,” explains AEQ Director Janusz Giermanski.
“While that was less of an issue for existing clients, we had to outsource for new projects, which was problematic to coordinate and added to our workload. It also added to the cost of getting work done.”
Choosing NBS Chorus reduced the amount of legwork required for the specification process. “This was an excellent solution for us,” says Janusz.
Why this Australian architect firm is shifting to BIM
The team at AEQ had become increasingly aware of the benefits of BIM practices for architects, which prompted them to investigate the technology for themselves.
The reason they decided to integrate NBS Chorus was that it could easily be coordinated with ArchiCAD for every project.
“I had been observing for a while that Chorus was being used in the UK,” says Janusz, “And I was really glad you guys came to Australia.”
“I had seen how the platform worked on the internet and how specifications could be coordinated with ArchiCAD and Chorus in every project. It made it so much easier to keep up with things like Building Codes."
The benefit of integrating ArchiCAD with NBS Chorus for AEQ is that they no longer have to go through endless pages of specifications. “We just use a plugin and things are so much easier,” says Janusz.
The added bonus is being able to duplicate relevant clauses between projects, updating specifications so they are never out of date.
Mt Gravatt Apartments
AEQ
The benefits of implementing BIM for architects
As Janusz shared, using NBS Chorus allowed his firm to improve its specification process and avoid inaccuracies during the design process.
“The main reason for using Chorus is to stop making mistakes in specifications, which minimises risk. Architects also have full control on both platforms (ArchiCAD and NBS Chorus) during the process of documenting.”
“You can use automatic labelling and NBS Chorus lets you save all the specifications as masters. They are reusable and when we access the specs, we know the dimensions and calculations will be up to date.”
The flow-on of using BIM practices for architects is an improvement in quality of work and additional value for the client.
“We can now take on more projects and offer additional services without being overwhelmed by costs,” explains Janusz.
Using Chorus also has benefits during the build phase of the project. “We have better control over what’s happening on site.”
Janusz says he is quickly learning more about Chorus as he continues to use it in combination with ArchiCAD.
More information
Move your static Word specifications templates to the cloud with NBS Chorus, a flexible and collaborative specification platform. To book a demo click here.
For Manufacturers, get your products specified easier with NBS Source. Find out more here.
