Aarau Cantonal Hospital: building technology with BIM

At a glance

Project facts

Client

Implenia

Project location

Aarau, Switzerland

Business area

BKW Building Solutions

Project status

In progress

Project type

New build

Technology area

Building technology

Sector

Healthcare/medicine

Worker in a hard hat and high-visibility vest inspecting pipework indoors

Service provider

Neukom Marzolo AG

Neukom Marzolo AG, a company of BKW Building Solutions, delivers innovative, cost-effective and sustainable building technology solutions.

In doing so, it draws on its extensive experience in the areas of plumbing, heating, ventilation, cooling and solar. Around 120 employees support projects from consulting and planning through to installation and maintenance – for new builds, conversions and refurbishments.

115,000 m²

Building area

Storeys

100%

digital planning and execution

A corridor that seems to stretch into infinity. On the concrete ceiling, new, gleaming pipes are lined up with millimetre precision. Pasquale Esposito, Head of Sanitary Installations, stands beneath them in a neon-yellow high-visibility vest and blue construction helmet, smiling proudly. “Just imagine that,” he says, “every single pipe was prefabricated and installed exactly according to the digital model!”

The corridor is part of the new “Dreiklang” building currently being constructed on the site of the Cantonal Hospital Aarau KSA. Pasquale Esposito works for Neukom Marzolo, a BKW Group company that is responsible for all sanitary installation work here. Esposito shows a 3D model on the tablet: the pipes visible on the ceiling are shown in colour on it. Each liquid has its own colour: cold water green, hot water red, osmosis water – important in a hospital – light blue, for example.

The new KSA building is one of the largest construction sites in Switzerland: 115,000 square metres are spread across ten floors. That is equivalent to 16 football pitches. The shell was built between January 2022 and the end of June 2023. The interior fit-out has been under way since then. Commissioning is scheduled for autumn 2025. What makes it special: the construction site is completely paperless. Instead of printed plans, all employees use tablets with constantly updated 3D models and plans.

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Avoid errors, save time, reduce costs

“The construction project and working methods have a strong signalling effect beyond national borders,” says Patric Sommer, Senior BIM Manager at construction and real estate service provider Implenia. As total contractor, Implenia is responsible for the planning, implementation and project management of the turnkey new hospital building. “The Health and Laboratory Construction unit pools extensive specialist expertise and combines it with state-of-the-art digital planning and construction processes – an approach that has been part of our DNA for years,” Sommer emphasises.

Implenia is using the so-called BIM method for the major project, with BIM standing for “Building Information Modelling”, or Bauwerksdaten-Modellierung in German. Early, interdisciplinary collaboration using the BIM method enables potential problems to be resolved in good time, before they arise on the construction site.

For plumbing manager Pasquale Esposito from Neukom Marzolo, the construction project is the first in which everything is digital. “When we started in 2023, I didn’t know whether we were taking the right path,” he recalls. Because, first of all, it was about investment and a change in mindset: the licence for the modelling software costs several thousand francs. And the fitters have to move away from what they are used to and undergo training.

The “Lego principle”

By now, however, the plumber has caught the bug. He particularly likes working according to the “Lego principle”, as he calls it: once the digital model has been created, the pipes and brackets are prefabricated with millimetre precision. In conventional construction, plumbers can only measure the materials ordered on the construction site and cut them to size with a circular saw. In modern construction using the innovative method, the parts are delivered already cut to size, marked and numbered. “The fitters only have to slot the parts together, just like Lego,” says Esposito. Folding rules are also practically superfluous on the KSA construction site: a robotics station uses a laser to show precisely where drilling is required. As a result, the company needed one third fewer fitters and significantly reduced material waste. The biggest challenge? “Making sure everyone remembers to do the software update first thing in the morning!” says Esposito with a laugh. It has indeed already happened that a fitter worked from an outdated plan for two days and then had to do everything all over again in the end. “Luckily, though, only rarely!”

Worker in a high-visibility vest and hard hat standing in a plant room with pipes and valves

Will digital construction become the standard?

“The construction industry is undergoing a digital transformation. Model-based working methods and prefabrication, as implemented in the ‘Dreiklang’ project, are a response to the increasing complexity of construction projects as well as growing cost and deadline pressures,” says Patric Sommer from Implenia. It is important to familiarise all project participants with the change. To lower the barrier to paperless construction, Implenia has opened a “BIM kiosk” on the construction site. Here, all employees receive support whenever questions arise about digital construction.

“Many people see BIM merely as a technical solution that costs money,” says Sommer. “But it is about much more than that.” The aim is to break down silo thinking and work together with clients, companies and users from the outset. To exchange information efficiently. To integrate requests for changes easily into the planning. And, in the end, to have all data recorded digitally so that it remains readily available later during operation.

Digital construction saves money

At KSA, all information required for the later operation of the building relating to installed systems and components is stored in a database and made available to facility management, rather than gathering dust in folders in an archive. In the event of an error message or a later conversion, all important information is immediately at hand. “This optimises and simplifies building operation,” says Sommer. Plus: “The financial added value really comes into its own when considering the entire life cycle of a property.”

The figures have also added up for the company Neukom Marzolo. Although the initial investments in the KSA construction project itself do not enable quick profits in the short term, the reference of the prestigious new hospital building and the now two years of experience in digital planning and construction have already led to further major contracts. “We can feel how much demand there is for expertise in digital planning and construction,” says Pasquale Esposito. “With our expertise, we can now set ourselves apart from the competition. From those who still do not dare to take the next digital step.”