Transforming the Built Environment
How CORENET X will help improve speed, efficiency and realise greater innovation
Any new technology requires the buy-in of the various stakeholders throughout a project. The construction industry, due to its labour intensive, complex and siloed nature, is often slow to adopt new methods in the way buildings are designed, constructed, and used. However, there is no denying that Construction 4.0 — the digitalisation of the industry — is upon us, and will lead to many significant benefits for the industry and the built environment.
In broad terms, digitalisation, such as the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM), has the potential to improve efficiency and sustainability throughout a project’s value chain, reducing the time required for various processes, reducing resource consumption and mistakes, and facilitating the real-time sharing and dissemination of the highest level of information. This in turn will foster greater innovation and global competitiveness for the industry as a whole.
One key area that stands to benefit significantly is the process of obtaining regulatory approvals from all the statutory boards and their stipulated national standards during the planning and design stages. This is often a long drawn-out process fraught with various re-submissions to resolve conflicting issues amongst various different agencies. To address this is CORENET X, the latest initiative by the Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore. Launched in end 2023, CORENET X is the world’s first digitalised portal for construction, and is a key-driver of Singapore’s efforts to be a world class digital hub.
The benefits of CORENET X
CORENET X will change the current practice of requiring different consultants to deal separately with their respective regulatory agencies into one where the entire project team will first jointly produce a coordinated BIM model before submission to the various respective agencies for review. The agencies will then review the submission collectively, and provide a consolidated response to the project team.
The existing system of approvals involves up to 20 different touchpoints across various agencies across a project’s lifecycle. CORENET X streamlines this down to only three primary submission gateways: the Design Gateway, the Construction Gateway and the Completion Gateway. This will enable cross-agency issues and conflicts to be identified and resolved more efficiently, and will provide significant time savings of up to 20-25%.
The significance of CORENET X cannot be understated — as a one-stop integrated ‘digital shopfront’ leveraging digital technologies, it aims to transform regulatory approvals into a leaner, more coordinated and efficient process, providing significant savings in time and resources for all stakeholders. This will allow for greater innovation and sustainability, ultimately making the built industry more competitive globally.
A key technological enabler of the CORENET X portal is the requirement of a coordinated BIM model that is based on openBIM and the open standard Industry Foundation Classes Singapore (IFC-SG) format. IFC is an open, neutral standard to describe the built environment, while IFC–SG is the localised IFC data model adapted to meet local regulatory needs. What this boils down to is interoperability—with information being stored in a standardised data structure, models can be used, analysed and further developed consistently across different applications and platforms.
The Tekla ecosystem for CORENET X submissions
As IFC-SG compliant models are a core requirement of CORENET X, organisations seeking to upskill their teams to prepare for CORENET X submissions can benefit from Tekla’s range of solutions, resources and support options. The Tekla ecosystem allows for an optimised workflow for each step, from modelling to IFC-SG data transfer, right up to the CORENET X submission.
Design and analysis can be done with Tekla Structural Designer which seamlessly combines design and analysis in one single-model based process. These models can then be imported to Tekla Structures, which fully supports the IFC-SG standard and the creation of IFC-SG compliant models. Tekla Structures is also compatible with a diverse array of other structural analysis and design software.
Once an IFC-SG model has been created from Tekla Structures, it can be checked with Trimble’s IFC-SG model checker that provides a simple methodology to ensure that there is no missing or invalid data. The IFC-SG model checker is part of Trimble Connect, which is an OpenBIM collaboration platform, allowing users to easily validate any IFC-SG model from any industry recognised BIM authoring platform aside from Tekla Structures.
The Tekla ecosystem
Finally, to help organisations prepare themselves for CORENET X submissions, a range of training programmes, online resources and local assistance are also available to ensure a smooth and successful integration process.
How to get started on CORENET X submissions
To know more about IFC-SG and optimising CORENET X submission with Tekla products:
visit Tekla IFC-SG resource centre
About CORENET X
CORENET X is a joint effort led by BCA and URA with various other public agencies to bring about greater collaboration and productive workflows for both the industry and public agencies, complementing ongoing efforts on Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD), which is a key component of the Built Environment Industry Transformation Map. Launched in end 2023, CORENET X will be rolled out progressively and eventually replace the current CORENET system.
For more information on CORENET X, visit Building and Construction Authority CORENET X webpage.