Celebrating its 90th anniversary, Kohlbecker has launched a digital twin project to increase project efficiency by 20% and achieve a carbon-neutral footprint.
The organisation – one of Europe’s biggest general planners – says its AVAT AR platform acts as a digital twin for clients and project managers at Kohlbecker to virtually interface throughout the planning and management of any given construction project.
Kohlbecker’s practices have proven to generate significant productivity increases, it says, as well as potential cost savings.
Kohlbecker’s AVAT AR technology has been used in large scale redevelopment projects with clients including a recent project for German car manufacturer Audi in Asia.
Digital tools – from machine learning to fabrication technologies, artificial intelligence to big data – have become increasingly ubiquitous and pervasive within architecture, the company says.
It adds that the architecture and engineering market is now heavily driven by technological advancements due to increasing project complexity.
Kohlbecker remains family-run, with lead principals Matthias and Florian Kohlbecker heavily invested in integrating technology – from AI and VR to robotics – into the business’s core service offering.
Florian Kohlbecker said: “Not only was travel largely impossible due to the pandemic, it was also made unnecessary by our digital way of working.
“This made it possible to orchestrate a global team and a high-performance project without any face-to-face meetings.
“In the first 13 weeks of the undertaking, more than 251,000 miles of business travel were saved, thus preventing 110 tons of CO2 emissions (the equivalent of more than 115 soccer fields of forest being saved), which would have required 35,000 trees to absorb in the same period.
“This led to the over $300k being saved as well.“
The company will be showcasing AVAT AR at the Expo 2020 Dubai, with Florian Kohlbecker being on stage to run through facts and how technology might help “save the planet”.
Today, Kohlbecker is on track to achieve a yearly revenue of over £22m.
Its lead principals, Matthias and Florian Kohlbecker (pictured), have led the business to “exceptional” growth, including year-on-year growth for the past three years despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
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