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The 2022 and nineth Trivarsity workshop was hosted by ISEP Porto. Over the years, the workshop has expanded and this year there were over 140 students from five institutes from across Europe: South East Technological University (SETU), Copenhagen School of Design & Technology (KEA), Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) and Wrocław University of Science and Technology (PWR).

Trivarsity video

Inter-disciplinary nature of digital construction

The workshop gave students an insight into the inter-disciplinary nature of digital construction in practice through the vehicle of the BIM (Revit) modelling and associated Building Information software / analytical tools, cost plans etc. They worked in 15 interdisciplinary teams to tackle the design of a 70M tall multi-use building on the south bank of the river Douro at Gaia. Each team had their own site which were all linked together to form a new urban area.

Student collaboration

Students worked collaboratively in the cloud throughout the project using industry leading tools and platforms. The prelude to the workshop consisted of group lectures across the five institutes online.

Students then set up and organise their groups on the common data environment (CDE) Autodesk Construction Cloud and MS Teams. This workflow continued during the physical workshop and post workshop further costing and visualisation exercises took place.

The students contributed their design, estimating and environmental analytical skills to the groups to get a better understanding of the roles of different disciplines in the execution of a simulated construction project: specifically those of the architectural Technologist, energy & services engineering, structural engineer, the QS (Quantity Surveyor) and the construction project manager.

This required role-play of 15 groups of circa 10 student with each group having a mix of disciplines and students working both physically and some remotely online from their parent institutes.

Thanks to our hosts in ISEP for an excellent Trivaristy, the highlight for many was the Arrabida Bridge arch climb and the ongoing collaboration of students and staff.

Participating institutes and courses

South East Technological University (SETU)

Copenhagen School of Design & Technology (KEA)

  • Construction Management & Architectural Technology

Sheffield Hallam University (SHU)

  • Architectural Technology

Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP)

  • Structural Engineering

Wrocław University of Science and Technology (PWR)

  • Structural Engineering