Takenaka Corporation

Can you explain a bit about your team’s role at Takenaka?

Within the company, my team is working on promoting digital transformation (DX) in the design department. We support designers in working with BIM and various commercially available applications—such as BriefBuilder. In addition, we have developed our own proprietary BIM data platform focused on integrating and aligning the many different data flows in projects.

Our team consists of around 40 people and is divided into four groups: architectural design, structural design, mechanical/electrical/plumbing design, and model checking. So, all disciplines are represented, which enables us to take an integrated approach to BIM.

Why did Takenaka choose to use BriefBuilder?

Let me give you a bit of context.

In our projects, we are usually responsible for both design and construction, working closely with various partner companies. To facilitate collaboration between different partners, we have adopted a workflow based on openBIM, as promoted by buildingSMART, which is aimed at seamless data sharing across applications and stakeholders.

Also important to know: we work in accordance with ISO 19650, an international standard for managing data in construction projects. This standard also covers requirements management. To be compliant, we want to capture and organise the client’s requirements at the early stages of the design process and ensure that our designs meet those requirements. The BIM data created by designers must be continuously managed to ensure it reflects both the design intent and the client’s expectations.

In 2022, we were looking for a solution to support this process and came across BriefBuilder, which we judged to be a good fit for our workflow. We chose the application because we saw potential benefits in verifying IFC design data against client requirements and in being able to share this information with all stakeholders.

We want to capture and organise the client’s requirements at the early stages of the design process and ensure that our designs meet those requirements

On what kind of project(s) are you using BriefBuilder?

Projects are typically large in scale, with many spaces and requirements. Another important characteristic is the diversity of building uses. Think of mixed-use facilities, where each function comes with its own set of requirements.

For such projects, designers often spend significant time ensuring consistency between complex and extensive design information and client requirements. The risk of errors in manual checks has been a recurring challenge—and one that could potentially lead to a loss of client trust.
For this reason, we have started using BriefBuilder primarily for building types where the risk of design specification errors is high—such as mixed-use facilities, research facilities, medical facilities, and production facilities.

We use BriefBuilder primarily for building types where the risk of design specification errors is high—such as mixed-use facilities, research facilities, medical facilities, and production facilities

Can you explain a bit about your workflows and whether you encountered any challenges during the implementation of BriefBuilder?

When using BriefBuilder in a project, we follow five steps:

1. Entering client requirements into BriefBuilder
2. Entering design specifications into BIM applications (Revit, ArchiCAD, GLOOBE, etc.)
3. Verifying the correlation between client requirements and design specifications
4. Sharing the verification results internally
5. Sharing the results from step 4 with the client

Let me briefly explain each step:

The first step, capturing client requirements in BriefBuilder, is handled by dedicated data managers, as we don’t want our designers to spend time on this task. One important point: in Japan, it is uncommon to receive a complete set of client requirements at the start of a project. Requirements are often developed during the design process, with frequent additions and updates. This makes keeping the information up to date quite a demanding task.

The second step, modelling design specifications in BIM applications, is not directly affected by our use of BriefBuilder. So, there are no changes in this part of the workflow.

After that, verifying design specifications against client requirements is again the responsibility of our data managers, since it can be time-consuming. Designers then review the verification results, which usually goes smoothly.

Sharing verification results internally is the next step. This also works well, although getting used to the system took some effort, as people were used to working with Excel for this purpose.

The last step – sharing the verification results with clients – is something we are not yet doing through BriefBuilder as our clients are unfamiliar with this kind of system. However, we hope to introduce it in the future.

What is it that you like best about BriefBuilder?

For us, the most important feature of BriefBuilder is that it facilitates the verification of design specifications against client requirements. This process can be quite complex. Verification isn’t just about checking whether numbers match. Requirements can cover a wide range of topics—such as indoor climate, sustainability, or security zoning—and they can take different forms, for example “greater than,” “less than,” or a specified range. BriefBuilder helps us manage all of this in a structured and consistent way.

In addition, I particularly appreciate the following features:

• All client requirements can be digitised—no need for separate documents
• The entered data can be visualised and easily shared
• Shared content can be actively notified to relevant stakeholders
• Accumulated project data can be reused for future projects
• Templates can be created to match different project types
• Users can learn to operate BriefBuilder independently, even without architectural knowledge or BIM expertise
• Requirement data can be linked with BIM models

For us, the most important feature of BriefBuilder is that it facilitates the verification of design specifications against client requirements

Any recommendations for other potential BriefBuilder users?

I would especially recommend trying BriefBuilder for complex projects.

In our organisation, we traditionally used Excel sheets to capture and manage client requirements for such projects. These sheets were also used to establish agreements with the client. After each client meeting, the documents had to be updated—a time-consuming and error-prone process, with the risk that client intentions might not be properly documented.

BriefBuilder won’t eliminate the risk of human error, but it does give you better control over client requirements. I believe this is important for all architects. So give it a try 😊

BriefBuilder won’t eliminate the risk of human error, but it does give you better control over client requirements

Many thanks to Shouichi Senda for sharing his insights!

More information about Takenaka Corporation can be found hier