Digital twins bring construction projects to life

The software company Nomoko creates so-called digital twins for construction projects that map municipalities or cities and their construction projects. With a digital map of Switzerland, Nomoko also provides the industry with a map-based search engine for real estate. It contains details on location, legal status, market performance and development potential for all properties.

For building projects of municipalities and cities to meet with acceptance among the population, clear communication and tangible visualisations are needed.

The municipality of Fällanden also wanted to better present the spatial planning of a public area by means of visuals. For some time, those responsible had been planning the renovation of the town hall as well as a new meeting place in the centre that would give public life a little more space in the open air.

For this purpose, the municipality of Fällanden engaged the planning and architectural firm Suter von Känel Wild AG (SKW), which in turn engaged the Zurich software developer Nomoko to visualise the construction projects in Fällanden.

5200high-resolution images of Fällanden
After Nomoko had been instructed by the architecture firm and provided with flight permission and the best possible launch positions for their drones by the municipality, their crew started their rotors at the beginning of June 2022 and flew over an area of almost three square kilometres with the WingtraOne drone, shooting around 5200 high-resolution images from a bird’s eye view.

With the data, they returned to their offices in Zurich Altstetten, where the 3D designers converted the photos into a so-called digital twin of the municipality. A digital twin is a digitally accessible 3D model of a specific area. SKW also created models of the planned buildings and renovations, and Nomoko implemented them in the digital Fällanden of today.

Digital twins simulate building projects
On the deadline date, the community leaders together with SKW presented the centre planning at a public workshop. The participants were mainly residents of the municipality. The high-resolution, photo-realistic 3D model and the possibility of simulating different light irradiations and weather situations in particular met with positive feedback.

Reusable and digitally accessible
However, the full value of the digital twin will only be revealed in the future. Whereas in the past a new, physical 3D model had to be built for every single construction project, in future every other project can be illustrated on the same digital twin.

Working with digital twins has various advantages:

• Digital twins simplify communication between clients, architects, construction companies and residents, and lead to a uniform perception of the project at an early stage. This facilitates negotiations and speeds up discussions.
• Compared to physical models, digital twins are reusable and can be adapted as required. They require little memory and take up no storage space.
• Web-based tools make it possible to access and view digital twins easily on the internet without special skills or programmes.

Digital twin of Switzerland for the real estate industry
In addition to customised services for individual construction projects, Nomoko provides a platform that combines a digital twin of the whole of Switzerland with a smart search engine for real estate. This makes it possible, for example, to search cities by address or district, to display properties within the radius of a set point or to filter properties according to project criteria. Details on location, legal status, market performance and development potential are listed for each property.

Text: Antonia Janina Fischer, Bilder: nomoko.world