EPISODE 1: LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE

From the start of the project, the Dassault Systèmes City design team wanted this new tower to be an organic part of Paris, meeting the city’s challenges and help advance its sustainable objectives.

Sustainable urban development has entered a new era, impacted by demographic and regulatory pressures, climate change, and a new scale of difficult-to-predict short and long-term challenges. Cities are putting sustainable urban planning at the heart of their agendas, and must increasingly satisfy rapidly evolving citizen expectations for a better life in resilient and attractive surroundings. 

The success of this agenda depends on cities’ ability to overcome critical issues. These include reducing CO2 emissions, limiting the consumption of building materials, improving water management and waste management systems, and developing reliable and safe urban transport networks. 

In the context of Paris, the Dassault Systèmes design team in charge of the new tower considered the following sustainability drivers:

•    Limiting CO2 emissions and consumption of natural resources
•    Contributing to fighting urban heat islands
•    Developing aesthetically pleasing designs
•    Engaging with citizens’ needs

Considering these challenges, the concept chosen for the new tower was a “Vertical Garden”, meeting Paris’ ambition to become a safe, smart, and sustainable city, and offer a better quality of life to its inhabitants. 

Key to the development process was Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE® platform. The solution provides a digital environment that enables cities and territories to create value for their citizens, reducing cost and risk, and putting sustainability at the core of operations.

To start the project, our team of experts created, in the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform, a virtual twin of the new tower. This virtual twin leverages consistent and comprehensive sets of data (including 3D modeling and simulation) to build what-if scenarios, using data from across silos, and including both internal and external stakeholders. 

Furthermore, it provides a common and secure workplace where all parties can engage with each other and with the project as it evolves. Work takes place within clear guidelines, and ensures reliable review processes and compliance with data policies.

Using simulations, the Dassault Systèmes team could analyze the impact of parameters like the building’s height on the neighborhood in terms of shadow, airflow, and its potential role as a heat island. The water consumption needs of the tower’s vegetation were also modelled, helping further promote sustainable operations.

All of this was enabled by the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform, which enabled the design team to: 

1.    Understand the initial situation and how to tackle the challenges by aggregating and analyzing up-to-date data from a wide range of sources across the value chain. 
2.    Design the future tower, analyzing the relevance of impact and cost of different construction scenarios by using a virtual twin of the project and a virtual twin of the city.
3.    Drive collaboration with the virtual twin – a single source of truth accessible to all stakeholders and organizations: architects, designers, urban planners, local authorities, suppliers, and citizens. 
4.    Clearly communicate information about why decisions were made, and what value they brought, to all relevant stakeholders on the project.

The virtual twin also tackles silos and allows teams to share data, collaborate with ease, and monitor the implementation of the project, all in one place. This is how the virtual world improves the real world and fosters sustainability-driven decision-making.

Click below to discover how the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform allows public authorities to use a virtual twin of their city to collaborate, make decisions, and gain a better understanding of their territory.