VOLUM3

Project

268540

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS : existing completed examples

Project title

VOLUM3

Full project title

Description

Work together, create better! VOLUM3 is a collaboration platform designed to enhance the work of architects, project managers, investors, contractors, and manufacturers. It enables users to have up-to-date plans in the palm of their hand, make their teams informed about the tasks and deadlines, manage meetings, communicate with collaborators with ease, connect with manufacturers and add the product specs to the projects, quick and easy. Our official website is www.volum3.com 

Where was your project implemented in the EU?

When was your project implemented?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Which programme(s) or fund(s)? Provide the name of the programme(s)/fund(s), the strand/action line as relevant and the year.

Please provide a summary of your project

VOLUM3 is the first collaboration platform that follow construction projects from start to finish. The purpose of the platform is an innovation in the construction sector that unites all participants - architects, constructors, manufacturers, suppliers of materials and equipment, and investors, at every stage of the project. It currently has more than 1200 active users that make its project management faster and easier– making deadlines, tasks and responsibilities clearly and transparently managed.  All project information is stored in a cloud-based platform, safe and always available, making real-life workflows easily manageable and digitalized without changing them. Active modules are Plans, Tasks, Meetings, Product catalog, and Specs with the Cost estimate and Tender module currently in development.  

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met

Architecture and construction as professions lag in this respect – drawings are still delivered in binders, data is recorded on paper, and it is extremely difficult to be sure of the timeliness and accuracy of data. This profession requires digitization. For example, only one architecture studio in just one-year prints out enough paper to cover the surface of two and a half football pitches, equivalent to 1.645kg of paper, which requires cutting down 28 adult trees. Can you imagine the number of resources spent on the whole industry level?   VOLUM3 stores all project information in one cloud. All you need is one simple mobile device, computer, or tablet and a browser to use it. Simplified usage is resulting in economic savings, and environmental benefits in terms of decreased use of hazardous materials and increased energy efficiency over the life of the product. Green computing, reducing the impact of IT operation on the environment will take advantage of the capabilities and benefits of virtualization -  reduce electricity consumption,  greenhouse gas, and CO2 emissions. Usage of the platform can also benefit the sustainability of cutting paper consumption, with cost efficiency and result in a paperless office.     

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met

VOLUM3 was created with synergy and enthusiasm, from architects to architects, based on the real needs of an architectural office, in response to communication problems that arise during design and construction. It is intended for the inclusion of all parties of the construction process like architects, constructors, engineers, investors, manufacturers, and all other stakeholders involved.   Quality of the platform is confirmed with more than 1200 active users, who have expressed their experience with VOLUM3 as a system that did not change their workflow, it stayed the same as in real life, only more simplified and better,  enabling them to have multi-language communication between all registered participants, and easily follow the project details as the single point of truth. VOLUM3 is the solution for the built environment created on the interdisciplinary initiative of digitalization of the construction and architecture industry.   

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion and how these have been met

The biggest challenge in design and construction today is a collaboration between a large number of experts involved in the process, especially when you take into account the growing amount of information generated and shared by them. The professional responsibility of architects and engineers is tremendous, projects are growing more and more complex, and with them the need for timely communication and access to information. With VOLUM3 we have connected all users and project information on one platform, creating synergy and inclusion of all project collaborators, all project information is stored in a cloud-based platform, safe and always available, project management collaboration fast and easy, deadlines, tasks, and responsibilities of individual project collaborators are managed which resulted with more satisfied users and workers. The platform makes easier to include all the participants of the project. It is complex but simple enough to cover the needs and be understood by a bricklayer or engineer.     

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

Project collaborators in construction are overwhelmed with emails, busy writing minutes and reports, making phone calls, finding information that has been written somewhere, and resending and explaining details and data that already exist in an email, binder, old minutes... Things get further complicated on international projects when participants are not in the same country and do not necessarily speak the same language.   VOLUM3 gives access to a large collaborator database and the possibility of directly inviting them to cooperate on a project to all stakeholders. Plus, the usage of the platform supports sustainability, decreasing paper consumption and construction processes are easily managed from home during the corona crisis. For example, our first project- construction of the Infobip office building in Zagreb was built during the corona crisis. VOLUM3 made it possible to connect online 35 companies, 139 users, communicate 1711 tasks, 283 specifications, 283 meetings and deliver 1195 plans and 5053 files without a personal contact. It had a huge impact on decreasing the costs and resource consumption during the construction process.  

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project

VOLUM3 gives access to a large collaborator database and the possibility of directly inviting them to cooperate on a project. It means that each citizen who is building their own house or is involved in any part of the reconstruction process can use VOLUM3 as a collaboration platform for free. There is no need for additional tools, software, and various applications that require accounts, have different restrictions on use and entail educated users who must learn how to use all of them. Each person who knows how to use the computer can also use VOLUM3. Users/citizens will benefit from using the platform with better usage of information, save time writing minutes and reports, making fewer phone calls, finding information that has been written somewhere, and resending and explaining details and data that already exist in an email, binder, old minutes, and the platform will enable multi-language collaboration between all participants.  VOLUM3 also have an important role in the reconstruction process after an earthquake in Zagreb and Petrinja, allowing citizens to use the platform for free and communicate with participants during the reconstruction  process. It will result with decrease of time, and resource spending. A lot of architectural offices, retailers/suppliers/manufacturers that are using VOLUM3 showed a high ability to increase competitiveness, income, employ people, develop the company as a community of knowledge and good opportunities, develop innovation that changes the world of business primarily for architects, and for manufacturers. It is a software solution that fulfills the desires of its users and achieves the greatest benefits, not only for themselves but for participants in development, and society as a whole.   

Please highlight the innovative character of the project

VOLUM3 is a web platform - no installation required, all you need is a browser. VOLUM3 modules are digital versions of real-life workflows - there is no redundancy, everything is project-related. It does not change the users workflow. VOLUM3 gives you an extra level of security to ensure designs are correct and expectations are clear, projects won’t suffer from overruns due to corrective work in the construction phase and you will have the ability to simulate different solutions for scope changes, and budget accordingly in the preconstruction phase. With VOLUM3 we have begun to make the digital transformation of the architecture and construction companies. We are a people-oriented company which listens to the needs of the profession and implements good suggestions for system improvements. The project aims to place on the market as a product that is a novelty in the market through the adaptation of existing innovation to market requirements,  defining marketing strategies to place a new product on the market. Innovative character in this platform is the way that it is formed. Of coure there are a lot of similar solutions on the market, but none of them is conjoint in the way that VOLUM3 is, and that is a combination of the right tools to help evolve and enhance the building environment.   

Please explain how the project led to results or learnings which could be transferred to other interested parties

VOLUM3 is a web platform - no installation required, all you need is a browser. VOLUM3 modules are digital versions of real-life workflows - there is no redundancy, everything is project-related. It does not change the users workflow. VOLUM3 gives you an extra level of security to ensure designs are correct and expectations are clear, projects won’t suffer from overruns due to corrective work in the construction phase and you will have the ability to simulate different solutions for scope changes, and budget accordingly in the preconstruction phase. With VOLUM3 we have begun to make the digital transformation of the architecture and construction companies. We are a people-oriented company which listens to the needs of the profession and implements good suggestions for system improvements. The project aims to place on the market as a product that is a novelty in the market through the adaptation of existing innovation to market requirements,  defining marketing strategies to place a new product on the market. Innovative character in this platform is the way that it is formed. Of coure there are a lot of similar solutions on the market, but none of them is conjoint in the way that VOLUM3 is, and that is a combination of the right tools to help evolve and enhance the building environment.   

Is an evaluation report or any relevant independent evaluation source available?

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the Awards more than once under the same category and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.