BuildEXT

Digitalization has made the construction industry more efficient, especially in terms of reducing energy wastage and time. Hungary and the CEE region have become attractive investment areas with a rapidly developing construction industry and an emerging regulatory environment. However, major players in this region have a hard time adapting BIM workflow, which creates a stark contrast to the BIM expectations and goals of global companies in Hungary.

Due to the above, the spread of digitalization and the increasing amount of investment needs coming from the global demand side, dynamic companies like BuildEXT has the opportunity to grab the chance to catch up to the knowledge level of foreign and local competitors. This is reinforced by the fact that BIM can provide an obvious solution to the increasing energy prices, structural unemployment, and the growing demand for a sustainable built environment.

A 14 years-old startup-type company, BuildEXT, was founded to provide a wide range of services in the building industry. “Our clients really liked this idea so slowly we got bigger and bigger requests month after month and we designed plenty of buildings, mainly in the industrial, logistic and residential sectors,” says Mr. Csaba Livjak, the CEO and Founder of BuildEXT. 2016 was a milestone year for the company as they got their first complete site development project entailing more than 30,000 m2 area, five building phases through five years, and more than 1,000 employees expected to work continuously, rotationally. The following year, BuildEXT won its first BIM project, a 9200 m2 laboratory. “We began this work with regular open BIM workflow which is normal in the Hungarian market. Few months later we realized that this building will be the biggest laboratory in Central Europe with 36 different kinds of technology and more than 400 km long pipeline.” states Mr. Livjak. BuildEXT changed all of its software and the overall workflow for this project. In many ways, it was like a great step into the unknown.

The company started to design in closed BIM and found that folks from more eager and innovative disciplines want to work and develop on very complex and large-scale projects with them. The originally one-person show soon transformed into one of Hungary’s quickest developing architecture companies. In the last five years, the revenue and the staff doubled year by year, more or less, and in 2021 they hit the magical one billion HUF revenue and got into the top leagues.

Today, BuildEXT offers a wide range of BIM services for each phase of a building’s lifecycle. “We believe that the responsibility of the architect is not over with the end of the design phase as this is against the ‘integration’ spirit of BIM,” states Mr. Livjak. They work in Autodesk Revit based BIM workflow according to the requirements and the circumstances of the project. BuildEXT’s BIM managers construct BEP in Plannerly and use Dalux services and AR technology to coordinate the design and implementation. Being early adopters, the company was the first construction company in the region with Microsoft Hololens 2 VR glasses and also was among the first architecture companies who got BIM ISO 19650 certification. “Our scan to BIM team works with Leica scanners and Leica cyclone register 360. We have pilot projects up to the 9th dimension of BIM, but we would like to still work in a complex project where we can use all of our knowledge in each phase,” says Mr. Livjak.

In a 2018 client collaboration, BuildEXT were requested by the leading German designer of Robert Bosch Ltd. to create a conceptual design for Bosch’s new headquarters in Budapest. In addition to the research laboratory and office functions, the 90,000 m2 facility would have a test track for the development of the automotive industry, an inner courtyard with an artificial pond, a parking garage, and a direct entrance connection to the KÖKI transport hub. The planned site will be connected to the existing leased development centre by a bridge over the main road separating the two plots, making the building the largest development centre in Eastern Europe in Bosch.

Such has been the prowess that BuildEXT has carved over the years by helping many clients. The company’s goal is to fully represent the interests of customers. Hence, as an integrator company, they intend to provide complete BIM design and support services throughout the entire building life cycle. To do this, BuildEXT needs to educate the market on several fronts in the following years. “On one hand, the legitimacy of BIM still needs to be recognized more and more by clients in Hungary and on the other, we also want to speed up the acquisition of knowledge of recent graduates and those already working in the profession, for which we plan to launch an education center and a series of professional lectures,” informs Mr. Livjak. Furthermore, to catch up with the entire market, BuildEXT plans to launch an “Innovation HUB” at one of its sites, where they will use R&D to promote the practical use of BIM to designers, contractors and operators. In addition, the company also aims to expand abroad and has already provided scan to BIM services to US and Scandinavian customers.