BIM is being implemented in the creation of a biodome for recreating the rain forest atmosphere of African Congo, at a zoo in England.

London based Proctor and Matthews have taken up the project of building a momentous biodome inside Chester Zoo in the northern part of England. This dome will house most of the major rain forest habitats found in the African Congo. AECOM Technology is taking care of all sorts of engineering services for the biodome, including, electrical, fire, acoustics, mechanical, electrical, lighting, structural, civil and environmental studies. Proctor and Matthews is working as the sub-consultant to AECOM for the project.

AECOM Technology Corporation is a recognized name in the field of management and technical support services for both commercial clients and governments in different countries of the world. This company has recently announced that they have taken refuge to the BIM or Building Information Modeling technology for the designing, analyzing and prototyping of the "Heart of Africa Biodome".
The construction process will take around US$351-million. This one is a big project with big budget, so waste and time management is a necessity for the same.

Steven Ferguson, the associate director of the building engineering discipline at AECOM said that usage of advanced 3D technologies to implement BIM environment, clubbed with their professional knowledge and experience has made the task of the project team for designing, much easier. He added that, the collaborative process of finding the peak of form for grid shell required constant communication between the engineering team of AECOM and the architects.

The final form of the dome has been designed keeping in mind several other factors, such as, structural efficiency of it, effective usage of daylight, internal environment and aesthetic sense of the beholders. BIM modeling is definitely going to help the constructors in dealing with so many things together.

The 112 feet high geodesic canopy has been created by a "gridshell", which is a diagonal grid structure. A hefty amount of US$101.5 million is going to be spent on the dome. The gridshell is a frame-work created with hollow steel sections put in a triangular pattern. These beams will be supporting numerous transparent, light-weight pillows of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE). These ETFE pillows will be suspended between the steelworks. Proper BIM modeling prior to commencement of work will help in smooth execution of all these procedures.

The unique temperature control system at the biodome will ensure a proper heat recovery system that will accumulate heat. Then this heat will be distributed to under-ground thermal water tank. During night this heat is used for controlling internal temperature of the dome. According to the studies by AECOM, the ETFE pillows will ensure a light admittance level of around 77%. In fact, this will be enough for the plant inhabitants of the dome.