On the site of a tobacco factory that closed in 2019, Luxembourg’s Nordstad is getting a new office and retail quarter.

Avoiding rework in MEP-heavy projects 

Jürgen Primm is Managing Director of Landimmo Real Estate. He describes the building with a great deal of technical installation to keep track of: “We have a large project in Ettelbruck with a lot of MEP spread across multiple floors including the basement levels.” 

On a project of that size, the model is coordinated; the open question is whether the building follows it. As Primm puts it, “the challenge is to clearly verify whether what is currently being installed on site still aligns with what was originally planned.” That is the check the team wanted to be able to make where the work happens: GAMMA AR was “a very good tool for assessing this directly on site.”

Seeing on site what was planned in 3D 

Jil Arend leads the project for Landimmo. The tool arrived through the BIM manager: “When our BIM manager, Drees & Sommer, presented GAMMA AR to us, it quickly became clear to me that this would be a great addition for our team.” 

What appealed to her was closing the loop between the model and the building. The point is “to simply see whether what we are planning in 3D, and seeing on the plans, is really what we find here on the construction site.” 

That check is not only for the client side. It is “a great tool for us, simply to give our planners and also our contractors the opportunity to see whether everything on site is going as it should and is being built as planned.” Planners, contractors and the owner look at the same overlay in the same room. 

Projecting the planned surface into a half-finished room shows immediately whether what is there matches the model or whether, as Primm puts it, “back there some pipe is still missing.” His verdict on that way of working: “I found that very, very efficient.” 

Model-based coordination, all the way into installation planning

Plan changes documented back directly

Planning keeps moving while a building goes up. “During planning, there are also sometimes adjustments, where things are no longer needed because other solutions have been found,” Primm notes. Historically those decisions travel slowly, and the site finds out late. 

Here the information moves with the model. Changes “could be given very quickly to the contractors within the GAMMA AR tool,” and just as importantly the traffic runs both ways, “so that plan changes could also be documented back directly.” 

The time saved shows up where the trades meet: “This means we gain a lot of time on the construction site, and a lot of efficiency at the interfaces.”

From illegible handwriting to almost real time

Set against how site checks used to run, the difference is easy to picture. “In the past, you just walked through the area with a plan and markers and illegible handwriting,” Primm recalls. The tablet was an improvement but not a solution: “the next step was the iPad, but it still always had to be sent by email or via a platform.” 

The record is made and shared in place: “Now it’s almost in real time, and very, very visual. So everyone can picture how far the planning has actually been implemented. It’s just much easier to grasp.” 

At the time of the interview the tool was in the hands of the architects and of Landimmo itself as asset owner. The next step is to put it in the hands of the people installing the work, “the contractors, and especially the MEP contractors.”

Toward a digital twin for building operation

Verifying as-built against planned pays off during construction, and it pays off again once the building is in operation. Every check that confirms the model matches reality keeps the model usable past handover, and that is what Landimmo is building toward. 

As Poss describes it, the approach “gives our customer, Landimmo, the opportunity to hand over the building model as a digital twin to the future building operator and user. With this, we can ensure the quality of the building operation.” 

For a 19,000 square meter building with two technical basement levels that will be operated for decades, a verified model is part of what gets delivered, not a by-product of construction.

About the project

Ettelbruck ONE, Ettelbruck, Luxembourg. Developer: Landimmo Real Estate, part of the Landewyck Group. Architect: BFF Architectes. Project management and BIM management: Drees & Sommer. Engineering: Jean Schmit Engineering, Schroeder et Associés. Landscape: Areal Landscape Architecture. Built on the site of the former Heintz van Landewyck tobacco factory, dismantled after its closure in 2019, one hectare, under construction since 2022. 19,000 square meters of gross floor area across two building sections of four and seven storeys, with retail on the ground floor, two underground levels holding technical systems and around 300 parking spaces, and room for up to 600 people. Certification: BREEAM. Ready for occupancy at the end of 2026. 

Read more about the project here.

The people in this story

Jürgen Primm is the Managing Director of Landimmo Real Estate, the property company of the Landewyck Group, one of Luxembourg’s oldest family businesses, founded in 1847. 

Jil Arend is the project lead at Landimmo for Ettelbruck ONE. 

Philip Poss works for Drees & Sommer in Luxembourg and has supported Ettelbruck ONE in BIM management for Landimmo since the design phase.