Student union hostel

About the project

An occupied building with out-of-date records

An architecture practice was appointed to refurbish a 1970s student union hostel: new bathrooms, upgraded services and reconfigured common rooms across six floors. The only existing drawings were incomplete paper records that no longer matched the building.

The client had a registered laser scan and needed an accurate model to design in, plus measured drawings for the planning and building control submissions.

What we delivered

LOD 300 BIM model
Floor plans for all levels
Full-height sections
Elevations of every facade
Model-to-scan deviation report
Measured drawing sheet set

Records that no longer matched
Decades of alterations had moved walls, openings and service risers since the original drawings.
Students in residence
The design team could not keep returning to site to check dimensions.
A fixed design start
The model had to be ready five weeks after the scan was handed over.
Uneven, older construction
Out-of-plumb walls and sloping floors had to be fitted honestly, not idealised.
Areas the scan could not see
Locked rooms and ceiling voids left gaps that had to be flagged clearly.
The client's own standards
Everything had to follow the practice's BIM template and title block.

Our process

From point cloud to drawing set in six steps

How the five-week programme ran, from receiving the scan to issuing the final sheets.

01
Scan check
Registration, coverage and file formats checked on receipt.
02
Scope & set-up
LOD, levels, grids and tolerance agreed; client template loaded.
03
Modeling
Architecture and structure modeled floor by floor against the scan.
04
Weekly review
Each finished floor shared with the client for comment.
05
QA & deviation check
Independent review of the model against the point cloud.
06
Drawings & handover
Sheets issued on the client's title block, editable and print-ready.

Our solution

The point cloud as the single source of truth

Scope, levels and tolerance were agreed on day one, then the building was modeled floor by floor so the client could review early and start designing on the lower floors first.

0+Alterations found
0Return site visits
0 wksScan to handover

Modeled to the scan
Every wall, slab and opening placed against the point cloud, with each difference from the old records logged.
Floor-by-floor delivery
Lower floors were handed over first, so design work started while upper floors were still being modeled.
Weekly reviews
Questions were answered while modeling was under way, not after handover.
Deviation checks
The finished model was compared back against the scan, with unseen areas clearly marked.
Client template throughout
Families, view templates and title blocks followed the practice's standards from the start.
Drawings ready to submit
Measured drawings went into the planning submission without redrawing.