Innovation
GSE’s Lab
Created in 2016, “le Lab” is GSE’s innovation department. Comprising mostly engineers and architects, it focuses on four key themes: environmental transition, Building Information Modelling, digital innovation, and user comfort & wellbeing.
Energy and environmental transition
The Lab helps clients speed up their energy and environmental transition by offering them increasingly energy-efficient buildings. This approach can also increase external recognition and market value thanks to environmental certificates and labels.
In the past decade, our Environmental Certification Department has arranged certificates for over 95 projects (received and pending). Over time, we acquired the project management skills and technical knowledge required to obtain all levels of certification: BREEAM, HQE®, LEED, as well as energy labels such as BEPOS (positive energy building), BiodiverCity® and Osmoz (comfort). Our loyal clients appreciate our professionalism, which produces more efficient buildings, with costs and deadlines that meet their requirements.
GSE’s environmental strategy is to stay ahead of regulatory developments, improve our buildings’ energy performance and user comfort, and reduce the environmental footprint of the construction work itself.
Smart buildings
Within the Lab, a team is dedicated to designing smart buildings. Building automation and home automation applied to commercial premises can provide users with innovative digital services.
Our Smartbuilding team’s engineers suggest solutions for the building of the future, connected and communicating. This involves making all the building’s information “cloud ready” (including the Building Operating System), so it can be among the first to integrate new digital services.
GSE’s EnerGiSE service analyses a building’s energy’s consumption as well as air quality and advises on how to optimise it. The purpose is to make better use of resources and to ensure maximum user comfort (temperature, air quality, etc.).
BIM for optimised design
The Lab’s expertise maximises the quality and speed of design, thanks to innovative digital tools. In 2019, more than 60% of GSE projects were carried out using BIM (Building Information Modeling).
GSE provides its clients with a digital model of the building and a database containing all the project characteristics. GSE also offers to create a “digital twin” of the building, which shows that the final building remains true to the design.
Originally created for design purposes, BIM is also useful for the operation of the building, once it has been delivered: it connects to the Building Management System (BMS) and facilitates the use of connected data and tools (Smartbuilding).
Digital innovation on the construction site
The Lab explores all avenues to harness the latest digital technologies for construction and buildings. For example, the integration of construction site plans and BIM models on tablets makes it easier for engineers to work on site. Another exciting step forward is the 360° image capture on construction sites, which makes it possible to monitor their progress, share information with off-site engineers and check the models as built. We also use drones to monitor compliance with models and make videos for clients.
Digital technologies are useful during the handover of buildings. An application enables us to process reservations digitally on a tablet: they are located, identified by a photo, handled by the contractors, while we monitor progress and share with the client.
Design and layout of premises
The Lab’s architects and designers are experts in creating more comfortable workplaces. They rethink space based on new ways of working and operating, which contributes to employee wellbeing while conveying the company’s values.
The latest technologies make it possible to take ownership of the future facilities right from the design phase, thanks to immersive virtual tours that are true to reality. In fact, GSE has developed a configurator to assist clients in their interior design choices with 3D immersion in the future buildings.
The dedicated design team adapts and innovates to create value and improve workplace wellbeing through personalised support and innovative solutions in terms of temperatures, lighting, acoustics, as well as air quality within the building.
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