Bureau Greisch is engaged in ongoing collaborations with several Universities and Research institutes. Its team welcomes future graduates, who take part in leading-edge research and development of its software. Several of its senior staff teach in academic institutions, helping to train the engineers and architects of the future.
With its knowledge of how construction companies are structured and where their potential lies, Bureau Greisch is able to participate in the execution of a host of innovative and unusual projects. It draws on all available techniques and endeavours to perfect them or simplify their application. Full integration of the construction constraints and methods involved into the design is a key factor to all new approaches.
For example, a bridge is by definition a means to cross something. Its construction often calls for working at height, which is difficult and dangerous. A method must be devised for carrying out all or part of this work on solid ground. This means that all or part of the structure will have to be moved to bring it into its final position. The methods chosen depend on the possibilities offered by the site, and also on the skills and tools available to the contractor.
We are experts in the use and the development of our design tools. This means we can analyse the behaviour of the most innovative structures, making use of the latest available digital techniques and continuously striving to improve them. We are therefore able to undertake special design tasks that require the skills of a consulting engineer.
Our Research and Development department works closely with the University of Liege and the National Institute for Applied Sciences in Rennes on developing structural calculation software. By developing this expertise in-house and maintaining contact with researchers, we are able to keep abreast of the latest professional developments and exploit the scientific limits of our tools. This helps us to provide a quick response to support our project teams.
FINELg is our star calculation tool. The software was originally developed as part of various doctoral theses based on the finite element method, and Bureau Greisch has been improving and refining it since the early 1990s. It is used to study the behaviour of structures of all types, comprising bars, beams, membranes, plates, shells and volumes. It can equally well handle linear and non-linear geometric and mechanical, static and dynamic behaviour (spectral analysis and stochastic loading). Both the plasticity of steel and the cracking of concrete can be modelled, along with structures that evolve during construction, and creep and shrinkage of concrete. The interaction between the loading and the structures can also be analysed.
Based on the conviction that sustainability and cost-efficiency go hand-in-hand, our energy unit, Neo-Ides, aims to offer a full range of tools and services for optimising the energy performance and environmental performance of buildings.
A heliostat is a device used to reflect sunlight towards a predetermined fixed point. It can bring natural light to a part of the building that receives no direct sunlight.
In the application illustrated, natural light is brought into a car park by a set of three mirrors that direct the sunlight to the desired spot.
The first mirror captures the natural rays of the sun. It turns to continuously follow the path of the sun to provide a constant supply of light to the second mirror. This second mirror reflects the light onto a third mirror, which in turn provides a permanent free source of light for the car park.
Our energy unit provides integrated monitoring of buildings. It collates data from a network of sensors placed in situ and processes them via a computer platform that incorporates simulation calculations of the building. The aim is to provide a detailed, continuous, predictive analysis of the behaviour of the building (consumption and comfort obtained).
This in-house service enables us to provide continuous advice and assistance to the client in the management of its building based on the analyses performed.
The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assesment Method (BREEAM) is an internationally recognized method of environmental certification. This method aims to extend the studies of construction projects to the aspects of sustainability, comfort and reduction of the impact on the environment.
The method studies nine different categories: management, comfort and well-being, energy, transport, water, materials, waste, land use and ecology, pollution. It allows to assign to a building project, a masterplan or an existing building, a score that reflects its performance in relation to these themes.
Besides the approvals required for the certification of Master Plan (BREEAM Communities) and new buildings (BREEAM International New Construction), Neo-Ides now holds the certification to certify existing buildings (BREEAM In Use).
The latter method has three components to study the performance of the existing asset and how it is managed and occupied. This certification and the level of performance attached to it make it possible to manage, for example, a portfolio of buildings under the prism of these themes and to make informed choices about future investments.
Further information on the BREEAM in use can be found here:
BREEAM
BREEAM-In-Use-Brochure – Sept 2016