2017 has been a great year for the construction industry, especially for the field of MEP Engineering. The year saw MEP engineers undertake new challenges and overcome them successfully to drive the construction industry towards global sustainability and building performance.
MEP engineering consultants in Dubai have worked towards developing green buildings and their work reflected factors like use of renewable energy sources, water conservation, minimum solid waste, etc.
The Development of Sustainability on the MEP Front
The overall scenario of MEP services in construction is changing rapidly. MEP consultants are seen working more on the use of environmentally favourable products and reducing the impact of the building on the environment.
The revolution towards sustainability was a must and it has been initiated successfully. Buildings in UAE have already started taking their steps towards achieving complete sustainability for new projects as well as in retrofitting and refurbishment.
As of 2018, several new trends are forecast to be seen in the construction industry. The new year is expected to usher in a new era of advanced technological use for design and modelling in construction.
MEP Trends for 2018 in Dubai
So, without further ado, here are some of the main trends that will dominate the MEP sector of the construction industry in Dubai in 2018.
- Zero Energy Emission Buildings
MEP Engineers have already started designing near zero and even zero energy buildings. These buildings would consume only that much net renewable energy in a year as much at it can produce. The trend that started in Europe is seen to be strongly used in the UAE and other countries.
- Value Engineering
Value Engineers are hired to determine whether a certain product gives the value of the cost invested in it. If not, the product is immediately replaced by another that functions better for the requirements. Demand for value engineers is expected to rise in 2018.
- Pre-Fabrication
Pre-fabrication has helped the speed of the construction largely as whole parts of the project are built in an altogether different place and transported later at the final site. The one drawback of this method is that it can only be achieved in areas with advanced transportation services.
- 3D and 5D BIM Modelling
Advancement in technology has helped BIM Modelling to a great extent. Nowadays, experts prefer 3D Models over the traditional 2D Models. 3D Models give a far better approach towards how the Mechanical, Plumbing and Electrical arrangements are going to take place in a design.
5D modelling is another advancement over the 3D Model, wherein, the owner and the project stakeholders get an estimate of the actual working of the project with respect to information and cost in a visually communicative way.
2018 expects to see greater use of these technologies than ever before. MEP consultants in Dubai will be able to utilize the projected thermal maps and emission footprints for a project to come up with the most optimum building design in compliance with the Al SAFAT regulations.
- Automation on Construction Sites
Construction has reached a whole new level of precision and perfection as unmanned robots replace the tedious human labour. In cities blessed with advanced technology in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, even supervisory robots have been installed. Simple construction machines include brick laying machines and stone work machines.
- Integrating Mobile Technology
Cell phones have helped the speed and precision of reporting on construction sites greatly. Supervisors need not keep going here and there all the time as the same work can be achieved remotely through phones.
- Completing the Feedback Loop
A lot of potentially sustainable projects were undertaken in 2017. However, 2018 will see how they turn out. The New Year would give a complete idea whether the feedback of the users and owners is positive enough. This feedback would help determine future projects and the process of maintenance and installation of the projects and other things.
In addition, the current trend is to harmonize the design process, with the contractors, consultants, and architects working in tandem to provide the best building design. As a result, the problems arising due to incomplete information transfer are expected to be largely eliminated.
There have been a lot of changes in the working of the construction industry in the recent past and the trends that would be seen in the coming year reflect this.
The future trends are anticipated to impact MEP design in Dubai in the residential as well as in the commercial buildings in Dubai. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that 2018 will surely see the world guided laser-focused towards the sustainability in the construction sector.