One Office, One Model: The Benefits of 3D Design and Multidisciplinary Collaboration

We often emphasize that STUDIO IN-EX is a multidisciplinary design studio where almost every design discipline is represented under one roof. Our colleagues experience the benefits of this setup every day: designers from different disciplines work together within a shared closed BIM environment, side by side in the same office. But what are these benefits in practice? We spoke to Lilla Vámos, one of our low-voltage systems designers, about her experiences.

Lilla joined the company in 2025 with 10 years of design experience gained at previous design and construction companies. While her professional expertise was never in question, she had previously worked exclusively in a 2D CAD design environment. This gave us the idea to look at the often-mentioned benefits of working in a BIM environment from her perspective.

How much did you know about BIM when you applied to IN-EX?

Lilla: It wasn’t necessarily a deciding factor for me that the company worked in a BIM environment. It did make me think a little because I had no experience with it. I knew that BIM existed, basically. About 10–15 years ago, I attended a presentation where they said it would really take off within five years, but somehow Hungarian design offices didn’t make the switch quite as rapidly as predicted. That’s about all I knew. The whole open BIM versus closed BIM thing was completely unfamiliar to me. I had seen that at my previous company there was a colleague who worked with 3D, but it wasn’t nearly as advanced or integrated as it is here.

IN-EX places a strong emphasis on the onboarding process. Do you remember your first week, when you started getting familiar with BIM and Revit?

Lilla: At first, I was worried about whether I would be able to open everything correctly, whether I would click in the right place, whether I would accidentally open something I shouldn’t, or what would happen if I couldn’t open the model at all.

Then I translated it in my head into something that would make more sense to me by comparing it to AutoCAD. Obviously, you really learn how to use it by using it continuously. Even now, if I haven’t used it for a little while… well, I wouldn’t say I can’t open Revit, but when it comes to doing some proper filtering, I still call Zsombi or Lambert over and ask them to watch what I’m doing. (Zsombi and Lambert are our discipline designers and also provide BIM support to the team.) At the beginning, I was also really happy that when new people joined the company, I could sit in on their onboarding sessions. It gave me a chance to go through the basics again as a refresher, and that helped a lot.

And beyond Revit, how do you see the BIM environment as a whole?

Lilla: One thing I find particularly useful at the company is our developer breakfast, where we can have informal conversations with our software development colleagues. One of these conversations really made me realize just how different this system is. How much work goes on behind the scenes to make Revit work the way it does.

Listening to the BIM team, I realized that it’s almost like being given a blank canvas, with all the colors and paints available, and being able to create whatever you want on it, however you want. That’s probably the closest analogy I could make. Because of this, the development/BIM support side of things seemed a little strange to me at first: we open Revit, there are all these add-ins, models need to be separated, clashes need to be resolved, and there are all these other processes. And now I’ve realized that they are basically programming all the time. It’s a classic case of “I knew it, but I didn’t realize it.” I only found out last week just how much of a blank canvas this actually is, and that they are the ones constantly maintaining it at a level that allows us to use it every single day. So, hats off to them!

If you had to highlight a few key things: what have you learned over the past year that was new to you as a designer and that you learned here at IN-EX? And what do you think is the biggest advantage of BIM?

Lilla: Without a doubt, I consider 3D to be the biggest advantage of BIM.

For example, when designing a fire alarm system, it is extremely important to know exactly where a building is sectioned in a drawing. In 2D design, this was a constant problem. Of course, there were sections of the building, but naturally they were never exactly where I needed them.

At first, I created a lot of sections in Revit, but I eventually stopped doing that because in 3D I can simply look at the model and take measurements directly. I see this as a huge advantage. The other thing is that if you know how to filter properly, you can detect clashes with electrical or mechanical systems almost immediately in certain cases. The whole system works in such a way that someone updates the model, I update it too, and I can immediately see what’s changed. From this perspective, it’s great that we don’t have to invest so much extra time and effort into looking for clashes, because everything we need is already there. So I see a major advantage in having the current design and model available immediately.

I also really appreciate the way the company handles deadlines. If the deadline is April 12, for example, the architects don’t start making changes to the design on April 12. They take the deadline seriously, close the model appropriately, and in every project I’ve worked on here so far, they have made sure that we are informed.

Exactly. Being able to see the current state of the design immediately, without having to chase people down, make phone calls or send emails, is one of the biggest advantages of working in a multidisciplinary design studio. This also brings us to the next topic: integrated design. How well does it work in practice? How do you feel about working in this environment?

Lilla: I love the fact that I can simply walk over to the electrical designers sitting ten metres away and say hello with my questions! 😊

What would you miss the most if you didn’t work here?

Lilla: If we’re talking about the actual work process, it would definitely be the integrated design approach. The fact that everyone is here under one roof. If I wanted to, I could even shout across the room to someone — but of course, I don’t. 😊

Having everyone in the same place is a huge advantage, because this was always a problem at my previous workplaces.

The construction team would say there was a new version of the design. You would check the one platform where the plans were usually stored, and there was nothing there. Then the whole process of figuring out who to call would begin. You called someone who, in turn, only found out from you that there were new plans.

Here, we can reduce this problem to a minimum. I never would have thought before that I would enjoy this so much: having everyone immediately available in one place.

And what about everything beyond the professional side?

Lilla: I really like the fact that they pay attention to people’s workload. The workload is balanced across the team — obviously according to everyone’s capabilities — and it’s not a situation where someone is constantly working until they burn out. There is some breathing room to get your own things organized or prepare for the next project. It’s a healthy cycle. That’s true within our own studio, but I see the same approach in the other studios as well, where there are enough people to make it possible. It works really well, and everyone pays attention to it as much as possible.

Is there anything you miss from the world of 2D design?

Lilla: If we’re only looking at the design process, I find 3D much simpler.

I can’t really think of anything I miss from 2D. As I said, I can see the model in 3D, so I don’t have to beg for sections — the information is immediately there. I don’t have to come up with 88 different variations for the mechanical services layout above a suspended ceiling, because I can see the actual situation in 3D. So, if we’re only looking at the design phase, there is really nothing I miss about 2D.

Could you imagine going back to a design office where there is no BIM, only traditional 2D design?

Lilla: If we’re talking exclusively about the design process, I’m not sure I could imagine going back.

Although I don’t think you can really strip the question down that far. I know there are many design offices that don’t work in 3D, but providing daily support to contractors can present a lot of challenges… But if I only look at the design process, I couldn’t go back to a place where everything is drawn exclusively in 2D. I’ve become very comfortable with 3D. I can see the building, I can see what it will look like, and I can see where and how I need to place things. I can see the benefits, and in an integrated design environment, it works really, really well.