Brisbane Airport Terminals
- Category
- Digital Twin
- Location
- Brisbane Airport, QLD
- Client
- Brisbane Airport Corporation
- Awards
- Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Award (Queensland): Spatial Enablement
The brief
Giving one of Australia's busiest transport hubs a spatial foundation for what its next bold phase
Brisbane Airport was preparing for major upgrades to its Domestic and International terminals. Its design team needed accurate 3D spatial data to plan with, and the airport's long-term goal was a Digital Twin that would support decisions across terminal planning, maintenance, border security, emergency response, and building and tenancy management.
Both terminals had to stay fully operational throughout. That meant a complete capture of two live working environments, delivered to a fixed three-month deadline, with minimal disruption to passengers, terminal staff and tenant businesses. Design work on the future upgrade also needed to continue while the survey was underway, so models had to reach the design team progressively as scanning progressed.
How we did it
The method had three parts: laser scanning of both terminals, a scanning program shaped by the people who work in them, and a modelling workflow that ran in step with capture.
Laser scanning across both terminals
We captured the Domestic and International terminals with laser scanning and built 3D models from the scan data. The result was a Digital Twin and BIM model, giving the airport a single, accurate spatial record for design and asset management.
Planning around the people who use the terminals
Airport terminals are complex working environments, so works were scheduled flexibly. We consulted the client, key stakeholders and the business owners operating in each terminal before scanning began, which kept disruption to the public, terminal staff and tenants to a minimum. More than 8,000 individual scans were completed in three months, meeting the predetermined deadline.
Delivering models while scanning continued
Modelling ran alongside scanning. We prepared, produced and delivered 3D models for completed areas while the team scanned the rest of the terminals, so the client’s design work on the future upgrade carried on without waiting for the full dataset.
The outcomes
- +8000
- Laser Scans
- 3
- months delivery
- 2
- Live terminals
- 1
- Digital Twin & BIM model
Captured across the Domestic and International terminals
Completed on time, in full
Scanned while both stayed fully operational
Built from actual 3D spatial data for design and asset management
Scanning finished on time with little disruption to the public, terminal staff or tenant businesses, and airport operations carried on as normal. The design team received models as each area was completed, so work on the future upgrade never paused.
Awards & Recognition
Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Award (Queensland): Spatial Enablement
This project was recognised in the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, with the judges praising the scale and variability of the project, in addition to praising the high-quality representation it allows.
““The BAC Digital Twin project has provided the foundation that will spatially enable one of Australia’s busiest transport hubs to become a world-class asset and allow alignment with industry best practice. The project enables data-based decisions and paves the way to transform the way the business operates, using state of the art planning and visualisation with actual 3D spatial data to inform everything from terminal planning, service and maintenance, enhanced border security, emergency response to building and tenancy management.””
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