Body building

Sources close to the project tell of a huge figure slumped inside a large, domed structure next to the Thames. And they say it is being trained to allow humans to interact with it.

Being trained – maybe not; being built – yes. The Body Zone, probably the most famous of the Millennium Dome's exhibits, is taking shape. 'Special agent' Crown House Engineering has been charged with the task of installing the body's 'vital organs', its mechanical and electrical services.

Crown House's engineers are past masters at this type of thing in buildings of all shapes and sizes but the Body Zone has been a challenge of ingenuity for all of the parties involved.

To tackle this tricky installation, Crown House has employed design specialist Mill Technology. MD, and now site co-ordinator, Chris Milford has developed a 3D model of the Body Zone using a package called Navisworks from LightWork Design.

First Milford took the architectural drawings of the steelwork and converted them from flat 2D perspectives into a 3D model. This involves inputting co-ordinates for each steel member into the computer, defining where it will sit in relation to everything else on the model. Once complete, the 3D skeleton is ready to have services incorporated into it. Cable tray runs and ducting are mapped onto the skeleton and the most efficient routes selected.

This computer wizardry makes the m&e services co-ordination and installation much easier because every service route can be visualised and, if difficulties look likely, the programmer can zoom into the model, checking the position of routes and obstacles.

Engineers also benefit from the 3D modelling technology in other ways. If a problem is envisaged, an engineer can walk through, over and around the body on screen to understand exactly where the plant is to be installed. Drawings are also produced from the 3D package and instead of sectional and plan views the computer generates an image exactly like the one that you or I would see.

Milford started on the modelling program some four months before installation started on the Body Zone and he is still on site creating models of the other zones that Crown House is working on and offering support to the engineers on site.

Crown House started on site in January 1998. The supply of power to the exhibitions is part of the work. Power is taken from six core buildings dotted around the Dome to transformers and lv panels sited near the exhibitions.

At the Body Zone all of Crown House's installations start in a plant room at ground level. M&E works then pass across a link bridge into the body. Mechanical services pass up central columns to 11 ahus for supplying chilled or warm air, while stale air is taken back into the Dome via extract fans at the body's head and shoulders. The electrical works feed through a computer floor located in the body's backside – a 250 mm deep space containing four trays holding telecoms, show power, lighting and a landlord's supply.

Installing all of these services into a structure with no right angles has brought out the best in the engineers and 3D modeller. The flooring contractor's joist positions have been plotted onto the model and then m&e services are installed according to calculations taken from the floor joist layout.

The curved, twisting structure of the Body Zone is a perfect example of how 3D modelling can be put to good effect and Crown House is so pleased with it that it is being used on its other Dome contracts as well. In fact, Mick Cross, senior project foreman, wants Crown House to set up a course to train m&e operatives to read 3D drawings and be fully conversant with modelling and its uses on site. He thinks this will become a major element of Crown House's project management in the near future.

Back to the Body Zone. As Crown House engineers work, the skeleton is being covered in a grp/fibreglass mix before being finished with 200 x 200 mm flesh coloured flexible rubber tiles. The entire project is due to finish in the first two weeks in December and despite politically-fuelled wrangling early on, the Dome looks to be on course to meet the deadline. Crown House and Mick Cross are confident that this Body will be at the party on New Year's Eve.