"For more than 15 years, Metropolis has been working in the field of architectural and construction design; over the years, almost 500 projects have been completed for buildings and structures of various functional purposes. Our main specialization is general design in partnership with the best international and Russian companies in the civil engineering segment. We work on projects at all stages of design - Concept, Design Documentation, Tender Documentation, Working Documentation, Designer Supervision and Technical Audit. Our team consists of 380 people in three Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan.

We have long passed the stage when we made a decision whether we need BIM. Already in 2015, the complexity and uniqueness of the designed objects pushed us to use the latest technologies, advanced design methods that exist both in world and domestic practice. We cannot ignore the fact that customer requests for such a service were the catalyst for the implementation of information modeling technologies in our company, and we decided to increase our competitiveness by participating in the digitalization process.

The implementation of BIM is our strategic, not an impulse decision; it required material, time and emotional resources from the company. The laborious and expensive implementation process has brought results: today, 100% of the projects that come into our work are implemented using BIM technologies. In their work, Metropolis engineers use more than 30 specialized software systems and in practice have assessed the capabilities and advantages of the OpenBIM concept. Our technical solutions have won a high reputation and are recognized by industry professionals, awarded with Russian and international awards.

In Russia, the use of digital technologies is gradually becoming widespread. For several years now, most of our company's projects have been undergoing the Moscow State Expertise, Glavgosexpertiza of Russia in electronic form, among them there are truly iconic objects: the Rhythmic Gymnastics Palace of Irina Viner Usmanova, the Luzhniki Water Sports Palace, the Choreographic Academy in Sevastopol, the Moscow Clinical Scientific Practical Center named after A.S. Loginov, a number of high-rise and unique buildings that form the modern recognizable image of Moscow.

Based on our own experience and the experience of colleagues in the industry, it can be stated that in addition to the high cost of implementing BIM design technologies, the shortage of qualified personnel is the main obstacle hindering the development of the construction industry.

Realizing that BIM technologies are developing dynamically, and in order to keep abreast of the most promising solutions, our company's specialists participate in various forums and exhibitions held both in Russia and abroad.

The events of 2020 offered us to solve a number of non-standard cases - for example, during a pandemic and a remote work mode, our company was not ready to consider compromises in terms of quality - flexible working conditions should not reduce labor productivity and quality of customer service, it should support teamwork. To do this, we have performed and successfully tested a number of measures to transfer activities to the digital space: raised the speed of Internet channels; deployed a system of remote access for employees to their work computers; increased the security and stability of remote connections; developed new rules for the company's firewall, a system for the secure exchange of documents, files and data, which guarantees the confidentiality and safety of information resources, etc.

The Metropolis company is interested in attracting both mature professionals and young specialists to cooperation and is ready to identify talented young students who may become members of our team in the future.

Since 2018, we have been cooperating with the leading industry specialized universities of the country and practice holding professional case championships - competitions for student teams in solving practical problems based on a real project. Our company initiates this kind of competition, since it is a global educational trend that helps participants develop their skills (soft skills and hard skills), and employers personally get acquainted with talented young people.

For several years of work in the direction of "Information modeling of city objects", students of the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov, Voronezh State Technical University were involved in the competitive process, and these are more than 50 teams with 380 participants. The participants were given 5 weeks to solve the cases. At the first stage, the participants were required to distribute roles in the team in accordance with the assignment and carry out the project as it happens in real time. The development of each section was accompanied by both specialists-curators of the direction from the Metropolis company and university professors.

The practice of such competitions is aimed at developing the competencies of young specialists in non-academic projects and preparing them for working conditions in a real project organization. Based on the results of the case championships, Metropolis invites teams of winners, as well as distinguished participants for an internship, where students can be involved in the company's processes together with working employees.

Cooperation with industry universities, such as MGSU and SPbGASU, serves to accelerate the rate of implementation of BIM technologies in the field of Russian construction design, as well as to develop a unified base of standards and competencies.

It is obvious that information modeling is already firmly embedded in the educational programs of universities, the scientific paradigm of the modern researcher, and in the professional life of designers".

Read the material on the Moscow Perspective website.