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A project is never modelled as one file by one person. It is split into many models and documents, produced by different teams, and brought together again to coordinate. The federation strategy is the agreement on how that split works. The information container breakdown structure turns it into the volumes, levels and types that every team uses to name and plan its work.
In a federated approach, the architect, the structural engineer and the MEP engineer each produce their own model and stay responsible for it. The models share a coordinate system, so they can be overlaid in a coordination tool. Nobody edits anyone else's model. See model federation for the general idea.
What the strategy decides
| Decision | Typical answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Volumes | One per building, plus site works; large buildings split into zones or phases | Files stay workable and can be issued separately |
| Disciplines | One model per task team per volume | One owner per container |
| Levels and locations | One agreed list of level names and heights | Everyone's level 02 is the same level |
| Coordinates | One project base point and survey point, shared by all | Models line up without manual moves |
| Boundaries | Who models slabs, stairs, ceilings, openings, MEP supports | Nothing twice, nothing missing |
| Size and links | A target file size; what each model links in | Performance and fewer broken links |
One owner per container
The test of a good breakdown is simple: for any element or document, can you name the single task team responsible for it? Where two teams have a claim (the architect's floor finish and the engineer's structural slab, the architect's ceiling and the MEP engineer's services in it), the responsibility matrix decides, and the other team references the owner's element instead of modelling its own.
The architect models a four-wing hospital in a single file. By stage 4 it is several gigabytes, takes ten minutes to open and has fifteen people working in it at once. Wing C needs to be issued early for a planning condition, but the file can only be shared as a whole, with unfinished wings in it.
The federation strategy splits the hospital into one volume per wing plus the central plant and site works. Each wing is a separate container per discipline, named with its volume code. Wing C is checked, authorised and issued on its own date while the others carry on.
Where it lives, and when it is set
The lead appointed party proposes the federation strategy and breakdown in the tender BEP, so the client can see how the work will be organised. It is confirmed during mobilisation, before the first model is shared. From then on, its codes appear in every container name (naming) and its containers are the rows of the TIDPs and MIDP.
A new school has a four-storey teaching block, a single-storey sports hall, a shared basement plant room under the teaching block, and external works (car park, pitches, drainage). The task teams are architect (AR), structural engineer (ST), MEP engineer (ME) and landscape architect (LA).
- Propose the volumes and their codes.
- List the models (containers) you expect, by volume and discipline.
- Decide who models: the basement slab, the stairs, the suspended ceilings and the drainage in the car park.
Key takeaways
- The federation strategy says how the project's information is divided into separately produced models, and how those models are combined for coordination.
- The breakdown structure turns that into volumes, levels and information types, which then appear in every container's name.
- Each container has one owner; the responsibility matrix settles who models what at the boundaries (slabs, stairs, ceilings, openings).
- The lead appointed party proposes it in the tender BEP and confirms it at mobilisation; changing it later means renaming and re-planning.
Your notes
Related tool
Plan every information deliverable per task team, with document numbers and milestones, and roll up the MIDP.
Open TIDP / MIDP Planner →