GESIM (german for GESellschaft für IMmobilienentwicklung mbH) is a university spin-off from ETH Zürich and Vienna University of Technology around Univ.Prof. Prof. h.c. Dipl.-Ing. Dietmar Wiegand and members of the Institute of Planning and Construction Management and faculty of Real Estate Development and Management.

Already in early 2000, Dietmar - at this time managing director at CRCP (Centre for Research on Communication and Planning) - was researching different aspects of Architecture and Environmental Engineering with emphasis on Computer Aided Facility Management and application of IT in Real Estate Development. These studies led to diverse research projects, e.g. the multimedia workplace of the future (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany) and online visualizations of structural data (Hessian Economic Ministry).During the following years, CRCP successfully applied simulation services for Property Planing in various development projects, such as planning cost-efficient flexible housing construction (Marburg Michelbach, Germany), building zoning (Schlangenzahl, Giessen, Germany), mixed-use development (Bad Mergentheim, Germany) and modernization of high-rise buildings (Darmstadt, Germany).


Image: ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

In 2002, Dietmar moved to Zürich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland to become head of IT for Real Estate and Constructional Engineering. Besides lectures e.g. in Constructional Engineering, Computer Aided Facility Management, IT for Real Estate and various more in the Facility Management degree program, his department led numerous research and development projects, such as flexible living in old age (Horgen, Switzerland), accommodation study for hospitals (Hospital Wädenswill, Switzerland), location analysis for colleges (Vocational College Wädenswil, Switzerland) and prospect concepts for the FM of universities (Zurich University, Switzerland).


Image: ETH Zürich, Switzerland

In the end of 2005, Dietmar changed to the Institute of Planning and Construction Management of ETH Zürich to become project manager for research projects in discrete event simulation and dynamic optimization. His team effectively applied these methods in development projects - for example in Development of Discrete Event Simulations for an Improved Risk Assessment of Property and Facilities Development and Business and Services At Remote Destinations focusing on the Dynamic Optimization of Workforce and Workflow Management and RFID Technology.


Image: Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Since 2007, Dietmar is head of the Real Estate Development and Project Management department at Vienna University of Technology in Austria, a teaching and research department that he established, with a focus on Real Estate Development, Urban Development and Project Management. During this period he was leading various research and development projects, such as Interdisciplinary research on energy optimization of manufacturing plants (Siemens AG Austria), Cost-benefits of the integrated planning (ATP Sustain), methods and tools for an intensification of space accommodation of educational properties over time, Case studies on property development of special purpose properties (Seminar for Urban Planning and Commerce, Berlin, Germany), International comparative study on the effects of holiday resorts and Property development to promote cross-regional tourism to and the culture industry of the Community (Altenkirchen, Germany).

At the same time, Dietmar and his team launched 3 research initiatives: International comparative studies on real estate development, Optimization of real estate and infrastructure throughout their life cycle - with the use of discrete event simulation, life cycle cost-benefit analysis and real options planning - and Urban and regional development. GESIM provides consulting and IT services in all of these fields as well as in other topics such as Real Estate Management, Project Management, Computer Aided Property Planning and many more. In particular, we are pushing the fields of study in sustainable utilization of built environment by intensifying the utilization of buildings over time. This method leads to an instant reduction of required space and therefore a reduction in CO2-emissions and costs. With our simulation services More-Space, this can be easily applied to schools, universities or company buildings. The simulation can demonstrate a win-win scenario - reducing the overall space of a building and therefore reducing the operating costs, while providing more space for the employees - just by a simple change of the FM rules.