How Layher is bringing physical and digital innovation together to support the planning and delivery of increasingly complex access.
Tall buildings and complex construction projects place unusual demands on access. Geometry changes, interfaces multiply, programmes tighten and the consequences of poor coordination increase. For Layher, the response is not simply adding more scaffold. It is to look at the complete process – how access is planned, how it is communicated, how equipment reaches site and how it is erected and adapted in the field.
That thinking can be seen in two complementary areas of Layher’s development – the Allround AGS system and the company’s digital SIM workflow, including SIM2Field XR. One addresses how scaffolders can create advancing side protection while retaining the versatility of the Allround system. The other helps project teams turn scaffold planning into usable digital information before and during construction.
Advancing safety without losing flexibility
Layher’s Allround AGS is designed to combine characteristics associated with facade scaffolding with the flexibility of a modular system. It remains integrated with the Allround construction kit, allowing established Allround components to be used alongside the AGS system.
A central feature is the advancing guardrail principle. Guardrails can be installed from the secured level below, so collective side protection is already in place as the next level is accessed. Layher’s product material also highlights the system’s reduced number of individual parts, familiar Allround connection technology and adaptability to varying building geometry.
For complex and high-rise work, that combination matters. Access systems must respond to corners, projections, recesses, changing elevations and interfaces with the building and other temporary works. A system that can combine advancing side protection with modular adaptability gives designers and contractors another option when developing the access strategy.
Planning the scaffold before it reaches site
Physical innovation is only part of the story. Layher is also developing the digital process around scaffolding through Scaffold Information Modeling (SIM). The principle is to use a coordinated digital model and associated data across planning, logistics and implementation, rather than allowing the scaffold to become a largely disconnected site activity.
Within the LayPLAN environment, scaffold structures can be developed and visualised in 3D, while material information can support the wider planning and logistics process. Layher’s SIM approach is intended to improve transparency across the project and help teams make better use of information throughout the scaffold lifecycle.
SIM2Field XR takes that information closer to the workface. Digital scaffold models can be viewed in an extended-reality environment, helping users understand the proposed structure in context. For clients, designers, temporary works teams and scaffold contractors, the ability to communicate a three-dimensional access solution before or during erection can make complex arrangements considerably easier to understand than drawings alone.
From digital model to real-world delivery
Layher has strong project material demonstrating the connection between digital planning and substantial real-world access structures, including a project film from MOL Hungary.
The film provides a useful visual case study of digital modelling and project coordination alongside extensive completed Layher access structures at a major industrial facility. For the Tall Buildings audience, the significance is the workflow rather than the project sector alone.
The film provides a useful visual case study of digital modelling and project coordination alongside extensive completed Layher access structures at a major industrial facility. For the Tall Buildings audience, the significance is the workflow rather than the project sector alone.
Complex access has many of the same coordination challenges whether it surrounds industrial plant or rises around a building – geometry, interfaces, quantities, logistics, sequencing and clear communication between the people designing, supplying and erecting the scaffold.
Complex access has many of the same coordination challenges whether it surrounds industrial plant or rises around a building – geometry, interfaces, quantities, logistics, sequencing and clear communication between the people designing, supplying and erecting the scaffold.
The digital model, therefore, becomes more than a presentation tool. It can form part of the conversation between scaffold contractor, client, designer and site team – helping everyone understand what is proposed and how it is intended to be delivered.
A joined-up approach to access
Taken together, AGS and SIM demonstrate the direction of travel for Layher – improving what happens on the scaffold while also improving the information available before equipment arrives on site.
The two areas should not be viewed in isolation. Better planning can reduce uncertainty at site level; clearer visualisation can improve communication; and systemised solutions can help translate that planning into repeatable erection methods. For increasingly complex projects, the opportunity is to consider access earlier and integrate it more closely with the wider construction process.
That is the conversation Layher will be bringing to Tall Buildings Midlands in October – not simply what scaffold can be erected, but how access can be planned, visualised, supplied and delivered more intelligently.
See it for yourself at Tall Buildings Midlands
Layher UK will be exhibiting at Tall Buildings Midlands at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on 13th October 2026, with a focus on the Allround AGS system and SIM2Field XR. Visitors will be able to see the technology first-hand and discuss how the physical and digital sides of access planning can be brought together for complex construction applications.
Read the article in the latest Tall Buildings Magazine here
