BIM Demystified (2nd ed) (2013)

BIM Demystified An architects guide to Building Ination Modelling/ Management BIM 2nd edition Steve Race DipArchDist ARB, RIBA 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 1 08/10/2013 1154Dedication I would like to dedicate this book to my family who have never really understood what I do, but have always supported my doing it. Cover of BS 11922007 reproduced with permission British Standards Institution BSI Extracts from JCT Constructing Excellence contract reproduced with permission of Sweet and Maxwell publishers The Joint Contracts Tribunal Limited Steve Race, 2013 First published by RIBA Publishing, 15 Bonhill Street, London EC2P 2EA ISBN 978 1 85946 520 2 Stock code 81044 The right of Steve Race to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retri system, or transmitted, in any or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Commissioning Editor James Thompson, Sarah Busby Project Editor Kate Mackillop Designed and typeset by Phil Handley Printed and bound by Butler, Tanner as auniversity student the work of DArcy Race was an early inspiration for my own journey into the world of ination modelling, BIM and beyond... Over the past few years BIM has become one of the most hotly debated and promoted issues within the construction industry. Everywhere you look you are bombardedby software vendors, industry evangelists, and most significantly the government, who are mandating BIM Level 2 by 2016. All want to either sell you their technology, tellyou how to work or extol the virtues of BIM. Common to all is the pervasive sense of bemusement and confusion that has been triggered in the industry what really is BIMand what does it mean to me, my colleagues, my clients This is where this book excels rather than pushing specific technologies or dictating how we should work it provides architects and fellow professionals with a rationaland clear context in which they can begin their own journey into new and better ways of working. It explains where BIM has come from and how many of us are in someway doing it already even if we did not previously realise it In the first edition of this book Steve demystified the whole concept of BIM, placing it firmly in the context of collaborative ination-driven design, construction andoperation. In this second edition he expands the narrative deeper into the supply chain, explains HM Government approach to BIM and the critical need for BIM ineducation. But where this edition is so relevant is when it looks to the future. Based on evidence given in the preceding chapters it concludes by setting the scene for aBIM evolution, through social media, Big Data and virtualisation. Surely the basis from which a 21st century built environment industry can deliver true excellence in builtoutcomes. Paul Fletcher RIBA Chair, RIBA Construction Strategy Group 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 11 08/10/2013 115413 Preface This guide is aimed at the vast majority of people in mainstream practice. It is intended to offer an easygoing explanation of a subject which could be swamped by technical jargon and deluged with spin. There is some technology expressed in a which the purists might find hard to swallow. Hopefully, for those for whom technology is not the main priority, some essential ideas of Building Ination Modelling have been described in a digestible . The guide takes a wider view of BIM encompassing business opportunity, the architects code of conduct, cultural issues and the necessity for better legal arrangements to underpin BIM. The book addresses BIM from the point of view of architectural practice as opposed to a technological perspective. Building Ination Modelling, like many other topics in architecture and construction offers advantages; however, it requires a shift in attitude if its benefits are to be obtained. With any luck this book will provide a straightforward representation of the concepts involved and allow individuals at all levels in an architectural practice to build a firmer understanding and wider application of BIM. The book aims to bring together both strategists and technologists within architectural businesses to improved and more valuable, in every sense of the word, propositions for built environment interventions. 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 13 08/10/2013 115415 SECTION 1 BIM the movement not the acronym Did you know you might already be using BIM Initiatives to establish better practice within architecture and construction appear with rapid succession. Improved integration, co-operative working and newer s of contractual arrangements offer the prospect of changing the way interventions in the built environment are made. Architects are primarily trained as designers; many other activities and skills are needed to bring their ideas to fruition. The current interest surrounding the phenomenon known as BIM simply reminds us that different attitudes, techniques and relationships come along from time to time to make us think about the way we manage our ination. Since time immemorial architects have created ination to express their intentions to other members of the design team. They have produced and communicated ination in some whether it be scribing simple depictions in sand, on papyrus, parchment, paper or todays modern complex and ubiquitous electronic s. For thousands of years an architect had a relatively close relationship with the craftsmen who created the final artefact. Communicating ination was a comparatively straightforward and personal activity and the and pace of the development of ination communication was largely in the hands of the architect and the immediate team of artisans. Today the situation is radically different. Alongside their primary design skills, architects have to take on board ination creation and communication in a way that previous generations never had to. On the one hand the internet has placed more and more ination at our disposal. On the other, architects have to be increasingly vigilant in obtaining and filtering the ination they require in a more litigious atmosphere. The ination they themselves generate is subject to immense scrutiny by all members of the immediate and extended project team. Commercial clients are even more hyper-critical. Architects often make decisions, sometimes wrongly, based on too little or too much ination and almost always on ination that is not integrated. To use ination in better ways does not require architects to dispense with any of their existing skills, simply to think differently about the way they rcise them. Architects have been using BIM from the very first time ination was exchanged in order to get something built. This book looks at some of the ingredients that influence the creation of ination by architects and gives 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 15 08/10/2013 1154BIM Demystifie D 16 a framework for improvement. There is no need to believe that BIM is something entirely new and different. We, as architects, simply have to ask ourselves how we can produce ination better and in a less adversarial environment. Beware the acronym BIM is one of the most recent acronyms to appear in the world of architecture and construction. The timing of its first appearance is difficult to establish. America claims its origination in 2002 as a means of describing virtual design, construction and facilities management. Various groups around the world were using the acronym at about the same time but with different meanings. BIM has already fallen into the same use, abuse and misuse that CAD, CADD and CADFM did. At best these acronyms provided a rough guide to what was being discussed; at worst they led to endless debate on whether the D stood for design or drafting or drawing, a debate which produced nothing of practical relevance. Equivalent problems of interpretation exist for BIM. Individual letters conjure up images in each persons mind. B, Building; for some this might mean an envelope and everything within it, for others the B may connote a wider view of a building and its surroundings; infrastructures and landscaping for example. The word building is somewhat restrictive in conjuring up a broader range of considerations; it may not tell us anything about policies, assumptions, strategic decisions, brief content, user assessment, supply chains, regulation or recycling sustainability. Are all these to be implied and imagined from a meagre starting point of building I, Ination, is quite straightforward if taken at face value and is probably the most important word represented within the acronym. The M is interpreted in two quite different ways; model/modelling or management. Modelling or management BIM is both an activity and a thing. The verb does not tell us who is doing the building modelling or the noun what the model contains. Does the activity simply imply the individual designer, the immediate team in the individual design practice, the wider project team and supply chains, or all of these, plus users and maintenance personnel Does the verb cover ination creation, collection, updating, archiving collating, co-ordinating, validating or sharing Does the model include 2D graphics, 3D graphics, intelligent objects, parametrics and all physical and electronic s of non-graphic ination In this context model/modelling can be taken to mean a representation to a smaller scale, a simulation of how something works, or a representation of something in a different or media to the original. Using model/modelling as the respective noun or verb gives a range of possibilities from the static to the dynamic, which is acceptable when thinking of 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 16 08/10/2013 1154SECTION 1 bim the movement not the acronym 17 ination in project life cycle. Interpreting M as management gives a far more potent and all-encompassing notion of what the acronym is really intended to portray. Management, among other things, implies planning, organising, resourcing and controlling not simply the ination that is required on a project, but the people who create and combine it to produce the finished built environment artefact. Management is an essential ingredient in translating often complex and disparate ination from a wide variety of sources into an organised whole that is continually updated and used by the project team. The way ination is managed determines the confidence people have in it and the effect it has on success and profitability for all concerned. There are more profound and far reaching implications interpreting M as management rather than model or modelling. This is far the better option, in that it is currently contributing to wider discussions and initiatives about improved co-operation between project team members. Taking the letters at face value produces an impression of the architectural and construction world that falls far short of the real complex issue of ination creation and management in any project life cycle, whatever its scale. Project Ination Management PIM or Project Lifecycle Ination Management PLIM may have been more helpful and more indicative of the intention to a comprehensive ination package that represents the life of a facility. Any acronym probably suffers from inadequacy of implication or completeness of meaning, so there will be many happy hours of friendly debate on just what is meant by BIM. BIM in the USA and UK One of the most strategic documents on BIM and collaborative supported IT issued anywhere in the world to date is the National 3D-4D-BIM Program, additional BIM Guide Series, issued by the Office of the Chief Architect, Public Buildings Service of the US General Services Administration in Washington. The challenge has been accepted and many states have announced initiatives based on the central policy statement, for example the State of Wisconsin has declared that all its state-funded facilities over the capital value of 5m will use BIM techniques. Moreover the General Services Administration GSA has offered its own definition of BIM as follows. Building Ination Modeling is the development and use of a multi-faceted computer software data model to not only document a building design, but to simulate the construction and operation of a new capital facility or a recapitalised modernised facility. The resulting Building Ination Model is a data-rich, object-based, intelligent and parametric digital representation of the facility. From this, views appropriate to various users needs can be extracted and analysed to generate feedback and improvement of the facility. 15Y BIM DeMystified_text.indd 17 08/10/2013 1154BIM Demystifie D 18 This is a courageous statement that embraces most modern IT concepts in architectural and construction software, namely objects and parametrics. The scope is wide enough to allow a range of BIM interpretations from the most humble 2D drawing database to the most sophisticated modern technology. As if this was not enough the American Institute of Architects has published AIA Document E2022008, Building Ination Modeling Protocol Exhibit. The document provides a very worthwhile proa to assist project teams in establishing their ology for implementing a project based on BIM principles. It offers a definition of BIM A Building Ination Model is a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of the Project and is referred to in this Exhibit as the “Models”, which may be used herein to describe a Model Element, a single Model or multiple Models used in the aggregate. “Building Ination Modelling” means the process and technology used to create the Model. It provides the following section headings which the project team then complete for themselves An opportunity to set out model management responsibilities both in the immediate and longer term. The level to which any element in the BIM should be modelled. The author of any element. The uses to which the model can reliably be deployed. The document is by no means exhaustive in what a project team might need for a comprehensive implementation of BIM, but what it does give is a valuable framework which, with the right attitudes from team players, would significantly lift the level of ination creation and management, and thus enhance advantage all round. The AIA document would a natural partnership with the relatively new Joint Contracts Tribunal JCT Constructing Excellence o