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Building Information Modelling, or BIM for short, has been heralded as the future of the building industry. One day, it is hoped all construction schemes will be run on its platform. It is the bright new dawn of our bricks-and-mortar industry. The Neanderthals amongst us are about to get left behind.
Or so the story goes.
Personally, I don’t believe it. Though I welcome anything that improves our lot, some things won’t ever really change.
The idea of BIM is to create a geometric 3D model for every new envisaged building, that incorporates each element of its design. This can then be shared with everyone involved in the project. All the stakeholders – from the architects, the product manufacturers, the mechanical and electrical engineers, and the contractors and subcontractors – can contribute to it.
The result is a perfect picture of how the planned building is meant to look and operate, so that even the eventual occupiers can understand the nuts and bolts of the structure in order to problem-solve and maintain the building in the coming years.
Now, personally, I’m a bit of a technophobe. I’m writing this book on an old typewriter for one thing (only joking!), but I am definitely old-school when it comes to the use of and the understanding of technology. For example, I value the old-fashioned tradesman’s apprenticeships that last for several years rather than the six-month courses which claim to turn you out as a bricklayer or some other such practical skill in double-quick time. I wouldn’t let anyone build my house with only a six-month certificate behind them; I know that much.
I recently walked around a new construction project with an architect who held a tablet that had all sorts of 3D images appearing on screen at the touch of his hand. It was quite the space-age thing. This was for a relatively modest scheme of turning a large derelict house into an eight-bed HMO. I was really impressed. But I didn’t use the technology myself, nor did the planner, and nor did the builder. Universal, it is not.
The company I currently work for don’t appear to have any plans to get involved in BIM. I’ve not had any experience with it, so I’m probably not the best person to ask. But if you were to ask me if I considered this tool to be the future of our industry, I’d have to say no. Not for a while, at least. Most people I know who work in the industry don’t use it. It’s just another box-ticking exercise.
Although tendering contractors are now told that it’s a requirement for many large public projects, it’s a problem that is easily overcome. Buy the software and send the client a few images. Then, go back to working the way that you always did.
I’ve seen comments online that BIM will render certain occupations in the industry redundant, such as quantity surveyors. The amazing computer, having drawn the building from every angle possible, can then extract the quantities of materials contained in the architect’s drawings. This will, therefore, negate the expertise and manhours of QSs, estimators, and presumably many other construction experts.
Us surveyors will all soon be out of a job, apparently.
Well, when a client doesn’t pay your interim payment application – the money from which you need to pay your subbies and your own overheads – is BIM going to track the bloke down on the golf course and give him an ear-bashing and demand that he hand over your dough? Don’t think so.
So, great idea. Great visuals. Probably going to be much more prevalent in the future. For now, the real world of construction still wins it for me. At this moment in time, BIM is in the bin.