Building Infomation Modelling; A True Story

Traditionally knowledge has been propagated via academic publication, institutional guidance and by on-the-job experience. Since the introduction of the internet, a tool that connects the world at almost the speed of light, we have been given an almost unlimited medium for individuals to share their knowledge. But it’s not only the individual that has been empowered by the web, large organisations have innovated their business models to suit the fast moving world that the web has cultivated.

New technologies however, do come with significant social change. This change is not necessarily a direct influence of new technology, but rather, a reaction to that technology. The failure to appreciate this is what makes some technologies fail to spread in to the wider society or explode into applications beyond the inventors’ original ambition.

Neil Postman, an American academic and media theorist said:

“technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.”

This statement is very interesting when implementing BIM processes. Some early adopters think that BIM is a supplementary add-on to their business, and it’s not. BIM requires business to rethink their processes from first principles.

Once the duplication of effort has been tackled this will free information to flow through construction life-cycle. However, the liberalisation of information has its downsides. As Postman said in a well-known speech he made at the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) on October 11, 1990 in Stuttgart:

http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/postman-informing.html

“But what started out as a liberating stream has turned into a deluge of chaos.”

This is a clear warning for what can happen if BIM implementation is executed with the wrong ambitions and processes in place. This leads to two clear areas of BIM; Sociological and technological practice. Although these two points are separate in definition, in practice they are intertwined and should form the bond that holds the DNA of the construction industry together.

But regretfully the construction industry has failed to keep up with other industries with respect to technology. It has also not realised its own potential from observing the technological landscape that surrounds it. While fees are dramatically reducing, we can innovate ways to preserve and even vastly improve what we deliver. Instead of actively reducing the level of detail and quality in our delivery. Delivering more for less!

This is what some people refer to as “the new normal“.

So, how are we going to achieve this? How are going to converge technology with the current level of austerity?

The answer is in constructive, collaborative attitudes and effective communication.

There are two streams of communication strategy; Technological and sociological. The execution of these will differ depending on the ‘technological maturity’ level of the organisation. But there are common themes of communication ethos that runs through both avenues.

The common themes are data preservation and an appreciation of the greater good for the project. Common data environments such as COBie2 (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) are in development. Systems like COBie enable organisations of any size to participate in constructing and maintaining a common dataset that will build the core building information model. These systems also provide a new medium to deliver operational information to the client for their facilities and asset management. Models such as the COBie are designed to remain under the ownership of the owner/client throughout the project lifecycle.

The second part of the common theme is the appreciation for the greater good. Any economist will tell you that there is much more to economic output than generating cash. One reason for why the squeeze on this industry seems to be harsh is because of the gross inefficiencies that exist. This is due to many reasons and one is the ‘cut and shut’ attitude. This practice can be witnessed at every corner of the industry. Delivering the bare minimum and taking advantage of the current unorganised complexity e.g. “Hopefully they won’t check and we’ll be off the project by the time they notice”. This is a fundamental breakdown of collaborative workmanship. However, one could argue that this is just the rules of engagement of a commercial industry focused on profit.

Which brings us to the wider sociological aspect of BIM, and how it will fit in a new economical landscape.

At the time of writing the eurozone was in fiscal turmoil and the world’s economy is bracing itself for a second recession. During times of crisis, and generally speaking, great change emerges from the chaos. Unfortunately what will emerge is unknown, but for industries such as ours we can emerge much stronger and leaner. And it is BIM that will provide the conduit that will carve a pathway throughout the industry to enable us to work better and provided added value to our clients without pricing ourselves out of the market.

So, in summary, this is our time to take to the stage and modernise our industry. Embrace the sociological changes, and welcome new technology with caution.

To quote Neil Postman again:

“technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.”

Category: Revit MEP Blog