Previously architects did not always have the most efficient way of sharing information, so their design intent could be lost. Andy Murphy, Non-Residential Sector Director at Saint-Gobain, explores how Building Information Modelling (BIM) has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency of projects in the built environment.
With the construction industry fast recovering with spirit from the recession, there has never been a better time to embrace new technology and approach our craft with fresh perspective.
BIM is a fundamental part of the Government’s ‘Construction 2025’ vision and, as we get closer to the 2016 deadline it has started to gain momentum. At this point, all centrally funded Government projects will need to be constructed using BIM at level 2, with the aim of improving construction efficiency. Finding the errors in the computer-generated model before the actual build begins will help to reduce errors and strengthen proposals. This should ultimately add immense value, reducing time on site and improving efficiencies during the construction stage.
Before BIM, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) drawings were relied on for helping to complete a construction project and differing as-built drawings from the contractor to get an insight into architects’ choices. This was not always enough information to aide a project efficiently and cost effectively over its lifetime.
With the potential to serve as an electronic manual to assist those maintaining the built environment, it can allow users to share a common set of information on construction projects that can be transmitted easily between all interested parties.
Quality Control
BIM has been around for several years and has been used across many sectors to ensure that many types of construction are digitised at the design stage. In the automotive and defence industries, BIM has been a key driver of innovation, enabling supply chain efficiencies, encouraging collaboration and allowing best practice to be shared in depth and breadth throughout the community of partners involved in the activity. The pace at which BIM is now being used in the construction sector is accelerating, with recent research indicating that 94% of main contractors expect to be using BIM technology by 2017.
BIM technologies enable improved quality of project design while driving down the cost of construction by streamlining and modernising the processes by which we design, construct and manage Government-built assets.
Coordination is key
Three years ago, Saint-Gobain adopted a coordinated approach to its BIM data production with the objective to position itself as the leading touch point for architects, designers and contractors who require high-quality information on the sustainable materials, products and solutions that are available from Saint-Gobain.
The project to coordinate Saint-Gobain’s BIM data ensures that it’s as accurate and detailed as it can be. This means that projects designed using its solutions can be the most integrated available on the market, with the best opportunity to offer economies in design, construction and post-delivery management.
Saint-Gobain’s newly launched Multi-Comfort approach to building design, which focuses on the wellbeing of building occupants by ensuring that thermal, acoustic, indoor air quality and optimised glazing solutions are all properly considered from the beginning of the design process, is enabled by Saint- Gobain’s BIM approach.
Continually updating the training that is provided to Saint- Gobain BIM technologists to the highest, most current standard is a key enabler of this approach. This ensures that all Saint-Gobain companies have individuals capable of producing and managing BIM data that is of a market-leading standard. This is a unique approach from the world’s leading sustainable habitat business.
The right software
Autodesk is the leading brand for BIM design software, data production and management. Their suite of products provides a portfolio of interoperable 3D visualisation tools that support BIM-based workflows. These two global thought leaders have entered into an agreement in order to ensure that Saint-Gobain continues to be positioned as the reference in the production of BIM data for the construction industry.
The agreement enables Saint-Gobain to share software licences across its 34 brands in the UK on a totally flexible basis. This keeps BIM data provided to the market completely up to date, accurate and available free of charge to construction industry partners, designers and clients.
As its BIM activity continues to expand, new users can be added to the Saint-Gobain BIM community without the need to purchase additional licences. This is because individual software licences can be used by multiple individuals over time, rather than under the previous widely adopted model whereby a licence, once assigned, could not be easily re-deployed.
Optimum Results
Saint-Gobain is globally positioned at the forefront of innovative thinking on issues of comfort and sustainability for the owners, designers, constructors and occupants of the built environment. The agreement that Saint-Gobain in the UK and Ireland has entered into with Autodesk is a major step towards ensuring that it is positioned to deliver the optimum level of BIM data to the construction sector. Continuing to support and assist customers to produce buildings that are truly comfortable, affordable and sustainable. BIM is critical to those objectives, as reflected in Saint-Gobain’s action to guarantee its leadership.
BIM is not a complete solution; it’s a process to be added to the skill set to promote best practice. If all members of the built environment supply chain start to use BIM to its full potential, the industry can begin to work together more effectively. With the announcement that all new central government-funded buildings must be constructed using BIM software in tandem with Government Soft Landings (GSL) by 2016, this awareness and collaboration will only support the promise made when delivering building design.
A longer-term approach to buildings is needed to improve industry efficiencies and quality. If we give greater weight to the user’s requirements at the design stage, the focus is on meeting their needs at the design stage, streamlining the process in the long term.
Click here to download your free copy of Saint-Gobain’s BIM Basics guide
