Wednesday, April 05, 2017

BIM: The Mechanical Pencil

Sparked by a conversation months ago on Linkedin, a recent ARUP article on building information modelling was the final piece allowing me to write this piece. Last year it was a suggested by many in an epic Linkedin BIM comment thread that hand sketching was fundamentally superior to CAD/BIM. A bit of an echo chamber developed reinforcing hand sketching's supremacy. It was not lost on critical thinking readers, however, that many expounding the supremacy of hand sketching admitted to having little experience, skill, or inclination to practice digital design.

Offering a defence first, I hasten to add as I write this my sketching materials, fine-tipped felt pens and a sketchbook of good heavy paper, sit in the chair next to me. In the Linkedin comment thread, I raised the idea some might want to explore forms not reproducible by hand. Met by silence was my question of whether architectural designs should be limited to only those which can be generated by hand since hand sketching is so superior. Furthermore, the gains in efficiency computational architecture can bring to design or building performance can not be so lightly dismissed for those who love architecture and building. On the other hand, one of their criticisms is worth expanding on – in fact it's a position I've been advocating for years since I attack the subject from a building design management perspective – the benefits of BIM need to be quantified

One of the main drivers of building is economic. At every stage and scale, the economics of building needs to be understood, absorbed, and reapplied forward. While the criticisms of BIM in business are mostly anecdotal, it's also not so easy to dismiss them, or at least it would be unwise to so quickly dismiss the points-of-view of respected industry members. It's completely reasonable people are sceptical about the overall benefits of BIM when within their own firms they've witnessed BIM projects go awry. The tools of business analysis are here to help bring the larger picture into focus. From concept to production to facilities management, there are benefits to be gleaned from BIM, and an important step in capturing these benefits is recognizing there is a direction to the flow of information in BIM projects. The major benefits of BIM in the construction and occupancy stage can only be realized if implemented in the design stage. The fact building operators, and the list seems to be growing everyday, are paying for 3D models of their existing buildings for facilities management purposes should put a giant exclamation mark behind the value of creating a high-quality digital model at the design stage. 

Arup's suggestion of a BIM Maturity Measure is another good approach giving structure to the BIM feedback process. It's aim is to track key metrics for comparison across projects. Before letting Arup's director Michael Stych describe the program himself, it's worth pointing out the main value of such a system in regards to building design management is that it facilitates portfolio management across a firm's stable of BIM projects. 

"To date, BIM assessment has been complex, providing only a high level overview of its implementation and has been limited to high-achieving projects. Our BIM Maturity Measure tool aims to democratise assessment, enabling comparisons to be made across all projects quickly and easily. This will allow us to recognise where BIM has been used effectively, creating a code of best practise and helping to identify trends and training needs.  We have stopped counting the projects that are doing “BIM” and have started to measure the maturity of BIM application on every project."

The measure is a mix of passive data collection and structured feedback from participants. The program is obviously finding some success internally, with one conclusion worth sharing here and easily implemented in any design shop: BIM projects that have a BIM champion attached, an intense and passionate digital designer, do measurably better. Amazing!

No doubt myself and some of my Linkedin connections easily fit the description of BIM champions. The world is filled with designers and technologists just going through the motions. In fact, I would go so far as to say some managers, despite fancy HR websites stating the opposite, give the impression they would much prefer employees that just sit at their computer in a catatonic state. That's never a good foundation from to which start building a lot of valuable architecture. I've had the pleasure of being the office helpdesk and supporting teammates through their struggles with BIM. I completely empathize with their intimidation of sitting behind multiple monitors running a complex REVIT project. It looks overwhelmingly complicated. It can't be that dissimilar from sitting in a jet fighter cockpit. But not one that sends wayward missiles into hospitals. We get to master the tools which build hospitals; and warehouses, and skyscrapers and fire stations! Everytime we can reflect on the economics of our design process it opens the doors to building more. Being able to quantify our effort and track rates of change greatly helps in strategically distributing skills, monetary, and leadership resources across a firm's portfolio of projects. I'm not particularly good at gardening, cooking or line dancing, but sitting at my desk with REVIT open in front of me, I can build anything; and I'm so grateful for that opportunity.  

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