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An architect’s prerogative is to make buildings beautiful
‘We need to be more efficient and innovative’
afford this nostalgia and is this what is preventing us from embracing modern procurement methods that are better suited to the age of data bytes? Does this change not open the door to a realm of possibilities we could only dream about 30 years ago – such as laser scanning, 3D printing and virtual simulation. Whilst the architectural profession's
prerogative has always been to make things that are beautiful, part of the fear perhaps is that we will become agents of the pre-packaged building design, where creativity is watered down by modular closed panel flat-pack style architecture. In the middle of all this are the smart
contractors who are starting to make the process their own, recognising the efficiencies
in having component
libraries and, of course, where they can offer savings profit will follow. Maybe the key driver for BIM will be the contractor who has whet his palette and can no longer see the future in
traditional procurement. When they start to turn down ‘non-
BIM’ fee bids in their numbers, maybe then we'll see everyone running to make 3D modelling their new art. The opportunities that this new way
of working brings us are considerable and extend way beyond the building process. We can collectively start to compare asset data sets and really start to consider the life cycle of the product at the earliest stages, right through to the end user experience. To secure investment in construction
projects clients are more and more often demanding buildings that perform and work from the day of handover as predicted by the designers. But, while the clients are the key to driving forward their ambitions, they will need to be smarter in how they enter into the procurement of built assets and, not least, through the way they set out their requirements and expectations. The key to BIM is collaboration and
the key to collaboration is effective communication. To get the most out of it, the employers’ requirements need to be stated at the beginning and, to some extent, they need to recognise early on
what they want as an end product. What BIM then gives us is not only a method- ology and a framework for this collabo- ration to take place, but also an effective vehicle to carry the information through the process. BIM should guarantee that this
information is reliable and where asset managers are concerned, data is king. We either allow technology to dictate how we think or we can embrace it and use it as the tool it is meant to be to push the boundaries of our thinking. The way we manage ourselves in the ever more complex ways of making things is essen- tial if we are to be resourceful in these times of austerity. To this end, we need to be more effi-
cient, ever more innovative and, above all, smarter about how we manage our- selves so that we can effectively manage our resources. BIM is a vehicle for us to effectively manage the process so that the end product can be used reliably and allow it to be assessed, measured and compared with other assets in a bid to drive out waste from an industry that has been wasting too much for too long.
Karl Elliott is Managing Partner at Clague
norman@netmagmedia.eu
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk
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