sector contractors are embedding BIM into their day to day work. ‘There’s a difference between having pockets of excellence and it being “the way things are done”,’ he says. ‘Awareness is high – now the challenge is to adopt and apply BIM consistently across the industry.’ Steve Pittard believes that one of the


keys to embedding BIM is to start with the current generation of students – the construction professionals of the future. ‘BIM is now incorporated across all relevant courses at LSBU at undergraduate and postgraduate level,’ he says. ‘What the industry needs is people who’ve grown up to think that sharing information and working collaboratively is the norm.’ LSBU has also established a BIM


Centre to provide a hub for innovation and networking, and helped set up the BIM Academic Forum, a group of higher education institutions looking to develop an academic framework for BIM. The University’s estates team is looking at using BIM to support more efficient building and maintenance. ‘I’ve been in this industry for more


than 40 years and I’ve seen a lot of bright ideas come and go,’ says Steve Pittard. ‘But I believe BIM is here to stay. The government has really kept its foot on the pedal with BIM, and the benefits are so obvious. For construction companies operating in both the public and private sectors, there’s a huge amount to be gained.’


If you’re interested in upskilling your workforce in this area, many of LSBU’s courses can support trainee programmes or employee-led career development in BIM. Contact Sophia Martin, Industry Liaison Manager, at martins6@lsbu.ac.uk


‘ BIM has huge potential to support the sustainability agenda’ Vanessa Cazaubon (BSc Architectural Technology, 2015) is co-founder of BIM consultancy E+C Associates


‘As architectural technologists, our job is to support clients to use technology to design and build in a more streamlined


and sustainable way. Collaboration is fundamental to what we do, and that means using BIM. To an extent, we are still having to sell it in to clients – some still want to guard information rather than sharing it freely. ‘But the benefits are huge: problems


can be eradicated at the design stage; errors are massively reduced; and end users get the information they need to manage the building in the most efficient way. We’re currently working


with the Clarence Centre for Research and Enterprise at LSBU, for example, to develop a 3D model which will be used to promote the building, and in future to support efficient management. ‘For me, that’s one of the most


interesting and compelling things about BIM. In the past, the emphasis has been on building more and more. Now, we’re seeing a shift towards first making sure that buildings are designed to be efficient and then that they’re run efficiently in order to maximise their lifespan. BIM has huge potential to support that whole sustainability agenda, and that’s a really exciting prospect.’ Find out more about Vanessa and


partner Pantelis Sotariou’s work at www.eandcassociates.com


‘ If we can manage information better, we’ll get better outcomes’ Neil Thompson (BEng Building Services, 2013) is Head of Digital Research and Innovation at Balfour Beatty


‘BIM promises to cut waste, make management more efficient and so improve the bottom line. That’s great, but for me the real


impact is more fundamental. The construction industry is constantly being criticised for not delivering on its promises – and that’s true at every level from the “white van man” upwards. The “I” in BIM stands for information: if we can manage and share information more effectively, we can deliver better outcomes. ‘It also opens


2017 AND BEYOND BIM level 3, described as the ‘holy grail’ by industry insiders, comprises a fully open and integrated process with the project team sharing models on a web-enabled BIM hub


up some exciting possibilities. It’s making it easier to involve users in testing buildings at the design stage. It can also help


close the gap between a building’s projected and actual performance. We still don’t have the computing power to close that altogether, but it will come. We’re also using BIM to track performance, so we can compare contractors and improve the efficiency of our own supply chain. ‘In 2015, Balfour Beatty won a British Construction Industry award for our work on the new National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester. We used BIM to create a 3D model of the ducting and extraction equipment. There’s only one supplier of this specialist kit in the world, and they’re in the US. If there had been any errors, we would have faced an extra 16 weeks’ wait. In fact, it fitted to the millimetre and the co-ordination was absolutely spot on. That’s a great illustration of how information-sharing can enable innovation and keep complex projects on track.’


lsbu.ac.uk/alumni | South Bank_29


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