‘BIM in Practice’ - A great start!

Blog entry by: Dominik Holzer

Over the past 3-4 months one of my main occupations as partner at AEC Connect has been to support the Australian Institute of Architects and Consult Australia in their efforts to publish their first collection of Practice Papers about BIM. Chairing their BIM and IPD Steering Group is a challenging yet rewarding task.

Our first ‘outing’ - the release of 23 documents - is receiving very positive feedback from the large number of practitioners within Australia and beyond. It has been a tremendous effort to this point and we pushed hard to produce a cohesive set of documents within a comparably short timeframe, based on the input of 50+ industry experts.

My thanks go out to Rob Malkin from Autodesk who first introduced me to those looking after BIM from the Institute’s and Consult Australia’s side, during a series of BIM forums in November 2010.

We’ve come a long way since then; a BIM & IPD Steering Group was founded in mid 2011 and we started by identifying topics as well as nominating four Working Group chairs and several group members.  With Chris Needham from C3, Peter Scuderi from Arup, Bilal Succar from Change Agents and Toby Maple from HASSELL, we found four highly motivated and talented individuals who managed to get the best out of their Working Group members.   By late 2011 we had all four groups running and by March/April 2012 first outlines for industry papers emerged from the groups. By mid 2012 we started technical and editorial review, to then ‘go live’ in 5 cities across Australia during the end of August.

In full awareness of efforts by other industry bodies, government initiatives and practice groups, we ensured that the we would rather complement than double up work by others. Further, it was our clear mission from the outset to produce easily understandable, short and snappy industry papers that assist  newcomers to BIM as well as providing useful feedback to advanced users. Despite being driven by industry bodies representing predominantly Architects and Engineers, we also appointed members from Contractor, Client, QS, Risk Management, Facility Management, and Legal background.   

The documents we produced are listed below and they can be downloaded for free via the website we launched in parallel to releasing the documents:  bim.architecture.com.au

INTRODUCTION

Introduction, Chair, BIM & IPD Steering Group

BIM! What is it? / Glossary

BIM MANAGEMENT PLANS 

Preface

P1 - What is a BIM Management Plan, and why should we use one?

P2 - What should be addressed within a BIM Management Plan?

P3 - How should you prepare and apply a BIM Management Plan?

BIM, LEGAL and PROCUREMENT

Preface

L1 - BIM and Intellectual Property

L2 - Professional Indemnity Insurance

L3 - Stakeholders’ Responsibilities

L4 - Viable Options – Encouraging Collaboration and ‘No Blame’

BIM EDUCATION

Preface

E1 – BIM Education and BIM Learners

E2 – BIM Learning Providers

E3 - BIM Learning Spectrum

BIM OUTREACH

Preface

O1 - Educating Clients: What to ask for when requesting “BIM”

O2 - Architects and Building Designers: What does BIM mean to my business?

O3 - Engineers: What does BIM mean to my business?

O4 - Contractors/Builder’s: Possible uses of BIM for Construction

O5 - Quantity Surveyors and Cost Planners: How can BIM improve my business?

O6 - Facilities Managers: What benefits are there for me engaging with a BIM process?

O7 - Manufacturers and Suppliers: What can BIM do for my products?

Our initiative is continuing and the Australian Institute of Architects and Consult Australia have already started mapping out the future with the Steering Group. Feedback options on the website and responses we receive from group members and third party professionals are providing us with ideas for future topics. Addressing 'BIM Scope of Services', BIM/IPD contracts and providing  sound value arguments for BIM are some of the emerging topics.