BIM and politics...

This is an election year in New Zealand.

Oh, how I wish BIM could be on the list of items voters will base their decisions on whom to trust to lead them next! It will not make it to the agenda, of course.

Think about it! What an opportunity! The country that first gave women the right to vote could be also the first one to employ BIM as an official strategy to hold governments accountable for their development of all public buildings. Transparency over public funds as well as employment for good BIM modellers! (know a couple that could do with some meaningful work);

I accept, there are numerous governments further ahead with the game, already writing BIM requirements into their tenders, asking for BIM frameworks within their building projects and generally championing BIM, but maybe NZ can still leapfrog them all by adopting a series of bold, innovative policies.

Digitise the country’s current building stock and make digital models mandatory for all new ones. Request manufacturers and suppliers of materials to provide digital representations of their products and develop tools that allow for rapid model based documenting.

Someone else has pioneered online building consents? NZ could offer to do them over the phone.

Centralised school asset databases? NZ will have them ‘walking and talking’ too.

Not this time? Next election in 3 years!