Stay Home: Learn BIM; week 2

Let’s get one thing out of the way first:

I don’t think BIM is the ‘thing’ that will be the savor of the post-pandemic AEC industry.

I don’t think BIM (as in a ‘way of managing info in AEC projects’) is in that great a shape all together, period.

But, apart from a conscious revitalization of an approach that does have 30 years of trial/error behind it, I can only think of one method that could give the industry a boost towards recovery.

That method is of establishing a highly centralized, closely controlled industry that will manage its risks and rewards in a largely different way than the free-market shenanigans of the industry since the late 1980s.

Having had the privilege of first-hand experience of 4 different variants of highly-centralized construction practices, I am aware of many pros as well as cons of its methods and outcomes.

Economic, social, environmental etc etc.

I am just an aging BIM-fan, let me leave this second option for those shaping history, maybe with just one little thought:

Even that ‘solution’ will need BIM – actually, that one will likely go ‘BIM way’ from early on…

A week or so ago, I said, go ‘paper-free’! (I’ve been saying this for decades, but never mind).

Implying that paper-free is the easiest way to BIM-literacy.

If you are already paper free and want to get into BIM, where should you start?

Read up on the theory of the approach? Learn a particular modelling package? Explore model viewers? Investigate example projects?

All this, while you’ve got a job/project/company to save?

Surely this is not the time to get bogged down with this mumbo-jumbo, BIM-jargon that most (of you) had manage to dodge your entire carrier?

If we need BIM to survive, we will buy BIM. Simple?

Not.

BIM is not a spice that you put a little bit of in a soup, it is a language.

A little bit of it, will not take you very far. In fact, a little bit of it, is often worse than none.

Think of it as a language. A language that has evolved and is existing within the industry.

That has its own structure, rules and systems.

It is spoken by relatively few and has made a relatively low impact on the industry so far, but it could have a major influence on how we build buildings, if used well.

Also, it could be used to expose how badly we are building buildings if used well too.

This latter option has been rarely explored so far, but its time may be the upcoming ‘new time’.

Today’s lesson: BIM is not a spice; BIM is a language.

And for goodness sake, go paperfree!