BIM Technologies and Integrated Design

I chose to write on the topic: "BIM will Improve Buildings vs. It will make no difference or degrade them"

The American Institute of Architects defines Integrated Design as an “approach that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all participants to optimize project results, increase value to owner, reduce waste, and maximize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication and construction.” [1] 

Integrated Design is a process that produce high performing and efficient buildings. Although fairly new, the Integrated Design model already shows promising result in the engineering and architecture fields. Although the process can be difficult to implement in the beginning, it is very beneficial to all interested parties. By having everyone involved from the very beginning (even the conceptual phase) ensures that everyone issues are addressed and dealt with quickly and efficiently. For instance, having the structural engineers involved in the early stage of the architectural design allows them to identify potential structural challenges and come up with creative solutions or compromises with the architects in a timely manner. [2]

BIM technologies allow all parties to have access to the project, to easily make changes in the design, and efficiently evaluate the performance of the design at all stages of the process. These characteristic make BIM ideal if not essential to the collaborative design described above. BIM will definitely bring a significant improvement in our field. BIM facilitates collaboration of all the parties involved, and allow a creativity and innovation in the design. The implementation of BIM will require a great shift in the way things are currently done in the industry, but it is already happening. The old way of doing things as Engineers and Architects work separately using their own tools and software, and ignoring what the other side is doing until the very end. Because of this their are often communication problem between both parties, a lot of frustration, and a lot of time and money wasted. The use of BIM allows both parties to use the same tools and technologies, so information is not lost in conversion. The fact of using the same technologies also encourages collaboration, and avoids the headache of modify a finished design. Errors are caught quickly in the design process since BIM allows easier simulations, testing, and evaluations. Building built using Integrated Design often use BIM to streamline the processes. 

I'm glad to see more and more school add BIM to their curriculum, and more companies switching to BIM. I think this will allow to bring our field to new, exciting places. I have shared my co op experience in my previous blog post, and discussed how the use of Revit has increased the performance of the building estimators by about 50%. Also, I believe I'm not the only one. Most of us have experienced the benefits of BIM technologies when it come to the design of building, and it will only get better with time. 

References:

[1]"Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide." The American Institute of Architects. AIA National. 2007. Web. 
[2] Halevi, Tasha. "Integrated Design: Better Buildings through Collaboration." Architectural Energy Corporation. N.p. N.d. Web

Comments on other posts:

Dave Barbalace: Your post was great. It is important to understand the limitation of BIM technologies. Although they make a lot of the work easier and allow for a lot of creativity in the design, it is important to remember that their costs can be a real problem for small firms. After reading your article I realize how firms that can't afford to train their worker and upgrade to BIM can be left behind in the revolution and essentially disappear. As with everything it is important to find a balance, so that little companies stand a chance.

Weiyang Wang: I also chose to focus on the question of whether or not BIM would improve future building. Like you, I think that BIM technology will greatly improve the way things are done. I like that you focused on the issue of sustainability and energy conservancy. I once tried to use Revit to perform an energy analysis of my building, it was a little tedious but we obtain a good results. People that were familiar with that function of the software even designed their HVAC single line diagram in Revit. Have you had similar experiences? There are also a lot of software available to perform energy analysis, so how do you think BIM is better than these specialize software?