Unlocking the Potential of Building Information Modeling to the Residential Owners
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Home Page > Business > Outsourcing > Unlocking the Potential of Building Information Modeling to the Residential Owners
Unlocking the Potential of Building Information Modeling to the Residential Owners
Posted: Jan 07, 2011 |Comments: 0
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Introduction
Over the last couple of years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been one of the most visible aspects of a deep and fundamental change that is rapidly transforming the global construction industry. SmartMarket Report shows that half of the industry is using BIM/ or BIM-related tools today, indicating a 75% increase in usage in the last two years. The Construction User’s Roundtable (CURT) has recommended that owners are demanding the utilization of BIM on their projects for effective collaboration and improved project quality. The Global Fraternity of Architects (GFA) touts BIM as the future of the construction industry. The AIA is actively redefining the practice of architecture to take advantage of this technology. Despite the fact, the residential sector has been slower in embracing the concept of BIM compared to the commercial. Though BIM has gained quick acceptance on several institutional projects around Europe, the majority buzz around BIM commercial focused. While the potential benefits of BIM can be reaped by all – why is the residential sector remained unfocused? The article has mentioned the principal barriers to the BIM adoption and unlocked the potential of BIM in the residential sector.
Lack of internal understanding of BIM, significant investment, perceived limited value of BIM, less efficient on smaller projects, etc – are the highly rated reasons why residential owners are delaying the adoption of BIM. Besides these, there are others too:
Lack of Client Buy-in: One of the biggest challenges is to obtain buy-in from the owners. Most of the residential owners are not willing to pay the real cost for quality and complete set of plans. They don’t care as much of how the package is delivered (whether it is done in CAD or BIM) as long as the drawings are turned in on schedule. Without their buy-in, it is much harder to “succeed”, shares Philip Chan, LEED AP.
Nature of Design Complexity: There is a common belief that “smaller scale” equates to “fewer issues”. “Residential owners see BIM as a way to improve the design process on tall and large buildings projects,” corroborates Sajeel Khanna, Director – Outsourcing (BIM division), BluEnt.
Availability of Cheap Sketch: Profit margin is incredibly important in this economy. Availability of cheap sketch from drafter or drafting firm is the principal barrier to the adoption of BIM in residential sector.
Lack of Focus and Marketing: Commercial BIM gets the entire buzz for one simple reason: Marketing. Autodesk and Graphisoft focus primarily on commercial clients. Residential BIM users are quite rarely discussed whether it is for architectural, HVAC, structural or energy analysis. So, the potentialities of BIM still remain unknown to the residential sector.
“Marginal” vs “Significant” Benefits: The profit marginality between residential BIM and commercial BIM varies significantly. Compared to commercial, residential BIM achieves lesser outcomes (based on marginal value vs. to expenditures of time/resources vs. commercial structures). A larger project scope is required to move from “marginal” benefits to “significant” benefits. Due to this, residential sector is not ready to dive into the BIM-sphere.
It’s all about the Economy: BIM implementation requires significant investments in technology, staff and training. Moving from the CAD-sphere to BIM-sphere requires more powerful hardware and software, along with a network, servers, and high-speed telecommunications backbone that support the process. During the tough time, you just couldn’t go ask your clients to increase the fees because you are using Revit/BIM (as they didn’t ask for it). Generally, all the additional hours and expenses that put into the implementation became overhead, which is quite tough to manage in this downturn. Since new jobs are much harder to come by these days, residential owners and firms rather hold on their favourite CAD program to deliver until things start picking up.
Interoperability Issues: Data exchange gap between designers and facility managers.
Building Information Management: Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a process which is carried through with the use of software. The success of a BIM project depends on selection of the right BIM tool and implementing it through strategic planning of transitioning, i.e., Management. We can define BIM as the combination of 3Ps: Process, Product and Practice.
Building Information Modeling (project) = Process + Product + Practice
Where: Process = Building + Information + Management
Product = BIM-authoring Tool (Revit, ArchiCAD, Bentley, etc.)
Practice = Management (Strategic Planning of Transitioning)
Factors Influencing Decision to Adopt BIM in Residential:
“Each building sector has its own complications of which BIM can successfully remedy,” suggests Tim Beckman. Agreed Gary Lawes, “BIM could be applied to any project of any scale”. However, BIM is quickly gaining acceptance on several institutional projects around the world, and residential developers are also beginning to realize the benefits. Many early adopters of BIM initially focused on applying the technology to large complex projects. They saw BIM as a way to improve the design process on large projects. Hopefully, those attitudes are changing. Residential owners are realizing that BIM is more of a method than a tool and it can be used throughout the practice today, irrespective of the fields. Now, most new projects of custom green homes are being started in BIM. There are a number of factors that are motivating non-adopters to begin using BIM:
Increased productivity due to Structured Information
Improved collective understanding of design intent
Analysis and simulation capabilities
Improved accuracy
Schedule and Budget
Better-Performing Buildings/Infrastructure
Enhanced operations, maintenance and facility management
Environmental and economic pressures dictating needs for rapid improvements to efficiencies relative to cost and carbon footprint.
Structured Information vs. Residential: BIM is an “activity” and allows total control of a project at all stages between all design and construction members. It is the method that ensures a structured and methodical access to information in the right place and on the right time. It can be used beneficially for “both mega-malls (commercial) and buildings as small as gatehouses,” opines W. Scott Anderson, Principal at AU Group. Continues Anderson, “The advantages (and profitability) are inherent regardless of building type or size.”
Visual Impact and Communication: For owners, 3D modeling is the most critical to improving their business. Residential owners/buyers more often need the visual 3D than do the commercial clients. Many clients don’t fully understand a flat 2D world. When they see it in 3D, they get enlightened and easily convinced. Thus, BIM enables the designers to produce perspectives, like small interior views of the project, which show the scale of the project to the owners as well as their customers, saving a lot of waste, miscommunication and frustration.
BIM vs Custom Green Buildings: Volatile and increasing energy prices, concern about climate change and occupant health consciousness are influencing people across the globe advocate decisive action to make societies green and sustainable. These trends have become of paramount importance for commercial, institutional and residential building owners. Green evangelists are concerned about the current state of energy consumption and carbon emissions worldwide and looking for a stark redirection of current design and construction approaches. BIM can be an effective solution to the climate change, reducing the wastage and carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Many firms in US and Canada are using the Revit (a BIM-authoring tool) for designing custom green homes and residential projects. In Canada, some prefabricated homes plants started working with Revit and ArchiCAD, and planning to use the MEP suite, too, to include pipes in prefabricated floor pannels. In Scandinavia, BIM based fabrication of the family homes is old news.
Future Opportunities and Conclusion: BIM has growing implications for improving the broad scale project ecosystem and enhancing project outcomes for all parties. Each player on a construction project has its own unique workflow and expectations; thus each also has a different value proposition in regards to BIM, and therefore a different experience of business value. Surprisingly, BIM fulfills all expectations. Collaboration (IPD) and teamwork will likely to play an important role in the construction industry in the coming years; and BIM is going to play a critical role in the construction industry.
When computers first came to the market, only big enterprises seemed to realize the the usefulness. Now practically each child has its own. It is true that an established century-old platform (CAD platform) can’t be uprooted overnight. It will take time to transform an industry from one which “finds comfort” with a set of rolled up prints in the back of a pickup truck to one which embraces digital BIM/M data as the EXPECTED deliverable throughout the entire construction process. Remember, nothing stays the same for very long!!!
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About the Author:
Arun Roy is associated with the Architectural Evangelist Magazine. He is also responsible for managing content for the website. He works as a communication associate at BluEnt, an established architecture and drafting firm, serving CAD drafting, construction documents, BIM modeling services, Residential BIM services to the fortune companies worldwide over a decade. To know more about the services and author, visit www.bluentcad.com.
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