BIM Busters - BIM is about Modeling

If this is true, it should be called MIB. Unfortunately, a blockbuster has already taken the name…

Many of the discussions I follow in my classes and online about BIM focus heavily on either the geometric modeling or the information management aspect:

• There are tendencies to proclaim that a construction site without plans is an excellent step in the right direction.

• Others say it's all about Information and that we all need to become programmers.

• Others say only the geometry is important.

Everybody looks at reality through their own filter. I do, as well. But I don't see any discussions about the B in BIM - the Building. It seems we take this for granted and focus either on the "I or M". Any discussions about buildings we leave to the traditional practice and create this rift between BIM people and other building professionals.

I believe that's a big mistake, and we would avoid meaningless discussions if we see the order or the letters in BIM according to their priorities:

B … Building

It's about creating great buildings or, even better, a great environment we all live in now and in the future. It's our job as professionals to find the best way of doing so. As lean management methods heavily influence my thinking this is reflected in the lean principle of "orientation on the customer value". So we should try to maximize everything that creates value, optimize everything necessary to make the value, and eliminate everything that is just wasted on the way. That's why it always bothers me that the discussions about BIM still heavily focus on clash detection. A clash is just a waste, and it's great that we find clashes easier and better. However, a good coordinator sets the project up so no (minimal) clashes happen. Seeing projects with tens of thousands of clashes is precisely the opposite, and it just creates more waste in managing BCFs and solving unavoidable conflicts. 

I … Information

I like Gregory Bateson's definition of Information best, and I think it suits our Industry well:

Information is a difference that makes a difference. 

The difference in the first part is the contrast of the black ink on the white paper/screen that we can perceive. Computers can interpret the numerical difference between 0 and 1. But when we stop here, we have data. There has to be some goal behind it - it needs to create a tangible difference for somebody and, in the best case, according to the goals above, due to the B. 

We know that we will face a dramatic labor shortage in the near future (at least in the Western world), we know that we will face environmental challenges that will cause political challenges, and when we interpolate the current trends, we know we will double the built footprint in the next 30 years. This means a huge change is coming. And the only chance we have to manage change like that is by embracing digital methods and mindsets. And with this, I mean automation of what is necessary and not value-creating. E.g. doing manual measurements as a quantity surveyor or remodeling as a building physicist is necessary so that they can do their job. I don't believe in the fairy tale that architects will suddenly deliver models with the right qualities. If this were so simple, we could have already done that in CAD. But it did not happen. 

No, I believe we have to find intelligent ways of utilizing algorithms to optimize these manual steps, so that the specialists can focus on value creation. E.g. calculating costs or interpreting simulation results. One of our driving forces behind abstractBIM.

Therefore, I see the focus on Information or, even better, the focus on the flow of Information as the second priority of BIM. Once we do so, we can become more efficient and utilize these automated workflows to design better buildings. 

M … Modeling

The physical shape, the geometry, is the placeholder to give the Information a position so that it becomes easier to make a difference. Saying this, I believe it's super important to create physically fit representations to utilize models for construction and enable better client decisions through easier communication. 

It's great that many projects and offices now produce digital models with a geometry that accurately represents reality. But stopping here would be a big mistake. The use case of a geometric accurate model is only optimizing what our clients expect anyway:

1. Creation of plans/models (means to communicate ideas).

2. A foundation for geometric coordination (and I think you got my take on it).

Only if we manage to utilize Information to become faster can we employ digital methods to deliver better buildings. That's because we can work more iteratively and provide better foundations for decisions already in the early design stages without having to go through all the currently necessary manual steps.

When looking at the I or data, we can either focus on the project or the cross-project level. Currently, we barely manage the project level to a certain extent. Due to abstractBIM, I looked at thousands of architectural BIM models. Most of them have at least an IFC entity that is quite accurate and one attribute with a more or less speaking name. 

Singel-project view vs. multi-project view

Moving from this single-project view to a cross-project view and being able to compare and benchmark different projects is almost impossible unless you utilize some kind of data normalization like we do with the abstractBIM. 

This means we started now to make these projects comparable and make it possible to drill down in the data. We can utilize big data methods to analyze any new project. With simple Benchmarks, we could already make a difference. For example, by analyzing the benchmark of the circulation area to the usable area of office buildings, we could predict an inaccurate cost allocation for core and tenant costs. In another project, we could prevent unfeasible window sizes by analyzing the window-to-ceiling area and avoiding overheating or higher installation costs. These are basic examples, but we are sure many other relations are hidden in the data. Once we have it, we can explore it and utilize it to make better decisions - to make a difference. That’s what we started with the Building Copilot.

Although BIM became such an overhyped buzzword, looking at the underlying ideas and focusing on what's important is still valid. So don't forget the next time you are dragged into a useless discussion—it's called BIM and has nothing to do with MIB (Men in Black).