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Building Information Modeling, better known as BIM, was coined in the late 1970s, just after CAD was introduced.
CAD was the major shift in architecture and construction, which, over the years, companies adopted successfully. But the next major shift, in India, is taking longer than expected despite technological advancements.
AutoCAD, when introduced in 1985, revolutionized the construction industry and India was not too behind. By 2000, CAD was adopted by almost every architecture and construction firms. Even though the first BIM software, ArchiCad, was introduced just a few years after AutoCad, the construction firms are not too keen to adopt it still. The manual drafting to CAD transition was easier for firms to adopt, as both were 2D based working processes.
The computer just replaced the pen and ink, it did not change the design process. The entire network of the AEC sector is so twined in the CAD format of drawings that, they are not able to look beyond the 2 dimensions and accept the multiple dimensions of BIM. The present situation of real estate, in turn, demands the benefits of BIM to bring it out of an existential crisis.
Dimensions of BIM
BIM was thought to be a 3D program, where the building elements are represented in 3 dimensions, for better understanding of design. Over time, the information and features added to the model became so extensive, that it came to be used for deriving various aspects of construction quickly and accurately. These are known as dimensions or dimensional nature of BIM.
Following are the dimensions of BIM:
4D
In 4D, the fourth component which gives extra information about the model is time. In BIM, we can easily get the time value of various components and thus, schedule the activities accordingly. Therefore, it’s easy, fast, and accurate, to estimate the time of project delivery, schedule the construction activities, procurement of materials, and also keep a track of these. Time is an important factor in construction, and BIM provides a solution to manage it.
5D
5th dimension, the cost, is the most valuable component of BIM. Its extremely convenient to attach the costs of materials, labor, equipment and many other elements, so that the estimation of cost is calculated without any human errors. This happens in real-time, so it’s helpful to keep a check on incremental costs while designing the structure.
The easiest method to implement this at the concept stage is to add a cost property to a wall component. So whenever you draw the walls, you will get the cost estimate of constructing the wall, with brickwork, plastering, and painting all at once.
6D
Another aspect of building design- its energy consumption and sustainability of the structure, can be carried out successfully with BIM. This forms the 6th dimension of the model, wherein, various tests and simulations can be performed. This helps to understand the life cycle costs of the structure, energy efficiency, cooling effects, etc.
The results derived from these tests are used to design buildings more efficiently to achieve optimum results. India is at a stage, where there is a higher consumption of resources and thus, sustainable & eco-friendly solutions can work in its favor.
7D
As time progressed, engineers came to know that the model designed in BIM contained so many details, that it replicated the original structure and it’s specifications accurately.
Why can’t this model be used in managing the structure efficiently, after the handover? Thus came the 7th dimension, the role of facilities management. Earlier, facilities management had a narrower scope which limited only up to office buildings. But, with the advent of BIM and smarter technologies, facilities management has grown into a standalone sector. Thus, managing the post-handover phase of the building throughout its life cycle.
What’s the future…any more dimensions?
Technology is mainly driving the construction sector to newer and smarter ways of designing. With time and efficiency being the top priority, designers want the most optimum solution to a particular problem, through continuous iterations. As manual iterations take time, this process is simplified by a method called generative design.
In the generative design process, a problem is tested through various constraints and values by artificial intelligence(AI), to get the most optimum or desired solution. The AI tests through thousands of iterations, which is practically impossible to be carried out manually. This might turn out to be the 8th dimension of BIM adding more value to the process.
AEC industry is Specialized and Fragmented
For being efficient and competitive in the market, the sector fragmented itself into various specialized services. This specialized personnel cater to the problems related to their study only and have little or no knowledge about the other sectors. Though this provides the best solution to a problem, it also narrows the area of study and future possibilities of scaling.
The industry, in its course of time, thus got distributed into a number of segments. Also, they do not have any standard procedure. The network thus formed is on the basis of the traditional working model. If anyone of the segment thought of updating itself, the rest of the connections need to be updated.
Subsidiary connections would only update if, their further subsidiaries are ready to update. Thus this complex network is so much dependent on each other. This results in a change in the working of a company are restricted. This is the reason why BIM is struggling to get into this Indian AEC sector.
Every architecture & design firm, with the construction companies, should adopt a mindset for change first, with a new set of networks, so as to bring BIM into existence. If you think of starting afresh, start with BIM itself, rather than using CAD, if you don’t want to fall into the rat race!
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