The Relational BIM - connecting a BIM database to the mobile web and the Cloud

If Google ever capitalized on Sketchup as a BIM tool, they would be dangerous. Just saying..

BIM Nirvana

In the last few weeks I received a few interesting emails asking about my take on what would be the ideal architecture/construction software of the future.  After checking out to make sure that no responses were to the CAD companies, I set out to ponder this question...

Note, this is not going to address any of the awkwardness of this intern who is missing the big picture...

To process this out, let's think about the process of architecture in an Integrated Delivery manner:

The players: Owner, Architect, Contractor...Engineers, Sub-Contractors, Consultants.

Traditional problems: Systems developed in a vacuum. Keeping current with the design. Translations. Document control. Real-time cost tracking. Options studies. Information duplication/communication. Multiple offices/locations. Product accuracy. Specifications review. Design intent vs. constructability. Design review. Schedule and sequencing. Project management in the model/drawings. Redrawing and rebuilding.

So...

A software package that allows each member of the team to contribute, modify, view, and attribute in a single, modular, and tracked environment that automatically populates schedules, costing, specifications, and the real-time construction/fabrication/erection documents in a coordinated parametric BIM model that can be accessed globally, 24/7, from a single archiveable database that is hosted at a 3rd party secure location and spans outside of corporate firewalls.

That's it. Have at it Bentley/Autodesk/VICO/Google/Graphisoft/player yet to be defined. 

Hopefully one of you will get it right...

Misusing made up words...

Oh words,  you silly silly things you...

After a 2 1/2 hour dialogue this week involving the terminology BIM, we have reached a point where it is as generic as saying CAD or model or ice cream (you gelato people know what I mean...). 

Why, you ask? 

Theoretical Rant:: start::

BIM originally was a push towards a dynamic building model,  which was a resolution of the traditional issues with 2-dimensional documents that were not linked to elevations, sections, etc. Moving into a 3-dimensional environment 10-15 years ago, architects began utilizing 3D for visualization, unconnected models that were detached from the document set.  As we matured, and CADD marketing intervened, we came to realize that we needed architectural models that were the basis of our design, and 2D 'views' dynamically derived in real-time from said model(s).

This, depending on which marketing ploy you conceded to, become Object-oriented modelling or BIM. Throw in some intelligent databasing for scheduling, and you have the basis for what Bentley, Autodesk, Archicad, and others are marketing as BIM today. 

That's great. 

But today the terminology is changing, as we are working dynamically outside the bounds of the architects' offices. Engineers, contractors, and fabricators, are all entering into the 3D arena. One model is not the case anymore, as you have system models that overlay from the EOR and DC trades. Simulation, analytical, cost tracking, sequencing, coordination, and E&O models all exist. BIM has become watered down with all of these.

And worse.

Lawyers are entering into the fray. AIA, AGC, and owners are all trying to interpret this landscape, and without a clear lexicon, this will only create greater confusion.

Where will this go? Hopefully a clean restating of terms. BIM needs to go away, as it is beyond recovery now. We need to look to the future, or even get to where things are today. This includes moving beyond the marketing brochure. This includes a clear definition of activities, who is doing what, and the processes that extend all the way through the lifespan of the model.  

Without this ground, we will not be able to move beyond the developers, able to control and shape the tools and methodologies on our terms.

::end::Theoretical Rant

And ice cream is egg based. Gelato is not ice cream. Sorbet is not ice cream. Get with the times people, these are critical distinctions!!

A Vision (alcohol not included)

This past week has been a great distraction from the last year, which has been one of the few times in the past few years that I have been able to detour from the daily project grind and focus on computing process evolution. To put this in context, it's been an opportunity to explore the use of stereoscopic large scale visualization (more precisely, the use of a CAVE in a VDC process), and the mental retreat has brought with is some enlightenment:

• The future of the architectural project is all about the integrated project team, and everyone working on one model. This is not happening today, as team siloing and planning for risk and lawsuits still define the boundaries that contain the subgroups. The contractual changes of Integrated Project Delivery will overcome one side of the equation, but the software side can only be overcome by vendors, and somebody needs to bitchslap them with the realization of how much time we burn on a project translating files from one application to another.
• Our model data sets are huge, and this is a good thing. 
• Social networking tools may hold a piece of the solution in how architectural teams function. It may turn out to be a necessity of effective project team management.
• Physical, full-size mockups serve a place, but the ability to supplant them with large-scale VR may finally be here.
• We are entering an age of innovation in architectural process, leaving the age of starchitecture.  This requires an open mind towards project delivery, and, more importantly, the perception that the overall project process can be hacked, reordered, and reconstituted into something leaner, more efficient, and one that can both produce better quality and cheaper buildings. 

I am curious to see the next 5 years in architecture - if the current trends hold true, we may be entering a pace of innovation similar to web 1.0, and the revolutionary cycle may leave more than a few traditionalists in it's wake. 

I think I need a drink right about now....