My first Publication Arup_BuildingDesign2020_v2 | Page 26

BIM implementation in the Manchester
Town Hall Complex refurbishment project
enhanced communication between
stakeholders, improved approvals turnaround
and identified crucial workflows in simulated
works and demolition processes.
The use of BIM techniques in the
Manchester Town Hall Complex project is
credited with reducing construction timelines
by nine months. As the UK e Government
scales up to mandatory BIM use, this pilot
project will provide crucial data regarding the
utility of BIM-based processes in Facilities
Management (FM) tasks beyond basic design
and construction.
Location / Business: Manchester, UK.
Ian Simpson Architects for Manchester City
Council for private use.
Case Study: BIM in Singapore
Case Study: Building Information Management (BIM) in the UK
The Singapore Building and Construction
Authority has developed a roadmap designed
to encourage and enable full BIM adoption
across all Singaporean construction projects
by 2015, including collaboration guidelines,
submission templates, and the establishment
of a national fund for training and
consultancy assistance.
The Singapore government has thrown
its full weight behind standardizing BIM
adoption across all of the nation’s building
projects. The establishment of a $6M fund to
help Singaporean design firms transition to
BIM from CAD and the unilateral promotion of
BIM as a specialty in Singaporean universities
speak to the seriousness of the nationwide
effort. The government expects as much as a
25% improvement in construction productivity
as a result of the initiative.
Location / Business: Singapore. Singapore
Building and Construction Authority for
public use.
Governmental Uptake 2.3 Construction
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been the subject
of widespread discussion in the building design industry over
the past decade. To date, however, the benefits of BIM have
been limited, as adoption of the standard has been scattershot.
This is changing, as BIM uptake by public authorities
both at the local and national level is expected to accelerate
considerably over the next decade. At present, BIM is
mandated at the national level in various countries around
the world, including the Australia, Singapore and the
United Kingdom.
HM Government Report of the United Kingdom notes
that “by 2016 all [UK] Government construction projects

will be using BIM at level 2, irrespective of project size,”
and that “between 2016 and 2025 it is expected that the UK
Government and industry will move to Level 3 BIM.”
Australia’s National BIM Initiative forecasts a $7.6b
improvement in the national economy over the next decade,
and stipulates that remaining at the forefront of BIM
development is a critical component of the nation’s continued
strategic competitiveness in the built environment sector. New construction methodologies and requirements for
regulatory compliance are transforming building design at
the material, component and systemic levels. Building design
professionals’ workflow will increasingly require a familiarity
with both sophisticated materials and newly developed
processes of automated and digital fabrication. Process
optimisation and prefabrication will offer the possibility of
reducing both project timelines and environmental impact
during the construction phase.
Unconventional and crossover skills, such as computer
science, industrial design and robotics will become as
important to construction projects as traditional architecture
and engineering experience. Construction, like all components
of building design, will benefit from open data programmes
and advanced collaboration tools. Ultimately, new construction
approaches will not only impact the processes and skills
involved in building design, but may enable entirely new types
of projects.
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