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. 26 Building Design 2020 27