Feature
IMPLEMENTATION OF BIM
FROM A CONSULTANT’S DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
By Craig Blankers of WSP
In the South African context, building information modelling (BIM) is rapidly
gaining traction due to technological advances and the availability thereof —
how can this benefit the HVAC&R consultant?
T
he competition in the built environment between
capital investors, professional design consultants,
and construction contractors is linearly increasing due to
population and resource demands globally. To obtain a
competitive advantage, professional teams are continuously
searching for more efficient techniques to complete projects
with minimal complications and for the most desirable
combination of cost, quality, and project completion time.
Through the use of BIM, professional teams are able
to communicate more effectively in the planning, design,
construction, operation, and maintenance phases, with
the addition of predetermined accessibility to relevant
contractual documentation uploads through a common data
environment (CDE).
ADVANTAGES OF BIM
one process. Architects, engineers, and professional team
members are becoming more proficient and advanced in BIM
as the implementation on projects is increasing.
According to ASHRAE, the greatest value of BIM is its
potential to reduce project costs, increase productivity from
the design and implementation process, reduce errors, and
improve the overall quality of the work produced and installed
in the built environment. It is important to ensure that all
team members, be it the professional team or contractors, are
proficient in the utilisation and implementation of BIM.
CONTRACTORS AND BIM
Although contractors are often not involved in the integral
design of the building and its systems, their role in the
utilisation and implementation of BIM with regard to
integrated building design (IBD) may be limited. However,
when referring to integrated project delivery (IPD), the
contractors place a critical role in the implementation and
development thereof. In order to further develop this concept,
it is important to fully understand all the elements of BIM.
A flow chart depicting the progression from and a visual
representation of each stage is given in Figure 1.
The conventional workflow of the construction industry is being
disrupted through the advances of intelligent architectural and
engineering design models. These intelligent design models,
through the use of BIM, aid in the reduction of project costs
and time, and enhance installation quality through various
workflow packages integrated into a CDE. As a result of a CDE,
a platform to promote stakeholder collaboration is
created by enhancing communication through the
digitisation of information sharing and documentation.
The advantages of BIM are becoming clearer
to professional team members who are using
the software adequately, and internal processes
are being optimised from all design facets. The
benefits of professional team members using BIM
from a design perspective eliminates the need for
designers to work in silos, as coordination of services
is no longer an afterthought. Designers are able to
upload multidisciplinary services on a live model and
design their individual systems to suit, as opposed
to designing in two-dimensional plan views and
coordinating services afterwards. The time saved from
the design perspective is invaluable as the design
and coordination processes are amalgamated into
Figure 1: Transition from 2D to 6D.
32
RACA Journal I January 2019
www.hvacronline.co.za