Come on, say it with me...C O L L A B O R A T I O N. Maybe Joan Rivers put it best, "Can we talk?!". When was the last time you reviewed the AIA E202 contract documents? Each and every project/owner/client is special. They have their own agenda and it is our job as Design Professionals to understand and educate them in order to achieve that end goal, a happy return client.
BIM can be as simple or complex as we want to make it. Truth be told we've been doing BIM since the first days of AutoCAD. Some might even argue that we've been doing BIM ever since Grog and Kronk first sketched their village on the walls of a cave. Building Information Modeling, attributes in AutoCAD were information, even the layers, lines, blocks, hatches, etc. were information, it's all information about a building and who says a model has to be 3D?
How many of you out there actually have a Project Initiation Meeting that includes your BIM/CAD Manager or your lead BIM Specialist? As we move to a more complex BIM, much more forethought and planning needs to be given to how this information is going to come together. Work flow becomes a major issue as the project size gets larger. By project size, I don't mean just square footage/meters, I mean Level of Detail. OK, now go back and read the AIA E202 documents I mentioned earlier. Including your BIM experts early on in the discussions of a project allows them to understand the scope of work and how to best make adjustments for work flow issues. A client that wants a fully rendered walk-through animation of his completed project, which in turn will be handed over to his Facilities Management team for the life-cycle of the building, cradle to grave, is going to require a different approach to BIM than any other project in the office.
Collaboration first starts with us, The Architect, The Client, and our Staff.
More to follow........
