BIM & Revit in Practical Use

Last week I attended the BIM in Wolves event at Wolverhampton University to give a talk on BIM sceptical clients from experience. It included methods on how we convinced the client this could benefit them, and how to ensure buy in from the design team and contractor. We received some great feedback from students and practitioners alike, so a good job done, and a massive thanks for our graphic designer for compiling and carrying out the creation of our slide show, and a big thanks to Simon Crosby, one of our directors who took part in the talk with me. 

I always enjoy these types of events as I get to catch up with counterparts and specialists from other companies. Plus its a chance to see what technologies they are utilising, and if they find them successful. It could be seen as free R&R for our own practice? Its a small scale of by BIM Tour articles (of which I have a few more ready to go...).

One thing that was very noticeable was the push from industry specialists to simplify BIM to the non-initiated. Acronyms and complicated (on the surface) workflows seem to be holding back BIM’s integration as ‘business as usual’ in practices, especially in smaller practices or SME practices (Small Medium Enterprises), due to software costs and training. 

Lydia Moth from Architype gave a great simplified presentation of what BIM is in lamen’s terms, and how its not as intimidating as it may first appear. 

I then attended Derek Lawrence from Arups presentation on Simplified BIM when built. This was a great look at how to give the client what they need, not what they think they want. If you get chance to see this, then i highly recommend it. There’s even a look into what his Mom has been upto. (Its relevant, believe me). 

One presentation I was eager to get to was by Alexa Woodward from Glancy Nicholl’s about BIM in Historic building environments. This is one presentation that I’ve been trying to see for ages, and I found it was worth the wait. It was a really interesting look at how using the right technologies, and the learning curves with these methods are relevant.

Unfortunately, due to both presenting, and the split rooms, I didn’t get to see all the presentations, but the method works well, in everyone being able to attend workshops that may meet their needs or interests, rather than a single set agenda. 

In conclusion, the event was well set up, and had some great speakers on, where I learnt some new ideas to incorporate into Corstorphine + Wright’s workflows. Thanks to Conor from the RIBA and Olive from Wolves Uni, and also the rest of the team for arranging the event. 

A considerable amount of the projects I work on now tend to be refurb in existing buildings. What I try to push is the use of point cloud surveying, and the associated benefits that come with it. The most obvious (nearly) immediate benefit is that we receive TruView data from the surveyor, meaning we have multipoint 3D photographs, with measuring facilities (pinch of salt there). 

Obviously, I’d love to post loads of photos of how intrusive this can be, especially when the project is 150 miles away, and I need to check one little detail, but with the security and privacy some of these projects command, a simple photo below is all I can really show: