A Decade of BIM! What’s Next?
Our business has spend the last 10 years enabling and supporting companies, project teams and individuals, in Ireland, to use and implement BIM (building information modelling) and digital processes, for producing, managing and exchanging “information” about buildings, infrastructure and the built environment.
To be honest, we really didn’t anticipate 10 years ago, how difficult a “challenge” it would be, to get the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Property Real Estate, or Built Asset Management Industries to “Change” from their legacy “paper-based” practices. We naively thought everyone would be very eager to make significant improvements in the way they worked, and the quality of work they delivered, through “digitisation”. But the last 10 years has showed us how “ingrained” those paper-based practices are in our industry, and the extreme resistance to change has been “remarkable”, to say the least. Trying to “enable and support” people on their digital journey, in this environment, has not been easy, but it has been a rewarding challenge. We've had the opportunity to work with some of the best people, and most innovative companies in construction in Ireland.
“Change” is happening, and whole-scale “digitisation” is inevitable now (even if we have to wait for a generation of “luddites” to retire or get out of the way). So, the question is "what do we focus our attention to for the next decade?"
Meeting global demand, or need, for “built infrastructure”, to support a growing, ageing, urbanising population, and their needs for energy, water, food, housing, education, healthcare, etc, and doing that in a “sustainable way” (without destroying ourselves in the process). These will be the challenges of the next decade. At current “productivity” levels in the construction sector, we don’t have the skills, and output, to meet that demand. Evidence of a “Crisis in Infrastructure” is everywhere. We need new, better, quicker, cheaper ways of delivering built infrastructure. We need to significantly increase “productivity”. We need to engage a much greater, and far more diverse group of people, of different ages, gender, ethnic background, in the work of delivering built infrastructure. The great thing about “Digital Construction”, automation, and a manufacturing approach to construction, is that “location”, and “physical strength”, will become increasingly irrelevant, as machines take over labour-intensive and risky work, with “knowledge & skills” deployed by a remote, digitally-enable workforce, able to collaborate across regions, over digital networks, becoming more important.
We see “Innovation” becoming the “big topic” of the next decade. Enthusiastic, committed, bright people, coming together, collaborating, developing ideas, processes, tools, materials and devices, to solve big challenges and meet the demands for the built environment of the future. And we are convinced that “solutions” to these future challenges, will not be met by individuals working alone, or “siloed” organisations, but through open “collaborations”. And so, with "Innovation" being the thing that's needed, we are excited to be participating in the aecHive “Community of Innovators” – a group which aims to tackle these challenges over the next decade. Hope to see you there. www.aechive.net
Let's hope that in 10 years, we’ll be talking about a Decade of “Innovation”.
We wish everyone an exciting and prosperous 2020 and beyond. Go make the "Built Environment" great!