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National BIM Report 2012 |

Are you sitting comfortably...?

by James Austin
BIM Leader, _space Group

I spend a lot of time giving presentations, and nearly as much on twitter. But it's not very often that I get asked to tell a story, and that is exactly what has happened here. I'm going to explore the relationship our company has had with BIM over the last 10 years, and how our understanding of what exactly BIM means to us has evolved (without a single attempt at writing a definition, I promise).

I should point out a few things first. We are not a global practice, working on mutli-billion dollar projects across the world. _space group are currently a national UK practice of around 100 people, working from offices in Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds on projects mainly in the UK, with a focus on the Northern region. In recent years, we have completed a lot of projects in the public sector, particularly education and healthcare projects, whilst maintaining a good spread across the other sectors in support of that body of work.

Baltic Place, photograph by Graham Peacock

Baltic Place, photograph by Graham Peacock

My story starts with Revit, way before we knew about BIM. We saw it and immediately thought "that's clever" sometime around 2000, before it was acquired by Autodesk. In the period leading up to 2004, we began our move into 3D modelling, and soon purchased the hardware and software to begin our BIM implementation. Armed with our shiny new boxes, we waded in and trained practically the whole office in Revit – thinking we had BIM (we'd heard of it by then) cracked. Looking back, this was the first mistake we made. Because the majority of projects were either in progress, or high pressure bid submissions, uptake and adoption was slow and our newly acquired skills quickly diminished.

However on some projects we began to see traction, and in mid-2005, we decided to undertake the delivery of a complete project, using Revit on Washington School as part of Sunderland Schools BSF. The project ran smoothly and was our first serious foray into collaborative modelling – integrating our model with the fabrication model from the steelwork fabricator. As the first project, we ran it in parallel to another similar sized school delivered the 'traditional' 2D way. On completion, we assessed the projects against each other for lessons learned.

Coordination disappeared overnight. The need to verify plans against sections, elevations, schedules and the like is removed, because all information is from the same single source. I think this benefit is so huge, and this is what formed the backbone of our decision to proceed in our implementation to the whole company.
Because of this, resourcing on the Revit project was much more efficient. For the two year duration of Washington, two people ran the job, with two more joining during the early stages for just four weeks in a busy period. Compared with a constant four on the CAD project, rising to six or seven, this represented a significant increase in efficiency.
The integration of the two models immediately demonstrated savings, as we picked up two errors that were not illustrated on drawings. With the remedial works these would have resulted in if installed were calculated, the bill totalled £10,000.
We found our own flexibility and ability to make changes was greatly enhanced. For example, when designing the first floor partitions it became apparent that we would need either additional windposts or an increase in drylining stud section. In less than 12 hours, we were able to present the changes, together with all drawings, schedules and the implications to contract area limits (+/-5% of bid submission). Whichever way the decision went, we could have moved forward immediately, something we couldn't have contemplated doing when working in CAD.

These are just the headlines from a single project, but they marked the beginning of our move into BIM. Very soon after we had completed the project, I sat down with our CEO and we began discussions about how we would build on this. He and the other Directors had a very clear vision that built upon the success of Washington and they were able to take those lessons throughout the business.

Delivering that vision focussed on a few key areas. In order to implement change throughout the business, we would need to look at training, support and culture to make sure that unlike our first foray, this time it stuck.

Training

We decided that we needed to look at our training strategy in some detail. We had wasted a considerable amount of time and money the first time around with a poorly executed approach, and we were keen to learn lessons second time out. This time, we devised our own modular approach to training that wasn't widely available, so we went out and found ourselves someone that would work with us to deliver it.

We then decided on a very deliberate strategy. This identified projects and people that were at the right stage to implement the transition to Revit, both from a timing and attitude point of view. We then applied a 'just in time' method of delivery to the training, delivering training the week before using the software on a live project, followed with further training a month or so later. In the meantime, this was backed up with a lot of support from those who had used Revit before, including myself.

Support

As we developed our approach to training, we realised from our earlier attempts that mentality and cultural change were the biggest barriers to adoption. So we focussed a lot of time on changing the way in which we supported our people as they moved into a different way of working. As well as the training, we also supplied 'mentor-days' where the trainers were available for one-on-one sessions at your desk to solve individual problems, or areas of confusion. These worked to some extent, but lots of people were slow in coming forward, so we also came up with revitspace. This was initially conceived as an intranet site, but we quickly realised the benefits of opening this up to the wider community and took it public. Here we had a central resource for content, assistance and discussion, and it has grown into a community of over 3000 members worldwide. Supplementary to this, we have since rolled out our own BIM protocols, and regularly audit our projects.

Culture

And so as we delivered all of this training and backed this up with different methods of support, we began to change the culture. People quickly realised that this was not a passing trend, and in early 2008 we made the commitment to undertake every new project in Revit.

I don't think this change is possible without the backing of the Directors, and this 'top-down' approach meant that we were able to gradually move through barriers and the opposition that inevitably occurs when such major change is implemented. It was made very clear from the off, that if you didn't get the shift in our thinking, then you wouldn't fit into where the business was going to be.

And so we established the basis for the next stage of development. Our core understanding of Revit and the shift in approach to intelligent 3D modelling began to pave the way for our first steps into BIM. As we grew more confident in what we were able to do, we looked to expand our services to incorporate what was to us the next logical step in the way that we worked.

I think at this point in time (early 2008) we really began to understand the difference between BIM and Revit. As we found our confidence in what we could provide, we started to challenge those around us and share what we had learnt with them. We began to request models to instigate collaborative working, and we began to explore what we could do with other disciplines by starting our 'Revit in Practice' seminars (still running today, though now known as 'BIM in practice'). As we did so, we opened up a wider discussion about the benefits of BIM regionally, in our industry, and we began to understand some of the challenges that the industry would be presented with, going forward.

Single model working

Early on, we spent quite some time investigating the opportunity for single model collaboration, and there was quite a lot of discussion (and worry) that this would be the way forward. We looked into FTP model hosting sites, and had some fairly large contractor clients tell us that everyone must work on the same platform to facilitate this approach. I think now, three or four years later, we all understand that this is not the way BIM is going to happen. With the emergence of collaborative products such as Navisworks, Vico, Tekla BIMsight and the like, we are seeing a step change in the way in which we bring together information. This shift away from a single platform, to collaborative, intelligent, attribute-laden models satisfies all parts of the construction project from inception to management and feeds our hunger for data at all stages.

Glass ceilings

Back in 2008, we were not finding many of the answers we needed here in the UK, so we took ourselves over to America and attended AU 2009. This opened our eyes to another AEC industry that has been practising BIM actively for some time – it was here that I first heard the adage that in the UK we are 'thinkers', whilst in the States they are 'doers'. Here we saw case studies of BIM projects, and saw workflows discovered by working collaboratively each and every day – as well as all of the latest technologies and where they were being applied. We came back to the UK with a clear steer for where we wanted to be, and returning to AU 2010, we continued that learning curve.

Technology

The learning curve expanded exponentially in terms of our technology adoption. As our eyes opened to the potential of BIM and we gained confidence in using the software, we began to expand our use of it. One of the first things we experimented with was linking our project specifications into the model, removing the need to manually type all of our notes on details, as they became parametric tags of embodied information. We also began to demand a new level of survey and after AU 2009, we began a long excursion into the world of laser scanning that continues today. We are now actively working on projects that model time and cost (also known as 4D and 5D), and are exploring the potential for modelling risk as an element that can be clashed and reported for enhanced Health and Safety.

Context

I mentioned that our perception of BIM has evolved over the past decade. We tend to refer to BIM as a process of change management more than anything else, and I think this most accurately reflects the process as a whole. From our first tentative steps, we have gone from 3D modelling to little BIM, through lonely BIM and into Big BIM®. This has altered _space group's DNA entirely – we now operate with an approach more akin to the manufacturing industry, producing our own manufactured products as well as traditional services, and even creating and managing our own online ventures – not what you would traditionally expect an architectural firm to do. On a parallel route, we have watched the wider context change as well, from us pushing outwards, to a government that has just begun to pull the industry with the release of its long awaited (amongst the BIM community at least) Construction Strategy.

BIM

And so to the happily ever after. BIM has become something of a meaningless acronym to many people in recent times. Rarely a day passes without it featuring in the architectural or construction press, as everyone strives to get their point of view across (I am acutely aware of what that statement means to this site!). However I think we have watched our understanding of BIM evolve over the past decade, and I think it puts us in a good position to realise the opportunities it has to offer. In my opinion the goalposts have shifted. Collaborative working from inception to use is moving swiftly from being a designer's desire to a client's demand, and those that are looking to preserve and reinforce their traditional positions are, in my opinion at least, securing themselves redundancy in the construction industry of the future. Move with the times and challenge the norm, it's much more fun anyway.

Washington School and Autodesk Revit

Biography

James Austin, BIM Leader, _space Group

Currently managing and overseeing the implementation of BIM at _space group in the United Kingdom.

My role has seen me develop strategies for training, software selection and implementation and ensuring that they enhance our capability to work in a truly embedded BIM process from validation to management of our projects.

As a keen BIM evangelist, and part of the team behind www.revitspace.co.uk, my role is increasingly focussed on supporting that BIM process, and this has seen me deliver many presentations to clients, colleagues and students regarding BIM and its implementation in the UK construction industry.

I'm a passionate advocate of the process, and write at least a couple of blogs as well as maintaining an unhealthy fascination for social media.