Architectural Technology and the BIM Acronym 3: Getting to Grips with BIM

Among Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in particular, the UK Government’s ambitions regarding BIM uptake and diffusion across the construction sector may be tempered by a realpolitik shaped in part by interactions between the industry, Higher Education (HE) and professional practice. That premise also has a global perspective. Building on the previous 2 papers, Architectural technology and the BIM Acronym 1 and 2, this third iteration is a synthesis of research and investigations carried out over a number of years directly related to the practical implementation of BIM and its impact upon BE SMEs. First challenges, risks and potential benefits for SMEs and micros in facing up to the necessity to engage with digital tools in a competitive and volatile marketplace are discussed including tailoring BIM to suit business models, and filtering out achievable BIM outcomes from generic and bespoke aspects of practice. Second the focus is on setting up and managing teams engaging with BIM scenarios, including the role of clients; addresses a range of paradigms including lonely BIM and collaborative working. The significance of taking a whole life view with BIM is investigated including embedding soft landings principles into project planning and realisation. Thirdly procedures for setting up and managing common data environments are identified and the value of achieving smooth information flow is addressed. The overall objective of this paper is to provide SMEs with a practical strategy to develop a toolkit to BIM implementation.