In a bid to support professionals in the built environment sector, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has released three new research reports focused on Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM has largely become a symbol in some quarters of how technology is changing and the profound impact this will have on how the sector develops into the future.
Says TC Chetty, RICS Country Manager for South Africa: “The new research papers aim to share insights and experiences from various stages of the real estate life-cycle and examine various aspects of how and where BIM technologies are employed to improve project coordination. BIM was originally developed by the architecture, engineering and construction sectors but as these research papers illustrate, it also has its uses in other areas and sectors where it can influence project costs and facilitate better information flow.”
Says Alan Muse, RICS Global Director of Built Environment Professional Groups: “These new reports look at the development and effects of BIM across valuation and construction. They emphasise that a collaborative tool requires collaborative implementation in order to gain the full benefits of improved technology and standards”.
Says Chetty: “As the built environment sector begins to see the value of BIM and as it is adopted internationally the case for international standards becomes clearer. International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS) can support BIM standards and help provide a common direction to how BIM develops in different countries. RICS is currently working in a coalition of global organisations to create such overarching international standards that will harmonise cost, classification and measurement definitions in the constructions sector. This will enhance comparability, consistency and benchmarking of capital projects around the world.”
Adds Muse: “Improving certainty in construction delivery is key to encouraging greater global investment in buildings and infrastructure. Collaboration and integration are the cornerstones of project performance improvement and hence improved certainty. BIM is a tool to drive this change. International Construction Measurement Standards also aim to improve certainty through harmonising construction measurement and cost. BIM and ICMS inter-connect, because better standards improve the global application of BIM tools.”
In several countries around the world, governments and professional bodies are seeing the advantages of BIM. In the UK, the government requires that collaborative 3D BIM be used for all its projects by 2016. In the US, the General Services Administration – which manages US Federal Properties – has mandated the use of BIM at the design stage of its buildings. In Canada non-governmental agencies such as the Canada BIM Council and others have been formed to facilitate and promote the use of BIM across the construction industry on both public and private sector projects.