BIM for Architects and Engineers

The process of using BIM in building design and construction will change the type of product and level of building performance that is realized in the early stages of design. In the past, decisions made at the conceptual design stage included the site use, building function, space allocation and general systems awareness. Project designers were able to take the information from the owner and begin to produce building solutions that coincided with past examples of similar functioning buildings as well as accepted practices. With the current green direction that the construction and similar industries are heading towards, a lot of buildings are becoming the first of their kind, with respect to building materials, functions and energy efficient operations. Designers have the opportunity with this new technology to use analysis methods and the results to see how changes to the conceptual design of the building effects design elements such as solar shading, site orientation, space allocations and other building characteristics as well as the overall performance of the building. In reviewing my peers blog posts, I saw that Rita documented that the information gathering at the time of conceptual design includes a few more components, such as "building program, layouts of floor plans, the massing and general appearance of the building".

One of the most significant impacts that BIM has on the building process of design and construction is the ability to perform cost estimation of the project at nearly every staged of design. The cost of construction projects at all design levels in years past were estimated by counting and applying unit costs to each object. This process has worked well but being performed by humans, was susceptible to human error of the correct count of objects and took a considerable amount of time. Using BIM to perform the cost analysis, the resources needed for the project are realized as early as the conceptual design stage. The power of BIM can be used to fill in the missing details at the early stages of design and yet still produce a fairly accurate cost estimation. While the architects and engineers review the design with all involved parties, the cost implications of changing the design across multiple systems can be recalculated and can allow the process of value engineering to take place throughout the design process. Before the abilities of BIM, these changes most likely took place towards the end of the design stage, effectivly the most expensive and troublesome time to make such changes.

Another way the BIM technology will change the way construction industry is the formulation of design teams and the labor resources that must be allocated to each design undertaking. Under traditional design practices, teams would consist of a few senior designers, junior designers and administration help. Projects demanded that the design effort include a large amount of the cost to be dedicated to labor and administration. In the past, design teams spent a considerable amount of time on building the construction document set of 2D drawings. This process required junior engineers to draft drawings and check to make sure that all the details were married to the appropriate sections and plans of the rest of the documents. The BIM design process significantly reduces the amount of time that a construction document set can be compiled by aid of the 3D model and the details that are assignable to each object. Another reduction in labor costs can be seen from the reduction in the number of RFI's and CO's that the team has to process. With BIM, the entire design team, construction managers, subcontractors and vendors are involved with the design process, therefor reducing the likelihood of such errors and omissions. In the future, design teams will be formed taking advantage of the junior professionals that have been exposed to BIM and similar technologies along with fewer senior designers and even less resources allocated to administration. An example of the reduction in the amount of labor hours per project taken from the BIM handbook can be seen in a table located in the post by Jalpesh. It is seen in the table that the intern architect's hours have been drastically reduced from 320 to 96 hours for the particular project. The 233% reduction in labor is due to the use of BIM processes. It should be noted that the amount of hours for the project manager did increase with using BIM. I shared my comment on this blog post. 

In relation to the way that the design teams will be changed, the majority of the personnel will need to be well trained in each BIM feature that is inherent to their particular task. Maria expands on this topic and adds that the initiation of the project as well scheduling will be affected from adopting this new technology and that design firms can use this change in the industry to increase the amount and quality of their work.

SOURCES:
Eastman, Chuck et al. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, n.d. 15 Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.