BIM in a Few Years

The pace in which technology is evolving, and especially BIM, is pretty incredible. Opening up AutoCAD from just a few years back may seem extremely outdated and inconvenient to use. Every year new versions of BIM software come out with additional and improved functions. Looking into the future, it seems like the abilities of BIM will be infinite. The construction of buildings is slowly transferring from the site to the computer; buildings are completely built using BIM software before any material is purchased. This process allows for many advantages such as scheduling, load calculations, visualization, etc. Conversely, it forces drastic structural changes in the construction industry that may take some time to adjust to.

Looking in the past, we have undergone similar changes: when building plans were originally drafted, when engineering was separated from architecture, when CAD was first introduced to the industry… All of those changes transform the construction industry to what it is today, but it seems like we are in the beginning of another major transformation. We are going to see less and less change orders, contractors will have less autonomy is altering the final product, and overall communication between engineers, architects and contractor will increase. Everyone is going to have to adjust to the new condition very quickly. The sociological problem, in my opinion, is more critical than the technological one. Sure, we are going to see more and more buildings being completely design using BIM and BIM capabilities increase, and perhaps it will become an industry standard in the next five to ten years, but are the designers who grew up in the era of hand-drafting ready for this steep change? I believe we, as an industry, will be able to get over the initial shock and adopt BIM pretty quickly, just like we have when machinery was introduced to production and smartphones were introduced for personal use. These changes will definitely be impactful on our society and industry.