The development of Level 3 BIM is a key area of focus for the BRE’s new head of built environment research, Jeremy Watson.
A professor of engineering systems at University College London and former chief scientific adviser for the Department of Communities and Local Government, Watson has been appointed to oversee the research programme delivered by BRE and five university “centres of excellence” – at Bath, Cardiff, Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Brasilia.
In the part-time role, Watson will set strategic research goals around the role of digital technology in delivering cites of the future, part of which will involve looking at real-time data and software interoperability issues related to the development of Level 3 BIM. This is commonly understood to harness “4D” construction sequencing, “5D” cost information and “6D” project lifecycle management information.
Watson told CM: “A major challenge with developing effective Level 3 BIM is how to embed real-time data within a static Level 2 environment. Research is needed into the interoperability of software tools, creating new meta languages and representations to allow the transparent movement of data between different systems.
“We expect entirely new areas of business to develop around smart facilities management and preventative maintenance designed to improve the efficiency of building operation and ultimately the user experience of these increasingly complex systems.”
Jeremy Watson
“It’s not about specifying new tool sets, there are some very good ones already, it is more about making sure they can speak to each other. The ultimate aim is to enable open data sharing, rather than proprietary systems, so there is a bigger market available for everyone.”
Research done by BRE will also look at how live data taken from sensors and other measurements in buildings and infrastructure projects can be integrated with 3D design data and linked to transactional and other information to create a complete “enterprise view” of a building.
“In terms of digital enablement, real-time services can greatly enhance the built environment, specifically in areas such as energy optimisation, assisted living, and security,” he said. “We expect entirely new areas of business to develop around smart facilities management and preventative maintenance designed to improve the efficiency of building operation and ultimately the user experience of these increasingly complex systems.”
Watson will also oversee research into climate change mitigation, adaption and resource scarcity, plus the many other challenges faced by the industry.
The aim is to work with the university centres of excellence to develop a multi-disciplinary team, including public and private shareholders, to define areas of research, which will be funded by the BRE Trust.
“In particular we want to involve the insurance sector, the climate science sector, and university engineering research,” said Watson. “In terms of the bigger picture of resilience, I want to look at the immediate impacts around flooding, and the continuity of resources and utilities when certain systems go down in a city or a country, examining the knock on effects, and issues of interdependence between systems. We need to take a holistic view of it so we understand how one system going down effects another.”
Watson will continue concurrent roles as vice-dean and professor of engineering systems in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at UCL. An engineer by training, he has experience as a practitioner and director of pure and applied research and development in industry, the public sector and academia.
Watson was chief scientific adviser for the DCLG until 2012 and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2013 Birthday honours, for services to engineering.
