To launch the BIM+ site, Construction Manager gathered a panel of industry experts to debate the question of the moment. Elaine Knutt reports
BIM: is the industry ready? Judging by the responses around the table at the debate that CM put together to launch the BIM+ channel on its website, the answer is a variation on “Yes, but…” Yes, but there are still major developers and clients out there asking: “What’s BIM?” Yes, but we might not have a contractual framework that really supports collaboration. Yes, but we might find we get overtaken by Asian economies. And yes, but as we have no way of measuring the extent of BIM adoption, how will we ever actually know?
These were some of the topics that came up in the BIM+ launch debate, hosted by law firm Olswang, just 15 months before the government puts billions pounds of work on a BIM footing. The participants were all engaged with BIM, so were perhaps more positive about it than a random cross section of the industry would be. But, as shown by the reactions as various curveballs were tossed around, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to debate.
The discussion was informed by the fact that BIM is being used on £9.76bn of live public sector projects, either onsite or in pre-construction. That figure, revealed by David Philp, the head of BIM implementation at the government’s BIM Task Group, is large enough for everyone to realise that the new era has begun; small enough to remind them that the adoption curve will soon have to climb at a steeper gradient.
To read the full version of this article visit the BIM+ website
All the panellists are featured in video interviews. Click here for more
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