At the moment, BIM is a bit like the start of an American dragster race. The accelerator is on, but so is the brake. Manufacturers of building materials and products are eager to take off digitally and supply product data for BIM processes, but are sometimes reluctant to make key investments because of a lack of standards for processing. Designers and architects, on the other hand, are already deeply involved in BIM design and need real or manufacturer-specific BIM products from the industry to refine the digital twin. However, there is a lack of digital products from industry that meet the needs of designers. In order to take the brakes off both camps, we have organised a PIM-BIM symposium on 20 October 2022 at the Innovation Centre (DS Hub) of Germany's largest planning office.
The aim was to provide a platform for dialogue between the construction industry and designers to clarify open questions and identify implementation options. Around 40 representatives from the construction industry accepted our invitation to exchange ideas with us and the planners from Drees & Sommer and to find answers to the pressing questions that arise in connection with the complex requirements of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Three keynote speeches, a panel discussion and numerous discussions have shown that: The solution lies in formats such as this that bridge the gap between industry and designers. We have summarised the main themes of our symposium for you.
1. Crystal Ball: Construction and Real Estate 2030
In order to develop a shared vision of where the construction and real estate industries will be heading by 2030 and what this will mean for manufacturers, Hanna Huber, Teamlead & Senior Innovation Manager at Drees & Sommer, gave us an insight into the innovations and future strategies of Germany's largest planning office.
It has shown us a future where the construction and real estate industry is truly digital, climate-positive and social, where technology is a means to an end, and where the traditional life cycle of real estate is extended. In this future, technology clusters such as greentech and circular tech will play an important role. Big data, AI and robotics will create data-driven digital business models. Big data, platforms and SaaS solutions such as BIM & More will extend the traditional property lifecycle. Modular, circular construction - the best of both worlds - will become more common, and with it, more standardisation and customisation.
2. Drees & Sommer: The needs of planners and architects
Thanks to Moritz Mombour, Head of Digital Planning Methods and Senior Expert at Drees & Sommer, participants at the PIM-BIM Day gained an insight into the requirements of planners and architects in everyday practice. He made it clear what planners need and what this means for the preparation of BIM objects.
He urges the industry to make building products as user-friendly as possible for designers, otherwise they will not be used. If designers have to manage data to make products BIM-ready - and cannot do their job - then the BIM objects are worthless. Problems for him and his team include BIM objects with nested information, data formats that are unusable for CAD, such as IFC, or too much geometric detail. His plea: "Manufacturers should supply BIM data now and find out the requirements in advance in direct dialogue with planners, or use the BIM & More platform (www.bim-more.com), which in future will supply not only Drees & Sommer with real building products, but also planning and architectural offices throughout the DACH region. The opportunities for manufacturers are great: it has never been easier for manufacturers to be tendered as a lead product.
3. PIM systems for direct connection to BIM users
Since most manufacturers organise their products digitally in PIM systems, optimising and complementing PIM with BIM data seems to be the ideal solution for them. But planners and architects cannot wait. Michael Irmen, consultant at the system integrator SDZeCOM GmbH & Co. KG, explained the basic structures of PIM systems.
According to him, there is a big question mark over the classification of the data. He would like to see the construction industry make a clear and unambiguous request to manufacturers as to the form or classification in which the data should be prepared. There is currently a great deal of uncertainty on this issue. As a result, the preparation of product data for BIM processes is on hold for many suppliers to the construction industry. The conclusion of his presentation for us was that although PIM systems are an ideal tool for managing BIM data, optimising product data for this purpose can take months or even years. However, our credo is: Don't waste time! We recommend using BIM & More (www.bim-more.com) to go directly into the CAD design programmes of designers and architects - and to optimise the master data in the PIM system at the same time. Because: The future has already begun!
4. Modern design scenarios with real building products
Our Werkbank CEO Matthias Uhl used our BIM library BIM & More to demonstrate what the modern design process with real building products looks like for designers. He says that designing with real building materials is not a vision of the future, but is already happening today. Use cases such as 'model-based quantity take-off' or 'recyclability of buildings' have already been put into practice. In order to curb the waste of resources in the construction industry, the first municipalities, such as the city of Munich, have already committed themselves to creating a resource passport for all new municipal buildings. Whether it be quantity surveying, life cycle assessments or other BIM applications: Without manufacturer-specific digital building products from the industry that meet the requirements of planners, these tasks can only be accomplished with enormous effort on the part of planners and architects, as they require extensive product research. These efforts are now being replaced by digital pipelines that bring digital building materials and products from industry to designers and architects. In his view, there is no way around this convergence of the construction industry and designers.
These digital pipelines are the logical "missing link" that we want to close with our BIM & More platform, initially for Drees & Sommer, and make available to all planners and architects in Germany from the second quarter of 2023. As a platform, BIM & More enables collaboration and participation between the construction industry and planners for the first time. Mutual understanding enables long-term cooperation and greater acceptance of building materials.