The Potential of BIM

It has been 20 years since Autodesk released Revit, a building design program which promised to change the world of architecture and the built environment. Along with it came BIM, Building Information Modelling, an emerging technology which was meant to take the industry by storm, and revolutionise design, construction, and management. And yet, while both Revit and BIM have been successful, they have not yet achieved the level of success that was imagined two decades ago. So, why is this? 

To start with, what is BIM? The basic premise of BIM is to embed information within the model itself. In many programs, a designer is simply creating forms or masses, with the program not knowing what that mass is. Revit categorises the elements drawn by the designer, meaning it knows which parts are walls, ceilings, or floors. Further than this, it allows the user to attach information to the modelled parts, enabling a greater degree of control within the program, and easier transfer of information between design groups, construction groups, and project management. 

This model can then be used to plan not only the design of the building, but also the construction, operation, and continued maintenance after completion. There is even the potential to use the BIM model to plan the process of demolition or building reuse. 

Unfortunately, BIM has yet to fully take off in Australia, with slow uptake due to low levels of training among older members of the built environment workforce, and the lack of a unified method of implementation. Even though the program was designed to allow multiple disciplines to work concurrently on the same model, the fact that each design group often uses the program in different ways makes it challenging to collaborate. 

There is still great potential for BIM and Revit, and both are already significant parts of the built environment, but whether they will ever be able to acheive the level of success that was promised remains to be seen.