Building Information Modeling (BIM) - a game changer?

There are isolated lighthouse projects where clients are the ones who create new dimensions and set architectural impulses. One only has to think of Swiss pharmaceutical companies and their large contracts in the Basel area, where clients firmly specify how they want the projects to be modelled and executed. - This is not an everyday paradigm shift, because normally the operators and planners are the ones who dictate the solution to the clients.

"You could call it an 'Uberization' of construction, assuming that basically non-experts are introducing changes to an existing system," explains Adri-an Wildenauer. Wildenauer, a self-proclaimed BIM enthusiast with a degree in civil engineering for construction operations and construction management, is active in both practice and research. However, the Senior Consultant in the field of Digital Real Estate at pom+Consulting AG (pom+) believes that in the Swiss market BIM methods are still in their infancy.

New BIM guideline
The BIM expert told Management & Quality: "However, a lot will change in the BIM context in the coming weeks and months." The SIA's BIM guideline will be published in 2018. This guideline will "probably lead to another push". In general, however, Switzerland is still working out where it wants to go professionally in the digital context, he said. "The Digital Manifesto for Switzerland, published in January 2017, does not involve the real estate industry at all," says the expert.

In its "FUCON" study, the Fraunhofer Institute states that 20 percent of those involved in construction are not even aware of this BIM method (see definition at the end of the text) and that "planning with building information models is not part of the everyday life of planning offices".

"The real estate scene needs to keep moving."

is anchored. Most offices are satisfied with 2D files and paper plans and see no reason to look at other planning methods.

However, the surveyed planners, scientists and executors would find it more goal-oriented "to be integrated earlier in construction projects" - from "Rules for a successful, integral project using BIM", from the journal "Integrale Planung" (Adrian A. Wildenauer, May 2016).

Situation in Switzerland?
In England, BIM has been a planning tool and "a basic attitude" for a good 20 years, emphasizes Adrian A. Wildenauer, who was in charge of major projects in England for a long time. In Germany and Switzerland it is still "fundamentally" different, here "digital building is still a thing of the future" (same article, Fraunhofer Institute, August 2015). Here, BIM is mainly used in large projects: "Every third company with project volumes of more than € 25 million already works according to the BIM method [sic].

Swiss planners certainly recognise the added value that digital techniques and methods can bring. "I'm thinking of small architectural firms that use parameterized data to calculate variants of a residential building. I know an office that uses BIM to concentrate on the essentials - on the design of the outer shell and the functionalities of the building.

The Senior Consultant in Digi-tal Real Estate hopes that the Swiss real estate sector will open up further to become more digital.

Show unity and openness
If you only take into account the areas of application that a planner has, for example, various new possibilities become apparent in terms of BIM. With the help of BIM models, structural engineers can, for example, quickly calculate alternatives and describe critical points in earthquake walls in such a way that the building services planners know immediately that they should not cross them.

Costs can be calculated relatively quickly, options and alternatives can be shown specifically. In addition to the stored costs, further coordinates such as ecological data can also be stored.

Only through visualization is it possible for architecture students to see that, for example, a conical roof of a church corresponds to both the most cost-effective and most sustainable framework, emphasizes the BIM expert. The pom+ consultant is committed to a common sense in the use of digital software in planning:

"We always have to question and check, especially as engineers, whether it works, makes sense and is feasible. No computer will be able to do that for us in the foreseeable future. Let's not see the computer and BIM as the enemy that takes away our work, but as the one that takes away tiresome work and to which I can delegate more tasks."

Adrian A. Wildenauer advocates both critical questioning and a uniform basis for communication: "You can't evaluate anything if you haven't calculated it yourself at least once or understand what your calculation is about."

Trial & Error - and new drivers
Clients are increasingly trying to avoid the original, uneconomical "trial and error" cycle. "I would venture to say that it costs me a lot more to design and build the way I used to than to use di-gital methods. An office working with BIM methodology saves time and energy, and probably around 30 percent costs on paperless projects," the senior consultant comments on the Swiss real estate scene.

"The real estate scene has to keep moving. For example, if we look at the price-adjusted gross value added since 1971, we see that it has declined [sic] in the real estate industry, trade has almost doubled, and the financial sector has actually quintupled."

It is therefore completely unnecessary to be afraid of digitalization. It even creates more jobs according to a Deloitte study. "Shouldn't this be a sign to simply give digital techniques a try?" the BIM expert pleads. Adrian A. Wildenauer continues: "We should let go of the idea that digitalization makes us redundant. It's not because I go digital that I become red-undant, it's when I don't!"

Qualitative development opportunities
How can a number of industrial requirements be implemented while using as few resources as possible in the most efficient way? One development concerns quality competition. External clients and builders are working with models that more and more accurately reflect reality. However, it should not be about the administration of digital data, but about a comprehensible increase in quality. According to Adrian A. Wildenauer, models provide ever better consistency and accuracy to ensure the smooth running of BIM projects.

"What pleases me in particular is the regular start-up boom in the construction sector. In the sector of automated simulations, for example, there are new horizons. This allows the architect to see immediately how the light changes when he draws in a wall. At the same time, the surfaces to be cleaned and the corresponding cleaning costs can be projected over the life cycle."

Another development is robotics, which will take over heavy, complex tasks from construction workers in the foreseeable future. Whether analogue or digital projects, the civil engineer is confident: "What is needed now is a universal language and uniform terminology in the construction sector. But this requires a great deal of openness. Clear, recipient-relevant communication is needed, not just information - this knowledge transfer will hopefully become a reality.
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