Bridging Gap between BIM & Residential Owners

There is a myth that BIM is only for large projects with complex geometries. The fact is that the benefits of using BIM on all projects, regardless of size and shape, are being proven by contractors using BIM today. This article profiles the key reasons why BIM adoption has been slower on the residential architecture projects and describes how BIM can be beneficially realized on projects of all sizes – from small residential projects to mission critical projects.

Introduction

Over the last few years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been one of the most visible aspects of a deep and fundamental change that is rapidly transforming the global construction industry. The McGraw Hill SmartMarket Report on BIM from 2008 shows that half of the industry is using BIM / or BIM-related tools today, indicating a 75% increase in usage in the last two years.

The Construction User's Roundtable (CURT) has recommended that owners demand the utilization of BIM on their projects for effective collaboration and improved project quality. The Global Fraternity of Architects (GFA) touts BIM as the future of the construction industry. The AIA is actively redefining the practice of architecture to take advantage of this technology. Despite these facts, the residential sector has been slow in embracing the concept of BIM. A majority of buzz around BIM is commercial focused. While the potential benefits of BIM can be reaped by all – why is the residential sector apparently unfocused on the benefits? Is BIM for Big firms only? This article presents the major reasons why the residential sector is still experiencing barriers with BIM and where this sector has failed to unlock the potentials of BIM.

Barriers to BIM Adoption

A wide range of responses are heard from residential construction practitioners related to their lack of adoption of BIM. Issues include lack of owners’ demand for BIM, significant investment, perceived limited value of BIM and economies of scale are the primary reasons why the residential construction industry is still experiencing barriers with BIM. Several of these topics and a few others will be explored throughout this article:

Lack of Client Buy-in & Demand:
One of the biggest challenges is to obtain buy-in from the owners. Most of the residential owners are not willing to pay the real cost for a complete set of high-quality plans. They don't care as much of how the package is delivered (whether it is done in CAD or BIM) as long as the drawings are turned in on schedule. Without their buy-in, it is much harder to "succeed".
Nature of Design Complexity:
There is a common belief that “smaller scale” equates to “fewer issues". “BIM is generally perceived as more applicable and profitable to larger and high-rise building projects. This user perception has been a strong impediment to the BIM usage on small residential architecture projects,” corroborates Ravi Khanna MRICS, Country Head – India, BCRE.
Lack of Focus and Marketing:
Commercial BIM gets a greater degree of focus for one simple reason: Marketing. The largest BIM software providers, Autodesk and Graphisoft, focus primarily on commercial building projects. Residential BIM users are quite rarely discussed whether it is for architectural, HVAC, structural or energy analysis. So, the potentialities of BIM still remain unknown to the residential building developers and owners.
Economies of Scale:
The profit marginality between residential BIM and commercial BIM project varies significantly. Compared to commercial, residential BIM project achieves lesser outcomes (based on marginal value vs. to expenditures of time/resources vs. commercial structures). A larger project scope is required to move from “marginal” benefits to “significant” benefits. Due to this, residential sector is not ready to invest time, energy and resources into the new processes related to BIM.
It's all about Money:
BIM implementation requires significant investments in technology, staff and revit training. Moving from the CAD-sphere to BIM-sphere requires more powerful hardware and software, along with a network, servers, and high-speed telecommunications backbone that support the process. During the tough time, you just can’t go ask your clients to increase the fees because you are using Revit/BIM (as they didn't ask for it). Generally, all the additional hours and expenses that are requited to put into the implementation become overhead, which is quite tough to manage in this downturn. Since new jobs are much harder to come by these days, residential owners and firms rather hold on their favorite CAD program to deliver until things start picking up.
Interoperability & Data Exchange Issues:
The effort expended moving data throughout the construction lifecycle is significant. BIM promises to improve data flow due to the nature of "modeling" vs. drafting; however, the promise has not been fulfilled and in many cases the lack of complete adoption of BIM by the project team actually increases the complexities related to interoperability. A variety of national and international construction industry groups estimate the added costs of a project due to poor Interoperability to be 15 – 30% of the costs of design & engineering. Marc Goldman, Director of Strategy, BIM & VDC, The Blue Book, concerns that "Given the tight margins of residential construction sector there is little-to-no tolerance for adding complexities due to interoperability".

Building Information Modeling

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a process which is carried through with the use of software. The success of a BIM project depends on selection of the right BIM tool and implementing it through strategic planning of transitioning, i.e., Management. We can define BIM as the combination of 3Ps: Process, Product and Practice.

Building Information Modeling (project) = Process + Product + Practice
Where: Process = Building + Information + Management
Product = BIM-authoring Tool (Revit, ArchiCAD, Bentley, etc.)
Practice = Management (Strategic Planning of Transitioning)

Reasons for Adopting BIM on Residential Projects

“Each building sector has its own complications of which BIM can successfully remedy,” suggests Tim Beckman, Partner at CG Visions. Agreed Gary Lawes, Owner, Jagged Edge Design Ltd., “BIM could be applied to any project of any scale”. However, BIM is quickly gaining acceptance on several institutional projects around the world, and residential developers are also beginning to realize the benefits. Many early adopters of BIM initially focused on applying the technology to large complex projects. They saw BIM as a way to improve the design process on large projects. Hopefully, those attitudes are changing. Residential owners are realizing that BIM is more of a method than a tool and it can be used throughout the practice today, irrespective of the size of projects. Now, the majority of custom green homes projects are being started in BIM. There are a number of factors that are motivating non-adopters to use BIM:

Increased Productivity due to Structured Information
Improved Collective Understanding of Design Intent
Analysis and Simulation Capabilities (Energy, Cost, Quantity)
Improved Accuracy and Better Project Planning
Better-Performing Buildings/Infrastructure
Cost Estimates for Early Project Certainty
Enhanced Operations, Maintenance and Facility Management
Climate Change and Occupant Health Consciousness
Economic Pressures and Stiff Competition.

Marketing and Communication Tool

BIM fosters a collaborative effort, enabling the “soup-to-nuts” cooperation among owners, architects, engineers, contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers, trade professionals and building operations/facilities personnel. It ensures a structured and methodical access to right information in the right place and on the right time. It offers enough benefit for all types and sizes of project - from small residential projects to large, complex commercial building projects. The advantages (and profitability) are inherent regardless of building type or size.

Structured Information

For developers, 3-D modeling is the most critical to improving their business. Residential owners/developers more often need the visual 3-D than do the commercial clients. Many clients don’t fully understand a flat 2-D world. When they see it in 3-D, they get enlightened and easily convinced. Building Information Modeling offers a tantalizing proposition: the ability to view the project much before it's built. Thus, it saves a lot of waste, miscommunication and frustration.

BIM LEED(s) Global Green Movement

Volatile and increasing energy prices, concern about climate change and occupant health consciousness are influencing people around the globe advocate decisive action to make societies green and sustainable. These trends have become of paramount importance for commercial, institutional and residential building projects. Green evangelists are concerned about the current state of energy consumption and carbon emissions worldwide and looking for a stark redirection of current design and construction approaches. BIM can be an effective solution to the climate change, reducing the wastage and carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Many firms in US and Canada are using Revit (a BIM-authoring tool) for designing custom green homes and residential architecture projects. In Canada, some prefabricated homes plants started working with Revit and ArchiCAD, and plan to use the MEP suite, as well, to include pipes in prefabricated floor panels. In Scandinavia, BIM based fabrication of the family homes is old news. Wisconsin and Texas mandate BIM use for all new state projects to conform to high environmental and energy-efficiency standards. On the federal level, the US General Services Administration (GSA) necessitates BIM for spatial validation and the US Army Corps of Engineers mandates BIM for many of its standard building types. While speaking at Autodesk’s BIM Conference last year, Paul Morell, chief construction adviser to UK govt., indicated that bidders and contractors on future public building projects would be asked to use BIM. He also proclaimed that BIM would become a key part of the procurement of public buildings. Singapore Govt. is also suggesting the engineering community to use BIM on the residential architecture and commercial building projects for construction productivity and improved work processes.

Future Outlook

BIM has growing implications for improving the broad scale project ecosystem and enhancing project outcomes for all parties. Each player on a construction project has its own unique workflow and expectations; thus each also has a different value proposition in regards to BIM, and therefore a different experience of business value. In short, there is no how-to checklist that applies to every situation. Surprisingly, BIM fulfills all expectations. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) will likely to play an important role in the world of construction industry and BIM is going to play a critical role in controlling the collaboration process.

Conclusion

When computers first came to the market, only big enterprises seemed to realize the usefulness. Now practically each child has its own computer. General contractors are increasingly mandating BIM and necessitating their subs to provide drawings and other disciplines in BIM. New and renovation projects start following the BIM process. “It is true that an established decades-old platform (CAD platform) can’t be uprooted overnight,” suggests Tim Beckman. But, nothing stays the same for very long. “It's not the technology that makes our industry or any industry advanced, it's people's understanding of what it can do for them, and how they can benefit from it,” claims Florin O. Popa, Director - BIM Services, iM studios, LLC.