Preparing for the future

Written by Paul Woddy

Published Thu 21 May 2009

It is clear that the future of the AEC design industry will be irrevocably altered by the current economic situation. Undoubtedly, the landscape of design firms and clients will need to be remapped and new relationships considered once the consequences are clearer and the wheels begin once more to pick up speed.

Many firms are tightening the purse strings and riding the storm, but we are also seeing a good number of practices take advantage of the situation to strengthen and regroup for the next wave. During the good times, technology is often adopted only when the need becomes too pressing to avoid, and the learning curve and prospective down-time for training is something to be feared when faced with deadline after deadline. The obvious irony is that as work slows down providing the required time, the need to save money becomes paramount.

Of equal importance in these trying times is the need to keep your key personnel busy and content; ready for what history has shown us will be a meteoric expansion to dwarf the current recession. Are Northern Europen design firms poised to take advantage of this scenario? Will we find ourselves in an even busier period, with a potentially bigger pain to move to new technology, as necessitated by market trends?

Well some firms are leading the way in asking themselves whether their current systems and processes will stand them in good stead for the next ten-year boom period, and whether the currently relaxed pace could be used to evaluate the current internal knowledge status, software and hardware usage, and the short to medium-term direction of the technology offerings.

The news reported in AEC Magazine in December last year that UK supermarket giant, Asda will be insisting that all new stores are to be developed using the Autodesk Revit platform, shows them to be among the first clients to see the real benefits of BIM and the advantages delivered to the whole building lifecycle. I know of several larger companies across Europe waiting in the wings to make similar statements and the impact cannot be ignored.

But is the purchase of a BIM tool such as Revit the answer to future-proofing? In isolation, I would have to say no. Many firms have tools which are under-utilised or misunderstood and I am sure that Revit is just as capable of falling into the trap as any other.

Use of Revit does not always equal use of BIM!

BIM is a concept that can be adopted to a greater or lesser degree using tools like Revit, but changes need to be made to the culture and the protocols behind the design process; this is not a straight technology swap. As far as the BIM-savvy client like Asda is concerned, a component within a model is simply a placeholder, positioning the element in relation to its surroundings and forming a repository for associated meta-data. The 3D geometry becomes somewhat irrelevant to them, although the object needs to be sufficiently recognisable so as not to be abstract. This is obviously a very different requirement of the BIM model to that of the architect who is concerned with the aesthetics, fabrication details and spaces formed between the elements. But these two requirements are not polar opposites that require an approach unique to each. They are two faces of the same cube, with other faces for construction, cost analysis and FM, to name a few.

Perhaps this slow-down is the time to take a look at this and other concepts and be ready for the future.

For those that have bought into the above principle and purchased the software, do you know the current status of the levels of knowledge within your organisation? Have BIM protocols been implemented to the true extent of their capabilities and do the protocols go far enough?

Benchmarking can be an important step in understanding the future direction of investment and a Revit skills assessment has recently become available to the Revit market has been well received. You may know of CADsmart from the AutoCAD skills assessment and the technology behind the Top-Dawg events held at conferences such as AU, where they also recently launched the new Revit Architecture Skills Assessment Test. Revit Structure is in beta testing phase as I write this and I understand that Revit MEP and an advanced range will following soon after. In brief, the test comprises of a series of questions based around given scenarios that need to be answered by performing tasks within Revit. The results are delivered live via the web, along with a list of training recommendations. I am told that the Revit 2009 API delivered some challenges but with the new 2010 API they have good things planned.

If this is the low point of the depression then design practices need to be ready for the upswing, in the knowledge that the market will emerge as a new beast with revised expectations. This slow period is going to be tough for many, but it is also a time to get the house in order, gauge the current situation and plan for the future.