Just back from the Society of Construction Law’s 2015 Conference in Melbourne. Brilliant.
There were some excellent papers. Everyone will have learned some really useful stuff; I certainly did. But we also had some good fun.
Yesterday evening, I participated in the dinner debate at the Fox Car Museum. Who is more useful, lawyers or experts? Never have I been involved in such a rigged Continue reading
BIM continues to be of great importance, and SoCLA is doing a great job of explaining what it is all about.
David Mosey will be in Adelaide to give a talk on from 6pm to 7.30pm on 11 November 2015. The topic summary is thus:
Building Information Modelling, Procurement and Contracts – does BIM require or benefit from new contract provisions and new procurement models?
A briefing by Professor David Mosey on current research, led by King’s College London and sponsored by the Society of Construction Law , as to how construction contracts and team selection processes can help make BIM work.
David is Director of the King’s Centre of Construction Law. He is also lead mentor for the UK Government trialling new procurement models that support the mandate for BIM to be used on all public sector projects by 2016. Continue reading
The Society of Construction Law Australia is going from strength to strength. Tonight it is running a session on BIM in several cities; see details.
BIM is really important. Its name – Building Information Modelling – does not give much away, but it is a radically different way of designing buildings. Instead of drawing lines on a piece of paper, or digitally using a CAD system, designers insert objects into a model. The object might be, for example, a piece of glass. The object is inserted with parameters, like its location (in 3D of course). Other parameters, like the density of the glass, its thermal properties etc, will have been set by the manufacturer. Everybody involved in the project uses the same information. The BIM system will identify clashes (where for example a piece of secondary steel is seeking to occupy the same place as some ductwork). It will instantly return all sorts of data about the building (such as its thermal efficiency). Conventionally, 4D BIM provides information about time, and 5D BIM provides information about cost.
By its nature, BIM requires a cooperative approach that is obviously good for the efficiency of the construction process. It also raises interesting and difficult questions Continue reading