Kerpow! Here comes BIM!

Sounding uncannily like a punch word from the 1960s Batman TV series, BIM (Building Information Modelling) is accelerating as fast as the Caped Crusader himself across the major contracting and architectural markets linked to the future of wood in construction. What will be expected of companies in the timber sector as BIM systems proliferate?

The use of BIM on construction is believed to have the same radical potential for change as the Egan Report of 1998, which fundamentally altered attitudes to collaborative working. BIM goes a step further, allowing the elements of a building to be individually assessed on their merits - initial cost, operational cost, maintenance, environmental impact and, where data allows, even the potential for recycling. The current focus is more on operational and maintenance costs, yet total environmental impact across a building's life cycle is playing an increasing role in product selection.

To remain competitive against other products and materials, how soon will timber companies need to organise their product data into BIM-compatible formats?

Can we put BIM on the backburner for a while yet? Pauline Kelly, director at staircase specialist EA Higginson & Co in north London, thinks not.

"Architects are already beginning to ask us to submit production details that can be incorporated into their own drawings. For us this isn't a problem as we already use similar technical drawing software," she said. "We see BIM as an extension to our normal mode of working with specifiers, but we still have a long way to go. Ultimately we are all on the same team and should be able to work seamlessly together."

James Kershaw at the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) explains the background to the development of BIM: "Typically, project costings focused mainly on the capital expenditure of a building. BIM enables calculations to be made reviewing the operational costs across the lifetime of a building. It facilitates the making of long-term choices on products, materials and methods right from the outset, and enables adjustments to be made that fit the level of investment available." For products, information is needed on the costs and impacts of installation, ongoing operation and maintenance, plus information on embodied energy and other environmental impacts.

Our industry's assumption that timber will be seen as the best natural option by specifiers should not be taken for granted. UK-GBC senior technical adviser Anna Surgenor said a product's environmental benefits would be just one amongst many factors taken into account.

"Environmental impacts will become more of an issue as resources around the world are depleted and their availability becomes a risk to developers' and investors' long-term business strategy," she said. "For the moment, the weighting of environmental impacts depends on the priorities of the developer or client."

Environmental Product Declarations
UK-GBC advises that a good starting point is preparing Environmental Product Declarations to accompany product technical data. "To be truly useful, though, product life cycle analysis carrying right through from cradle to grave, or in the case of timber perhaps cradle to cradle, would be the 'ideal world' solution," said Ms Surgenor.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) published a BIM Overlay to its Plan of Work last May. RIBA director of practice Adrian Dobson said suppliers should make BIMcompatible product information available openly and in the right format.

"In the National BIM Library, product data is increasingly being delivered as Industry Foundation Class (IFC) objects," he said. "These contain the parametric shape information (dimensions) as in normal CAD software, but also contain as much extra information as suppliers can add, for example thermal resistance, water vapour transmission rates, and structural properties. These IFC objects can be downloaded from a BIM library and integrated by the architect and other professional consultants into the working BIM."

Urged on by the government's declared implementation of BIM on all its public sector projects by 2016, specifiers' use of BIM systems doubled from 2010-11 and is expected to continue growing exponentially. At the other end of the scale, a survey of National Federation of Builders members released in November 2012, revealed as many as 73% of SME building contractors had never worked on projects using 3D drawings or other features of BIM systems.

Anna Surgenor of UK-GBC feels it's up to industry to avail itself of the opportunities offered by BIM.

"We sometimes see companies waiting for legislation before they are moved to change," she said. "The question is, with BIM developing so rapidly, can you afford not to produce the relevant information to interface with BIM systems?"