– A New AEC Model – By Philip J. Bona, AIA
Philip J. Bona, Copyright © 2004
Premise:
Not ink on parchment nor lead on vellum nor pin-bar overlay nor even layers on AutoCAD. It is even beyond thepyramids and space stations. The fantasy is the future for the art and science of the building process. While it may still be closer to the next Pixar movie than to the creation of the new World Trade Center in New York you had better believe that ultimately the WTC will represent the most comprehensive building model database in history. It should, it can, and it will. There are just too many good reasons for the building industry, as a whole, to bring all the parts, pieces, and people together into one all encompassing industry-wide design/construction database. Not just any database, but the foundation to the future of an industry, a business, and a culture in line for evolution. In other words - new business opportunities driven by a long needed cultural and pragmatic shift in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) building process. This new industry paradigm is based on the exploitation of truly intelligent, logical, parametric, three or even four dimensional (incorporating time management) data that will integrate the business of creating and maintaining the built environment into a synergistic enterprise. The creation of a highly robust multi-dynamic database has the opportunity to bring together current aspects of a local real estate market, available project financing, owners and users, specific building programming, architectural and engineering design and best practices, warrantable construction detailing, regulatory compliance, energy and material life-cycling, recycling management, manufacturers and materials, suppliers and costing, construction operations, contractors and tradesmen, post-construction lessons learned, facility management, maintenance engineers, and maintenance schedules all into an interactive and intuitive virtual building data model. These are the components of the next chapter in the story of Building Information Modeling or BIM (1).
Problem:
BIM is a parametrically enabled2 data model that has been under development since the early 1990’s. Leaders in the information technology (IT) world along with a few farsighted AIA architects have visioned and created new software tools to manipulate the modeling of objects to simulate complete 3-dimensional characteristics of a building and its site. In the forefront of this software development is ArchiCAD, Catia, Revit, and Triforma. Essentially, once the graphic “one line” envelope representing the form and composition of a building and the constraints of the property it sits on is designed and dimensioned; and the owner’s program, utility infrastructure, structural system, and master product list are coalesced into a data matrix; then BIM constructs a spatial simulation of the design made of accurate representations of 3-dimensional objects like concrete and studs and sheathing and plaster and roofing and…all of it. Once the A/E disciplines have further explored the options, iterations, and systems; applied all the specified products hyperlinked from their manufacturers on the internet to the simulated objects representing them; and allowed the model to do self checks on cross-coordination and constructability, then this virtual model may be simply extracted (or reported on) as conventional 2-dimensional plans, sections, details, elevations, and specifications. It is likely that designs will eventually be constructed on site with the aide of wireless hand-held digital clipboards with graphic pan, zoom, and rotational 3-D capability, and also most building components will be prefabricated and panelized in factories to be merely assembled on site. Both the fabricators and the builders will be connected directly to the final on-line password protected virtual model to benefit from its accuracy and proven constructability. The exciting part, though, is that the software will interactively analyze the data, even during construction, and allow for efficient and accurate design change management (change is always inevitable); BIM will use actual cost and availability control measures directly from product distributors to evaluate a change keeping the savvy contractor from exploiting the process in detriment of the owner’s budgeted cost and schedule. Sounds too good to be true? Well, this is the future, though in its infancy, but it is moving fast to adulthood. The question is though…who is putting this all together - the leaders, visionaries, and shapers of our built environment…the Architects? No…rather, corporations like Autodesk, Graphisoft, Cyon Research, Webcor, Swinerton, and AEC Infosystems, along with a few others, are assembling the parameters, processes, and participants to be integrated into this data model. While architects like Jerry Laiserin, AIA (who coined BIM) have been instrumental in developing the rich history of what is now an AIA Knowledge Community, the business of information technology has been seeded by software companies realizing the great potential of this niche market. They have the money to back these efforts, and they are bullish for its success.
Threat:
“What is readily clear is that if architects and engineers desire to have and keep control over the building process as a whole, then they, in their professional enterprise, must assume a willingness to accept the risks for the rewards – or “face the possibility of having their roles relegated to an independent, third party specialist serving the owner”…on the other hand “Architects with technological foresight will have the opportunity to gain control of the information flow at the source and become the new master builders.” (3) Do you remember when Architects were the managers of construction projects representing the owner? Architects, as a profession, let go of that service and a hungrier group of non-architect “construction managers” moved in and took over that piece of the process; now the CMs are running our projects for us. Well, it appears that it could happen again, and this time our future, our history, and out ambivalence could be the nemesis of our profession as we know it. In the near future, someone (anyone) could buy this web-based software that manipulates a worldwide building information modeling network that can analyze the local regulatory constraints of a piece of property, evaluate the local infrastructure, overlay the parameters of a project initiator’s building program, adapt socially recognized data factors, address building resource management, incorporate high yield self-sufficient energy sources , integrate the most cost effective regionally available materials through local supplier/distributors, produce a list of the most qualified regional builders and tradesmen, and generate a set of interactive logical three dimensional graphic images to be used, reported as drawings, and maintained for the life of the building and its site – without the aide of an architect. So where are the Architects and why did they let this happen?
Paradigm
As far back as 1963 when Ivan Sutherland published “Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical communications System”, (4) AIA architects explored this new tool and proceeded to advance and promote it to other architects through “Computers in Architecture” conferences put on by the AIA California Council in 1964 and AIA New York in 1966. From the Computers in Architecture Committee first founded in 1982 by David A. Jordani, FAIA to the Computer-Aided Practice Task Force begun in 1989 by Michael K. Schley, FAIA to the Computer-Aided Practice PIA in the mid-nineties led by Jerry Laiserin, AIA and Ken Sanders, AIA to the Technology in Architectural Practice Knowledge Community of today, a few dozen architects have been visionary (even provocative) but profession-wide, as a gaggle of ostriches grounded in sand, we have not been proactive; we have not been risk-takers in the advancement of the use of information technology in our industry. Over the next 5-10 years the AEC industry and its use of information technology will evolve dramatically and this evolution will be led by software companies, large design/build construction companies, the GSA, the Department of Defense, and equally seated at the table - the AIA, its members, and architectural education in the United States and globally. This paradigm does not have to force the integrity of the design process into jeopardy. On the contrary, it can open untold challenges and possibilities for conceiving future forms and compositions using existing and new materials in ways that will expand the richness of our vision for the built environment. Culture Neil Postman of NYU’s Center for Media Ecology said in Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, “The key question we must always ask about any new technology is: What is the question to which this technology is the answer?” Was CAD ever really about electronic orthographic drafting or was the question, can I simulate a building parametrically with XYZ coordinate vectors and embedded objects and logic? Well either way the answer seems to have evolved to be the BIM solution. Will the design profession as we know it survive? Should it? Will we, as architects, lose values, ethics, integrity, and money in the process of transitioning? If we do, shame on us. But, those firms who have employed values worthy of preserving can surely take technology and information modeling in new visionary directions. Architects have been trained over the past centuries to be the brightest, best, and most creative thinkers in society, but we, as a group, historically lack in business savvy. From the standpoint of the Atelier culture, we have trusted our roots and mostly steered clear of entrepreneurial risk, except for the large corporate A/E firms. If we, as caring professionals, hesitate, you can be sure that the general stature of an architect’s involvement in the building process will be further reduced to a minor role while new business specialists take on the mantle of the master builder. Whoever has the information at its fingertips will lead the “Information Revolution.” “As architects, we are constantly looking for ways to create better design, use better materials, suggest more efficient methods, and produce better construction documents.”(5) To do this well, we require large amounts of information to filter and manage, and we need it quickly and accurately at our fingertips.
Shift:
“Can’t I just sit out the information revolution”, you may ask? If you got your professional license before 1975 and you have ownership transition and fishing on your mind, you may be in a position to avoid the need to evolve into this new paradigm. “Anyone else intending to remain a practicing architect must confront the forces of change. These forces may be classified as technology driven, client driven or competition driven.”(6) Technology-driven change is founded in commodities and big business, and in and of itself has nothing to do with architecture. As the industrial revolution forced cottage industries to retool on a larger, more inclusionary structure based on a horizontally integrated business model, the information revolution will force many industries including the AEC community to retool using sophisticated databases, virtual enterprises, robotics, multi-media, and a similar horizontally integrated business model. This model will define a new chain of relationships between related yet diverse cultural skill subsets. Within the successful BIM, the most informed and experienced project team members are necessary. The best designers should design; the best managers should manage; the best engineers should engineer; the best and most cost effective products should be used; the best builders should build; the best building maintenance staff should maintain; and the best data should be assembled. Owner-driven change is the most threatening to the AEC paradigm shift because most owner/clients demand performance, responsibility, and accountability on face value without necessarily understanding the nature of the demand and the risk. However, once owners realize that BIM will facilitate multiple on-the-fly design alternatives, better coordination abilities between the A/E disciplines, more accurate budget to cost ratios, greater accountability from the builder (because of the accuracy of the virtual model and its ability to clearly demonstrate construction details and easily evaluate material quantity take-offs), they will demand it – unilaterally. For the owner, on face value, this minimizes their risk. The majority of the risk will have to be possessed by the keeper of the database – the architect, the builder, a third party specialist (a new niche perhaps), or the owner. The owner will ultimately procure an accurate virtual model first and then the resultant physical environment that meets the needs of the enterprise as well as business, society, and the environment at large. In 2004, the Federal General Services Administration (GSA) started the process of formulating its criteria for BIM to be implemented in all future GSA building projects including the assignment of risk and expectations for the AEC team. Today’s technologically savvy client type has specialized expectations depending upon their business needs. Custodial buildings like government centers, medical centers, universities, corporate campuses, and established retail chains have need for on-going space planning, document services, “asset-centered” facilities management, and a database to maintain each of these services. “Big box” buildings like Wal-Mart, Best Buys, and Loews require prototype designs with “rapid rollout” capability and would benefit highly from lower project costs and faster schedules from the BIM process. While residential clients may not see the value of such a model for their home for some time to come, consider the opportunity for a home’s virtual model to manage security, energy usage, comfort control, lighting, entertainment, and equipment maintenance and repair, as well as to implement its construction. Competition-driven change is reactive and seldom proactive. In order to prevail in the professional services “Request for Proposal” playing field, it is necessary to bring to the table a perceived understanding of the demand, the experience, and the enhanced value-added services needed to assure success for the client’s project. CAD in the 1980’s was an enhanced value-added service for A & E firms and we all touted it in our proposals. In the 1990’s it was just an expected production delivery method. In the early 21st century, we will be required to demonstrate programming, design and project management using superior information technology and modeling; this will give some firms an edge over those competing from the basis of the lowest fee. “As clients – along with technological and competitive forces – drive change, those changes drive new and revised services and service delivery methods. In turn, changing services drive redesigned processes in organizing and managing practice. …As leading-edge design firms move beyond isolated pockets of computer-aided practice, new forms of organization will evolve. These new business structures will reflect the emerging information based model of practice rather than traditional function-based or hierarchical forms.” (7)
Risk
The convergence of these technological, client, and competitive forces will engage the design professional in new and different levels of business risk. As we respond to and manage these forces wearing our preferred master builder hat and cape, we will need to abandon our ways of old and embrace the tools, techniques and relationships of this inevitable future. With appropriate leadership from the AIA, our allied professionals, and industry partners, it is possible to develop an appropriate risk model that is acceptable to the design professionals, the clients, the attorneys, the insurance underwriters, and the public. If you can fanaticize a bit: With the high quality of interactive parametric information controlled by the BIM, changes will be intuitive and comprehensive throughout the model. As a result, the quality of information available will allow higher tolerances from factory-built assemblies, greater confidence from the use of manufacturer’s products, increased accuracy and communication in construction; better project schedule and procurement management; and as such reduce the cause for many frivolous lawsuits to all parties in the process. “Outside resources are a necessity for the Information-Age architect. Even the best internal network of information needs the input of new products, methods and procedures. The time has come for the architect to take the lead and express what our electronic information needs are to the manufacturers and industry information providers.”(8) McGraw-Hill’s SweetSource, Construction Specifier Magazine Online, the CD-ROM version of Architectural Graphic Standards, SMACNA, and even some product manufacturers such as Marvin Windows and US Gypsum are excellent resources for building products. They offer electronic versions of specification sections as well as CAD details of their products for use in our CAD drawings. But, what if their project specifications and product/assembly details were hyperlinked to our BIM, and they took their share of the risk for using their data to build the information model; and what if product substitutions were parametrically analy zed by the model including attributes for product compatibility, local cost, availability and delivery time; and what if eventually construction industry product manufacturers agreed, as industry partners, to share the benefits and risk for being an integral part of a project’s information model from conception to construction to facilities maintenance and repair through initial and extended warranty periods. If design professionals and its industry partners, including the manufacturers, retain the position as implementers and caretakers of the database and its use of embedded product hyperlinks to build the virtual model, then our industry can be better protected from the owner taking their design model elsewhere. If an architect does take a project over from another firm, the architect certainly has an obligation to analyze the model before adopting it, but it is likely that a complementary data-structure can be checked and analyzed for appropriateness, code and accuracy against the owner’s programmatic building specification information. It does raise the question about who should stamp and seal the orthographic representations (paper drawings) of the model. Actually if the architect, engineers, manufacturers, local distributors, fabricators, utility companies, agencies, and the owner all share the rights to and responsibility for the BIM, then the attorneys could spend more time overseeing the legal structure of this complex set of relationships and less time pursuing frivolous lawsuits.
Possibilities
“Threaten it at your peril – and perhaps to your profit. For while automation presents many challenges to traditional roles and workflow patterns within construction, it also promises substantial gains in efficiency and productivity.”(9) In all of this, it is apparent that a set of global criteria and terminology will be necessary to implement a common language as an AEC Integration Model. “Fortunately, we now have both information standards and software companies that support and empower them. Today, after much education on the part of the AIA, the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), and industry and technology companies, we have…BIM.”(10) These recognized standards setting entities along with the National CAD Standard (NCS), among others(11), are critical to the functionality and industry acceptance of the BIM Process. Over a decade ago, the IAI created Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) that define objects that could occur virtually and physically such as wall, floors, roofs, doors, windows, asphalt parking lots, and trees as well as the organization, process, and representation of all this information to be exchanged across all recognized software platforms. Today, the U.S. Coast Guard in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has adopted the NCS/IAI IFC and is using Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD model-based standard. “The IAI IFC is the only construction information standard recognized by the International Standards Organization (ISO). For several years, Graphisoft has played a leadership role, working with NIBS and NCS committees, to blend the power of ArchiCAD’s parametric objects with the model-based open standards of IAI IFC’s…firms that use intelligent tools will see the payback in their design process through improved productivity, reduction of error, and faster production through automation.”(12) An architect who has stepped up and taken the risk to implement visionary buildings through information modeling is Frank Gehry. He created Gehry Technologies, LLC (GT) in 2002 after fifteen years of experience in technology and process innovation at Gehry Partners. “GT's mission is to commercialize and expand upon this work in developing digital tools for building design and construction innovation, making the tools and technologies available to leading design, construction and management companies everywhere.”(13) So, BIM’s been around for a decade, the federal government is using it for some of its construction projects, architectural graphics software companies are ALL re -tooling their wares to embrace parametric modeling, and construction companies like Swinerton and Webcor are taking architect’s standard CAD drawings and creating their own database models from them to gain all the benefits of construction process efficiencies, minimize change orders, reduce overall project cost, and sell the owner a program of facilities management inventory and scheduling as part of the turn-over package.
Considering these factors, now consider this:
· What if each BIM project held project insurance and the insurance underwriter also had rights to the model for its own peer review and risk management assessment, then design professionals may not need to carry their own professional liability insurance; thus keeping overhead costs to a minimum for the design professional?
· What if the locally adopted building code is taken from an electronic interactive code analysis query system that merely tests the BIM and site for compliance with regulated structural, fire/life safety, accessibility, and energy efficiency constraints and provides a score card indicating code deficiencies and non-compliance checklists? It eventually could even suggest corrective measures for compliance.
· What if local municipalities in conjunction with utility companies created their own virtual municipal infrastructure information model (say - MIM) including streets, sidewalks, property lines, zoning information with heights, daylight planes, setbacks, underground utilities, envelope massing of adjacent buildings, and they made this (read only) information model available on-line and down-loadable to the model?
· What if the local building, planning, fire, and public works departments could connect to the BIM through the password protected hyperlink inserted by the architect in the on-line permit application; and confirm the regulatory and code compliance of the model on-line?
· What if the owner contracted directly with building system prefabricators to assemble factory-made components (panelized walls, floor structures, roof structures, casework, mechanical ductwork, lengths of conduits all fabricated using the actual BIM data and each physical component was bar-coded with its matching BIM component number and assembly sequence (part A fits into part B) – readable on the wireless hand-held digital clipboards used on site?
· What if traditional general contractors, as we know them, evolved into two complementary but exclusive professions: the builder, and the construction manager? The best builders could build and the best managers could manage using their experience in construction and trade relationships as a basis for their certification.
· What if the owner selected the builder’s company based on their qualifications, experience and references and the builder was only responsible for the labor to assemble the site and building components because the cost of the materials and pre-assembly had already been defined between the owner, the construction manger, and the fabricators/manufacturers during the final stages of completing the BIM?
· What if the traditional building trades (sheet metal, electrician, plumber, etc.) were also selected based on their qualifications, experience and references and the trades person was only responsible for the labor to assemble the site and building components because the cost of the materials and pre-assembly had already been defined between the owner and the various system fabricators during the final stages of completing the BIM?
· What if local building product Wholesale Supplier/Distributors (WSD) were proactively networked into the AEC process through the manufacturers and they provided continuous and current cost actualization attributes integrated into the BIM? This would allow the owner and construction manager to be knowledgeable of current costs. The owner or construction manager would contract directly with WSDs. The WSDs would deliver their specific products (pre-purchased through the model with a guaranteed price) to the site sequentially based on the BIM’s recommendation for critical path purchasing, delivery, and assembly. What if the WSDs were responsible for all product submittal verification pursuant to the BIM? What if substitutions were controlled by the product market and cost data available at any moment and analyzed through the BIM’s change management functions?
· What if the newly defined construction manager was responsible (similar to certain roles of the traditional GC) for mobilizing the site, providing machinery infrastructure (cranes, construction elevators, etc.), managing the builder, the other trades, and the WSDs in their implementation of the project using the final BIM to determine work flow, sequencing, construction schedule, construction progress milestones, payments to the construction team, and overall quality control through project closeout?
· What if the architect was always selected on the basis of qualifications and experience? The architect would contract with a client for masterplanning, programming, and design services on a lump sum or T&M basis much as before. However the creation, modifications, maintenance, implementation, and management of the BIM database could be provided as services on retainer at billable rates, much as a tax accountant or legal counsel. This could be based on a long-term client relationship that begins with the need to expand or create the owner’s facilities and carried on through ongoing facilities management business consultant services? It would be a healthy successful mutual business relationship based on trust, experience and technological information delivery that could last for decades. The architect’s fee structure using the BIM approach would no longer be tied to construction as a percentage, rather, it would be based on valued design and information management services, in an effort to continually assess and reassess the needs of the owner’s facilities by modeling against the life -cycle costing of the growth and operations of the owner’s enterprises.
· These possibilities may not sound appetizing to the traditional designer-at-heart but they ultimately paint the big picture of a future for a successful AEC controlled client-driven industry using information technology to its most logical end.
To be or not to be
Remember, he who possesses and controls the flow of information will control its value. So is it about control; is it about design; is it about relationships; is it about competition; or is it about money? It is about big fish and little fish and the need to survive. Again, from a socio-cultural impassioned future point of view designers should design; managers should manage; engineers should engineer; manufacturers should create cost-effective quality products; builders should build; maintenance staff should be able to effectively maintain buildings and grounds; and those who would aspire to be the master builder should control the information, the model, and the process. Those who initiate projects and set the AEC process in motion should be able to trust and respect their consultants, minimize all risk and create a built environment that meets the needs of humanity, society, and business. “Regardless of what type of computers, operating systems, networks, or software applications you use, successful technology integration means paying as much attention to process and culture as bits and bytes. Retain your value, soften organizations, manage expectations, and climb the information pyramid.”(14) The future will in and of itself be owned by those who are the visionaries, the entrepreneurs, and the risk takers; either the profession will lead its members or it will follow its leaders. On September 11, 2004, the AIA Board of Directors approved the hiring of Consultants to “support efforts to define effective AIA responses to influence (BIM).” Time will tell.
Bibliography
1 Term coined by Jerry Laiserin, AIA in 1994.
2 Parametric -Enabled or PEN is an acronym coined by Paul Seletsky, Director of Technology for Davis Brody Bond, LLP.
3 AECbytes Viewpoint #3; March 10, 2004; Goodbye CAD. Goodbye BIM. Hello PEN. by Paul Seletsky, Director of Technology for Davis Brody Bond, LLP.
4 Ivan Sutherland, “Sketchpad A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System,” MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report Number 296, 1963. Timothy Johnson, also at MIT, developed Sketchpad III, a collateral program with 3D capability, shortly thereafter.
5 Paul Doherty, AIA, “Information Resources”; Computer-Aided Practice PIA – The Best of …; Copyright 1996 The American Institute of Architects; Washington, DC.
6 Jerry Albert Laiserin, AIA, “Invisible Computing: Designing the Information Age Practice; Computer-Aided Practice PIA – The Best of …; Copyright 1996 The American Institute of Architects; Washington, DC.
7 Jerry Albert Laiserin, AIA, “Invisible Computing: Designing the Information Age Practice; Computer-Aided Practice PIA – The Best of …; Copyright 1996 The American Institute of Architects; Washington, DC.
8 Paul Doherty, AIA, “Information Resources”; Computer-Aided Practice PIA – The Best of …; Copyright 1996 The American Institute of Architects; Washington, DC.
9 Cyon Research, “Architectural Automation: Facing the Challenges of Work-Culture” A Cyon Research White Paper, 2/19/2003.
10 Dianne Davis, President, AEC Infosystems, “BIM (Building Information Modeling) Update”, Copyright 2004 The American Institute of Architect.
11 Other standardization entities include: Computer Integrated Facility Management (CIFM) integrating software, technology and processes supporting facilities management and real estate services; Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS) established to manage scheduled and on-request building maintenance; Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) developed to manage the many documents associated with design and facility management such as drawings, leases, and photographs; Geographic Information System (GIS) developed to map sites and facilities and integrate facility data with location especially addressing emergency response availability; and the Open GIS Consortium (OGS) emb races all of the major GIS industry-wide technologies that support the use of GIS.
12 Dianne Davis, President, AEC Infosystems, “BIM (Building Information Modeling) Update”, Copyright 2004 The American Institute of Architect.
13 Gehry Technologies, LLC (GT) taken from Website - http://www.gehrytechnologies.com.
14 Jerry Albert Laiserin, AIA, “Invisible Computing: Designing the Information Age Practice; Computer-Aided Practice PIA – The Best of …; Copyright 1996 The American Institute of Architects; Washington, DC.
Philip J. Bona, Copyright © 2004