BIM for Landscape

Landscape Institute

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317633990
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

BIM (Building Information Modelling) is transforming working practices across the built environment sector, as clients, professionals, contractors and manufacturers throughout the supply chain grasp the opportunities that BIM presents. The first book ever to focus on the implementation of BIM processes in landscape and external works, BIM for Landscape will help landscape professionals understand what BIM means for them. This book is intended to equip landscape practitioners and practices to meet the challenges and reap the rewards of working in a BIM environment - and to help professionals in related fields to understand how BIM processes can be brought into landscape projects. BIM offers significant benefits to the landscape profession, and heralds a new chapter in inter-disciplinary relationships. BIM for Landscape shows how BIM can enhance collaboration with other professionals and clients, streamline information processes, improve decision-making and deliver well-designed landscape projects that are right first time, on schedule and on budget.

This book looks at the organisational, technological and professional practice implications of BIM adoption. It discusses in detail the standards, structures and information processes that form BIM Level 2-compliant workflows, highlighting the role of the landscape professional within the new ways of working that BIM entails. It also looks in depth at the digital tools used in BIM projects, emphasising the 'information' in Building Information Modelling, and the possibilities that data-rich models offer in landscape design, maintenance and management. BIM for Landscape will be an essential companion to the landscape professional at any stage of their BIM journey.

Part I
Preparation

Introduction

Part I of this book provides an overview of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its key processes, showing some of the many benefits that can be gained from BIM implementation. BIM offers advantages throughout the supply chain – to clients, practices, contractors, suppliers, facilities and landscape managers, and end-users. Clients benefit from improved value, cost control and greater certainty that a project will be delivered on time and within budget. Practices and contractors gain from more efficient project programming, enhanced collaboration, greater transparency, improved decision-making and reduction in rework and delays. Managers and end-users are engaged from the start of a project, leading to a development that is fit for purpose and meets the needs of its users, with an extended handover to ensure that effective maintenance is in place.

How does a practice go about ‘implementing BIM’? There is no set way; there are different options for achieving many of the same goals, and different types of practices will take different steps depending on their clients and specialisms. BIM can be implemented in single-handed practices as well as multidisciplinary organisations; a private landscape firm looking to tender for projects in a BIM environment will have a very different BIM implementation process to a local authority seeking to reduce risk and cost to their own projects. One practice might focus on improving information flows and developing better collaborative relationships, whereas another might be looking to bid for new kinds of work and to streamline their processes. The first step whatever the route and destination is to establish the desired outcomes and develop an implementation plan to set the strategy, plan the process and measure the progress. This stage of the BIM journey is covered in Part I.

Starting as a collection of technological tools relating to building construction, BIM is now a process-driven project management system with information at its heart; furthermore, it is now widely applicable beyond the building, to landscape, external works and infrastructure. BIM asks practices to consider their handling of digital information – the means by which it is produced, shared, received and computed – and to find ways to expand, enhance and streamline their information processes.

The built environment sector’s relationship with information has not always been associated with innovation, clarity or certainty. The questions that form the basis of this book, and indeed BIM, focus on ways to improve this relationship. What can be done to produce better quality, more reliable project information? How can project teams manage and share information more effectively? Can all project team members and stakeholders receive the information they need, when they need it?

More than this, BIM is about change. This is an undertaking in its own right and whatever the size of the practice or the nature of its work, a managed approach to change, with clarity as to the organisation’s strategy, resources, objectives and route, is key. Changes associated with BIM fall into four main categories. First business changes, which affect the running of a practice: being able to offer new services and develop new partnerships, for example. There may be technological changes, in terms of the hardware and software in use within a practice, as well as process changes that mean projects are managed and operated differently. Finally there are team capability changes, as lessons are learnt and new ways of working are explored. The most important element in any change process is people; the way that staff respond to change within the organisation, and their ability and desire to implement that change, is critical. Staff who feel valued will engage positively with change processes, and ongoing training will enable them to implement these changes successfully.

About this book

This book is intended to help landscape and environmental practitioners and those working on landscape projects who are either about to start their BIM journey or have already set out. Rather than providing a prescriptive set of requirements that practitioners must meet, it looks at decisions that will need to be made along the way, offering a roadmap rather than a set route.

Part I focuses on preparation for BIM. It gives an overview of BIM, introducing some organisational prerequisites to BIM implementation, the standards and documentation that govern BIM Level 2, and the roles and responsibilities within a BIM project team. This section is intended to be useful to decision-makers to help identify issues regarding the implications of BIM, and to introduce the essentials of BIM to those just starting out. Part II deals with implementation, showing how BIM processes apply from pre-bid to completion. Part III covers the technological aspects of BIM, addressing the key functionalities of BIM models, software and information processes.

Terminology

The BIM standards use some familiar terms in what may be unfamiliar ways, which will also be used in this book.

• ‘Built environment sector’ is used to denote the industries that are required to implement BIM Level 2. As of 2016, BIM Level 2 is mandatory for every centrally procured development project in the UK, so this sector includes utilities, construction and transport infrastructure.
• ‘Landscape’ describes all works that may be within the remit of a landscape project, including built objects and some aspects of infrastructure.
• ‘External works’ comprises all the works that take place outside the building envelope, including infrastructure, utilities and landscape works.
• ‘Asset’ and ‘facility’ refer to the end result of a construction project, which can include landscape features.
• ‘Object’ denotes a virtual representation of an element or system created with software.
• ‘Employer’ is used to refer to a party procuring a BIM project.

A glossary at the end of the book defines some of the many acronyms and abbreviations associated with BIM, as well as some BIM-specific terminology.

This book uses the generic term ‘practice’ throughout to refer to any kind of organisation or business in the private, public or voluntary sector undertaking landscape-related work or shaping landscape policy and strategy, including sole traders, SMEs, multidisciplinary companies, local authorities, voluntary organisations and government agencies. Recognising the diverse range of work undertaken within this array of bodies, the broad term ‘landscape practitioners’ or ‘landscape professionals’ is used to cover the spectrum of readers addressed by this book, intended to include landscape architects, landscape planners, landscape managers and urban designers, as well as infrastructure and environmental professionals, specialists, contractors, consultants and all those involved in BIM projects beyond the building.

It is hoped that the information and guidance in this book is shared within project teams and practices, from managers and decision-makers to designers, as well as those responsible for project management, all of whom have a role to play in BIM implementation. Ideally, an understanding of BIM strategy, implementation and the technology that facilitates it will become embedded within a practice seeking to implement BIM Level 2.

There is an aspiration for BIM Level 2 to be exported internationally. The focus of this book is on compliance with current UK regulations, but with an eye to relevance for other regions.

Chapter 1
Introduction

This chapter gives a brief introduction to BIM by way of a look at what it is, as well as what it is not, and highlights some of the ways in which landscape practices and clients can gain from adopting BIM processes. The key messages of this book are that BIM can enhance collaboration, streamline information processes, improve decision-making and deliver built environment projects that are fit for purpose and completed on schedule. This chapter and the next begin to outline how.

What is BIM?

The BIM Task Group, set up to help the government’s BIM implementation objectives, defines BIM as ‘value creating collaboration through the entire life-cycle of an asset, underpinned by the creation, collation and exchange of shared 3D models and intelligent, structured data attached to them’ (BIM Task Group, 2013).

The key words in this definition are ‘collaboration’ and ‘data’. BIM is a process, not a technology. Practitioners are not required to work only in 3D, or use particular software. What is required is a willingness to work more collaboratively – delivering a project as a team, rather than as individual practices, with a greater emphasis on shareable digital information and shared models. Collaboration extends beyond the project team, however, and brings in stakeholders such as landscape managers and end-users from the start. A BIM-enabled landscape project begins with the end in mind, delivering not only what is required by the client, but also a landscape that can be maintained and managed effectively, due to the early involvement of those who will be responsible for its maintenance and management after handover.

BIM can mean different things to members of different professions. Within the construction sector, landscape architects, engineers, architects, project managers and contractors, for instance, have all developed their own understandings of BIM, shaped by their particular professional focus and role in the supply chain. For designers and engineers, BIM means working with intelligent design tools to produce data-rich models, whereas project managers and Tier 1 contractors might be more likely to see BIM as a process for reducing risk and waste and improving efficiency (Figure 1.1).

BIM is not software; rather, software is a tool for achieving BIM. A Building Information Model is produced by technology and standardised processes, and implemented by people. Although BIM was portrayed primarily in technological terms in its early days, it is now defined by the ‘pillars of BIM’, a suite of tools, standards and process documents that set out how BIM is applied throughout the entire life cycle of an asset. These pillars, discussed in detail in Chapter 4, develop an approach to information management that is consistent and transparent, and reduces ambiguity within projects; for instance, regarding the interpretation of drawings or naming strategies.

Figure 1.1 A visualisation based on a Building Information Model

A practice’s BIM maturity is characterised at one of four levels, from 0 to 3. The BIM levels indicate where a practice is on its BIM journey on a spectrum from low collaboration to highly integrated processes amongst the project team. BIM Level 2 is the target set for the construction industry by government, and a requirement for central government-procured projects from 2016. As a result, the built environment sector is bringing its practices into line with the particular requirements of the BIM Level 2 standards – and not just the bare minimum requirements; much work is being done to explore ways of operating projects that further improve collaboration and reduce conflict, including contractual and insurance provisions.

It is worth noting that the requirements of a BIM Level 2 project are not necessarily significantly different from those of traditional projects. London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a recent example (Figure 1.2). Although not officially a ‘BIM project’, it demonstrated all the key attributes of BIM Level 2, particularly in regard to collaboration. Each consultant used a combination of software to generate drawings and models to defined standards, which were published to a shared environment, and incorporated into federated models, supported by 3D where appropriate. This process is not un...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements and credits
• PART I PREPARATION
• PART II IMPLEMENTATION
• PART III TECHNOLOGY
• Appendix: Sample product data template
• Glossary
• Index