How to ‘kick-start’ your BIM journey

Under a government mandate, from early April this year all centrally procured public sector projects were required to implement BIM (Building Information Modelling) at Level 2. Against this backdrop, 27 June saw IHEEM and HefmA jointly stage the first in a series of planned free-to-attend events promoting the use of BIM in the healthcare sector. Among the speakers at the seminar, which was chaired by BIM4Health chair and IHEEM Council member, Steve Batson, and held at the at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London, was Joel Martineau, LEED AP, digital practice manager at architectural and engineering firm, Stantec. His presentation explained to delegates, and particularly those ‘new’ to the process, how to ‘kick-start’ their BIM journey, and ‘how to use 3D models and data to solve day-to-day problems’. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

oel Martineau opened his presentation by describing his role: “I am part of the corporate BIM team at Stantec, responsible for creating best practice and standards for company-wide implementation, exploring technologies that will allow us to better collaborate with our design partners, and developing more efficient workflows to produce better buildings.” An architect by trade, the speaker said his goal was to explain how BIM is implemented from an architect’s perspective – ‘as one of many technologies’ during the design process – to help clients to make informed decisions.  His presentation would, he said, be based on a recent project Stantec had worked on – headed by its London, UK office – with a team of some 70 people, across 12 different offices worldwide, involved. 

He said: “Let’s look at all the phases of such a project, and what we need to pay attention to when implementing a BIMenabled workflow. There are several factors to consider before long before putting pen to paper. The sooner we can identify any issues and propose solutions, the more likely we will be to collaborate successfully with our partners to meet all the client goals.” The first ‘item on the project agenda’ was ‘The Pursuit’, i.e. ‘What does the client really want, and can we deliver?’ Joel Martineau elaborated: “It’s critical that we understand the client requirements. You have the RFP (Request for proposals), but now what? Understanding the client requirements early on and how they will inform what we do is key in enabling us to make informed decisions. Altering our course in the latter stages of a project can result in considerable pain and lots of re-work.”