BIM as a database

While BIM certainly has powerful benefits as a visualisation tool, then, it is also far more than that. The industry has finally woken up to the fact that BIM is not only a game-changing advance on CAD but, crucially, a highly advanced database. Perhaps this shift in perception is the number one factor in seeing BIM not as a costly leap of faith but, instead, as a series of risk-free baby steps. Nobody blinks an eye at the idea of ‘building a database’. Indeed, the whole point is that it is an organic resource. Imagine delaying a database until all possible information was to hand – it would likely never get started!

Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly possible and indeed sensible to build up a BIM database over time. Contributing to this misperception is that the incremental nature of BIM is not well understood. Beginning with one project within a broader estate, each new project generates a further model that can be easily ‘locked in’ to the first, like a series of building blocks or jigsaw puzzle pieces. And this is not limited to new-build projects. With technology such as highly accurate cloud surveys and advanced Geomatics, AHR just as easily use BIM in works to existing buildings. Each set of data – each BIM model – and whether new-build or refurb - is just one part of a larger and ever-growing data-heavy model that develops in line with your needs.

This circumvents the apparent hurdle facing estates managers and can be illuminating to managers of complex, ever-changing estates where works are often small but ongoing. In fact, in the case of a University campus or large NHS Trust, where new-build and refurb may sit side by side, and where multiple projects are running at any one time, step-by-step adoption is not only the least daunting but also the most logical way to proceed. When we understand BIM as a database, we see how incremental adoption makes real sense.