Around the Round Table

Today I took part in a BIM roundtable event at the RIBA. A number of experts from the UK construction industry attended including the government’s chief construction advisor Paul Morrell and leading voices from Laing O’Rourke, Hilson Moran and BDP. Videos of the discussions will appear on theNBS.com/BIM and other construction industry websites in the next two or three weeks.

In preparation for the event I tried to think of the top ten questions surrounding BIM and answer them. The questions I came up with were:

1. What is BIM?
2. Who owns the BIM?
3. Who will make the most money out of BIM?
4. What are the legal implications of BIM?
5. Is the UK falling behind the rest of the world on BIM?
6. How should industry help BIM adoption happen smoothly in the UK?
7. Is there a single BIM or many BIMs?
8. Is affordability an issue and how can smaller practices be persuaded that BIM is a worthwhile investment?
9. How do master specification systems fit into BIM?
10. How do cash and carbon fit into BIM?

I’ll write up what I believe the answers to the above questions are and post in the next week. If anyone would like to answer them from their point of view, please feel free to comment.