The future of BIM

This article is also published on pmg.net.

Building Information Management, better known as BIM, is the art of a 3D model of a construction project. But it is also much more than that: the model contains data about the different materials, quantities and performance data. Because the model is so rich in information, it contains a lot of interesting insights in a building, even before it is built. It’s an indispensable part of the construction industry, but can be quite complex, too. 

Talking with BIM expert Dominique

What better way to get to know more about BIM than actually asking someone who has been working with 3D and BIM models for more than 20 years? We got together with Dominique Marchand Fässler, the head of Product Management and Project Management CDE/BIM at the German PMG. She has been active in this role since 2021 and has gained previous experience as a BIM management specialist where she supported and supervised complex BIM projects in building and infrastructure construction. 

BIM is a transformative tool because of its ability to improve efficiency, collaboration and decision-making.

“Building information modeling has been a part of my career since the very beginning, even when it wasn’t all that common yet,” she tells us. She remembers modeling something like the shading of a window and it was just a line that contained a lot of information. It wasn’t even in 3D yet, but already contained a lot of data about what that detail of the building was going to look like. It then struck her that this was information modeling and it was about so much more than just creating a nice looking 3D object. 

The importance of BIM

Since then, Dominique has seen BIM become increasingly important in the construction industry. In her current role at PMG, she is responsible for implementing BIM functionalities and processes in the CDE (common data environment). When asked how important BIM is today, she tells us that an increasing number of customers are uploading ifc models to their platform. “It is a transformative tool, because of its ability to improve efficiency, collaboration and decision-making,” she says. “But BIM also plays a major role in automation and other forms of data management. Think of production, prefabrication, facility management and sustainability.” This is not only true for the German or Dutch market. In Finland, for example, BIM became mandatory for government buildings in 2007.

Standardization

One of the standards for BIM is an ifc file and these are currently most adopted in the field. This standardization is very important in the BIM field. Of course, when you don’t have to share your models with people outside of your organization, you can use every standard you want or even create your own. But especially when you’re working together with different organizations and want to use the model not just during the construction phase, but also when you’re managing the building or creating a Multi-Year Maintenance Plan (MYMP), you want to be certain that the structure of the model has a certain standard. This makes working internationally easier as well. 

Predicting the future of BIM

Working in the BIM field for over 2 decades, Dominique has seen the field of BIM professionalize and improve in various ways. But still, the field is not done evolving. Whereas BIM has always played a huge role in the construction industry, it is also becoming increasingly important for facility management because the models contain so much crucial information about the building. Especially when combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) it will gain importance in the total process of building life cycle management, as well as digitization of buildings with scanning solutions. 

What we have already seen with the current capabilities of generative AI looks promising.

“But,” Dominique says, “the most spectacular developments may still be ahead of us, with the emerging importance of AI . Of course, most of this is still speculative.” What we’ve already seen with the current capabilities of generative AI, this looks very promising. Another interesting development that AI could bring is predictive modeling, because this would mean that you can analyze existing data and patterns over a period of time and then predict how these would unpack in the next months or years. “That is interesting, because it drives decision making but I haven’t seen that in use in a broad area yet,” Dominique says. 

All these developments certainly show that the field of BIM keeps developing and will definitely be relevant for some time to come, not just in the construction industry but in other fields as well and it’s worth keeping a close eye on these developments.