Illusion

For some Change can’t come too quickly, then there are others for whom change is a low priority. When you peal back all the rhetoric and glossy wrappers that many package their sales pitches in you find a hollowness when it comes to the topic of BIM. Yes, there are those who are doing great things, but they do not represent the industry as a whole. The hot air spewed about BIM it’s a good thing but it can’t keep the momentum moving forward forever with out some real substance.

The thing is exaggerated truths, are necessary ingredient in moving concepts through to reality, however at some point you have to commit to realizing what you are pitching. Today our practices shuffle forward rather than commit to making the necessary strides. We fear the potential instability a revolution of change would bring and instead settle for evolution. We have successfully incorporated the power of 3D tools to improve our development of 2D documentation. Yes, the paper or the more modern PDF delivery still rules, emulating what we have always done. Why we feel it necessary to flatten models only to re-translate them into real three dimensional things perplexes me. Why must we fuss with line weights and cosmetic foolery is necessary only because we won’t let go. I have had the pleasure of working with teams that flipped this reality. Developing projects with models and providing 2D documentation to supplement the models. It can be done, but it takes persistence and a people willing to push against the norm.

I run into few who outright reject the ideals of BIM, and those who are more hesitant come across as being jaded by the status quo. I have seen in practice a way of working that proves contrary, and has shown it to be possible. Now only if we truly bought into what we pitch to clients and colleges change would come faster. Whether you shuffle timidly, or glide confidently the course has been set.

In many ways it’s happened, and we just won’t allow ourselves to admit it. How many projects have you seen where paper documents are submitted with electronic files presented under the banner “for reference only”? Not to alarm anyone but I don’t care what you label it once you release those electronic files become the primary reference no mater how your agreement reads. Think about the convince you provide with a electronic document, and along with the pressure of time and efficiency. By providing those files it becomes practice to circumvent the recreation process of reinterpreting paper documents. The result is that today more and more of the work in the building design and construction process is being done from sources other that the construction documents (technically speaking). The risk appears to be much less than many forecasted. The truth is whatever we share is covered by our redundant systems in our contractual agreements and best practices between one another. Admitting it or not we are doing things previously not possible with better coordination, higher accuracy, and lower cost.

This is what I mean when I say no matter how you manage change in practice change will happen. Further more I think we can be more aggressive about embracing a new vision of new practices, owning it and define it for ourselves. As we have already begun to see if we don’t embrace it, it will embrace us. In the fast paced world of business the window of wait and see is small. I encourage those who are apart of the building design ecosystem to walk the talk.