Ever since its introduction and especially over the last few years, BIM (Building Information Modelling) has transformed the way the construction industry operates. Many countries like the UK have made the use of BIM mandatory for large-scale public projects. Buro Happold’s India BIM Lead, Sachin Kale, a mechanical engineer with over 23 years of experience in GIS and SMEP services, says that BIM is a process that involves producing and managing digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. In India, the BIM software is among the sort after technologies that has gained momentum due to its ability to generate commendable results without compromising on the quality aspect of the desired work. Though the usage of BIM technology is at a nascent stage, the technology brings a completely new gamut of positive prospects to the Indian construction industry. The technology enables complex designs, shapes and calculations that were not possible with two dimensional and conventional drawings. It allows engineers to break through the cliché of designing and gives way to abstract and unconventional structures. On various advantages offered by BIM, Kale had this to say: “BIM provides enhanced visualisation, higher productivity enabled by easy retrieval of information, better coordination of design and construction documents , effective sharing of information, clashes can be found and resolved at design stage thereby eliminating the cost and manpower involved for this activity at construction stage, extraction of model based accurate schedules and BOQ’s, low risk of information loss at project hand over time, and improved delivery.” It can also span into the operation and management of buildings using data that building or structure owners have access to. BIM objects, the components that make up a BIM model, are intelligent, have geometry, and store data. If any element is changed, BIM software updates the model to reflect that change. This allows the model to remain consistent and coordinated throughout the entire process so that structural engineers, architects, MEP engineers, designers, project managers, and contractors can work in a more collaborative environment. “BIM allows us to understand the design effects of a building, or infrastructure,” adds Kale. Another key benefit of using BIM is clash detection. A clash occurs when components within a built asset are not spatially coordinated and conflict with each other; in other words, they are found to occupy the same space, or one component in some way interferes with another’s operation. Clashes detected within the virtual BIM design can be simply resolved, without the need to hold up construction, waste valuable resources or incur the expense of purchasing replacement components or materials. Challenges to BIM adoption BIM has been around for nearly two decades but has recently become more mainstream in the professional consciousness. The adoption of BIM technology has been slower than expected in India due to some inherent challenges. Says Kale, “Our industry is catching up with the utilisation of BIM technology, but it has its fair share of challenges to deal with because of wrong BIM implementation.” He adds, “Challenges faced by various design teams implementing BIM on the projects are: understanding clients BIM requirements because of very high BIM aspirations expected from design teams, additional level of details asked at the initial design stages and unclear BIM scope; BIM implementation at right stage; lack of knowledge and untrained staff; software limitations on complex geometry; unclear Model Element Authors (MEA); missing information in BIM models; poor quality modelling; lack of coordination; exceptions for using 2D (AutoCAD); and software cost.” Computational workflows to tackle BIM challenges Design software in AEC industry are evolving dramatically from simple drafting to complex 3D modelling of systems. The arrival of computational design for BIM encourages integration of intelligent design embedded with information in addition to geometry manipulation. By converging computational principles with BIM, a new method is born by reinventing BIM. Though BIM is chosen widely for primary documentation but not preferred during initial concept stage because of the lack of flexibility and design exploration that computational tools offer. On the computational workflows that tackles BIM challenges, Muralimanoj Varadhrajan, Computational Lead at Buro Happold, says, “During conceptual modelling, documentation gets tedious so computational kick-off can be done even after a few steps. If BIM is not implemented earlier due to time constraint, computational tools helps in design exploration and design interrogation can be later done by BIM.” “Other computational workflows to tackle BIM challenges include: lack of coding knowledge and untrained staff; solving software limitations on complex geometry; improved quality modelling”, adds Varadhrajan. Successful BIM adoption demands a level of expertise within the organisation. It mandates a change in the company’s way of working. That said, this is the direction the world is moving in and India has to catch up.