The mission of Government of India to provide housing for all by 2022 is going to entail massive planning, design and construction work, simultaneously at various regions. Just looking at the geographical spread of the country, one can visualize at what breakneck speed the work is to be carried on. Additionally, it has costing concerns as the focus is on affordable housing.
The policy makers and other stakeholders very well realize the use of innovative technologies to accomplish this challenging task. Most of the ‘innovation focus’ has been more on improving the technology for ‘construction material’, which is definitely important. However, at the same time, we also need advanced technology in
‘Construction design & plan’, which has multiplier effect on entire project Life cycle. Here comes the role of BIM that can decisively change the scenario.
Fundamentally it is a software driven interface which provides project delivery team with a 3D virtual visualization of look & feel of the building that is to be constructed.
Traditional building design was largely reliant upon two-dimensional technical drawings (plans, elevations, sections, etc.). Building information modeling extends this beyond 3D, augmenting the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height and depth) with time as the fourth dimension (4D), cost estimation as the fifth (5D), Sustainability as the sixth (6D) and Facility Management as seventh (7D) .
Its application becomes more fruitful as the scale of project increases in real estate and infrastructure sector. These projects involve multi crore investment. Errors here also cost in crores. In executing these large projects the Architectural Engineering Construction (AEC) companies face a number of challenges. These projects are executed by a team of professionals – architects, structural engineers, service engineers, various consultants & contractors who may not necessarily be working out of one location. The coordination and collaboration between these teams is very important for the success of a large complex project. Also, these large projects have long gestation periods, which sometime get executed in multiple phases. During the course, team compositions also change. All these result in loss of information in the transition and lot of reworking and redesigning.
This calls for a single interface to which all parties should have equal ownership. Any additions or alterations to the design would pass through the modelling software for acceptance and integration into the original plans. BIM has the capacity to minimize errors as a result of incorrect or miscommunicated information through the early identification of any potential clashes.
There is a greater degree of quality control over the contract as the modelling allows the project team to visualize the impact of any amendments to the design. This in turn allows for closer monitoring and control of costs.BIM aids in conflict detection at the initial stage, identifying the exact location of discrepancies.
GRAPHISOFT and RIPL is working on the spread of ARCHICAD (BIM application software) in India, along with training of technical know-how. With an investment of just 0.05% of project cost in Archicad -BIM infrastructure, the promoters can save up to 5-7% of overall project cost. However to scale up the usage of BIM, there is need of strong advocacy, change in mind- set and ensuring availability of trained manpower.