Building Information Modeling

Major countries have been adopting and implementing  Building Information Modelling  (BIM) in their public infrastructure projects. The UK can be regarded as the undisputed champion of the same with a mandate that all centrally-procured construction projects have to achieve BIM Level 2. Finland has been implementing BIM since 2002. Denmark has mandated all state clients to adopt BIM practices. The U.S too has policies in place mandating BIM adoption for certain categories of public-service projects. So why are countries across the world adopting BIM? It’s simple -BIM facilitates better information exchange between all project stakeholders and enables collaboration between teams working on these construction project. By allowing you to build virtually before you build physically, it eliminates information leaks and keeps design, operation and maintenance costs in check by preventing wastage. And that should make it indispensable in Smart Cities. BIM and smart cities Sma...

A few days ago, I had the great fortune of being invited to CEPT in Ahmedabad. My interactions with the extremely talented students there were energizing for me personally. In the time since that visit to Ahmedabad, I’ve been thinking about the discussions I had. I realized that there were some common threads with the interactions that I have had previously with architecture students in other places too. If we look at the world of architecture pragmatically, an architect's ultimate aim is to turn his or her vision into reality. For this, stalwarts like Frank Lloyd Wright used 2D and pencil drafting for designing their masterpieces. Frank Gehry, on the other hand, used 3D modeling tools. The objective was the same. The path to reach them were different. The past couple of decades has seen such a proliferation of technology that now we can hardly imagine a world without tech. Whatever we do, technology seems to come up with a better way, or at least an easier and more convenient...