The bimstore Story
We believe data is the fuel for a smarter future and we want to be the platform that powers up performance to create a smarter future, today. We never stop pushing what’s possible because better doesn’t come from more of the same, so we are bringing the players together, to build a community that’s changing the game.
bimstore was born from our relentless curiosity and love of new ideas. Architecture is our background and in 2001, Rob Charlton (CEO Space Group), bought one of the earliest licenses for Revit and began to explore what it could do. As the technology got better, BIM became a buzzword.
We soon realised first-hand on our own projects what a game-changer it could be. We got inspired, even a bit obsessed, by the possibilities we saw opening up. The problem was we couldn’t see anywhere to find the objects we wanted.
At the time there wasn’t much out there and what did exist wasn’t great if we’re honest. We could have waited for someone else to develop a solution but we’re not the kind of people who like to hang about, so we decided to create our own platform.
At the start, we used to say bimstore was ‘designed by users, however It wasn’t long before we added ‘with users’.
From the outset, we put quality first. Sounds like the sort of thing that everyone says, except that we didn’t just say it, we got on with doing it. We could have made life a lot easier for ourselves. We could have taken shortcuts. We could have got to a point and said ‘this’ll do’. But that’s not in our nature. What makes bimstore unique is that we’re users too and we have a simple test for everything we do. Would we choose to use it ourselves?
Blood, sweat and tears is probably a bit of an exaggeration, let’s just say there were long hours, plenty of pizza and a few bumps along the way. We got there. In 2011, we launched bimstore v1.0 built by Adam.
We’re a bunch of people passionate about the possibilities of BIM. We love working with others who share our passion, people and businesses who are pioneering new ways to create better ways of working. At the start, we used to say bimstore was ‘designed by users, for users’. It wasn’t long before we added ‘with users’, because we soon began to build a great community of manufacturers and specifiers at bimstore, sharing ideas and discovering opportunities.
We’ve come a long way and we’ve learned a lot. We still have stacks of ideas and we’ll never stop pushing what’s possible.
Together we’ll continue to champion a smarter future that works for everyone.
Rob Charlton and Adam Ward.
bimstore Founding Directors