Covid ‘aftershocks’ to drive the adoption of digital construction

The construction industry is to feel the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic for years to come, increasing the need for more digital ways of working.

David Philp, Impact Director for the Construction Innovation Hub, stated that it is increasingly important that the sector explores the opportunities that digital offers us. The whole world has seen a seismic shift towards digitalisation, this includes how we collaborate, share information as well as using a common data environment.

Embracing such changes would enable us to be more sustainable and productive in terms of the offering right across the building lifecycle. Philp went on to add that ‘the majority of buildings are procured individually, designed conventionally and constructed on-site using traditional skills and materials’, that of which proves an issue for COVID-19 recovery. He did also stress that we are seeing increasing examples of modern construction methods whether it be modular or volumetric, however, such solutions are not being deployed at scale yet.

BIM interoperability

Fiona Moore, Information Management Consultant at the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), explains how it is important for construction to address the interoperability of BIM. She stated that there are lots of propriety solutions out there to help supply chains collaborate and exchange information, but they tend to fail when received by the procurer and they have no way of storing and making proper use of it.

...there are lots of propriety solutions out there to help supply chains collaborate and exchange information, but they tend to fail when received by the procurer and they have no way of storing and making proper use of it.

National Digital Twin update

CDBB Digital Director, Mark Enzer offers an update on the National Digital Twin Programme and highlighted the role that BIM has played to establish it.

He said that the foundation had been laid in terms of the work done in BIM which is an essential foundation for the National Digital Twin. It reiterates the importance of information and how that information needs to be managed throughout an asset’s lifecycle.

Co-founder of Buildots, Aviv Leibovici talked about why BIM is so important for boosting productivity in construction. When projects are designed in BIM, we expect to see a high correlation between what the design is and what will be built. The enabling of co-ordination and consistency is critical as we can only track what we can predict. This is the main reason for using BIM and also explains why it is so critical.