Project Coventina Part 4

Welcome to the final episode of the Coventina Project.

I hope in this four part series you have enjoyed reading about the project and would like to hear more in the near future.

Previously, I discussed clash detection, tender stage two and consultant methodology. My aim in this final part is summarize the projects current state of affairs, lessons learnt and the beauty of hindsight thinking.

As it stands the project is not finished. We are approximately 80% from our contracted responsibilities, but the Building Information Model requires further development to interact with facilities management (FM) requirements. This part of the scheme will be advanced by the principle contractor. The model will be taken from a LOD 300 stage to a LOD 500 requirement. When the scheme begun it was agreed to achieve a model without FM criteria. It has now become apparent at stage two tendering phase, that FM criteria was required and we are now modifying building data. This is where prior planning and concise objectives need to be developed before model commencement. Modifying information on this scale and at this stage can be difficult and cause errors, not to mention time consuming. This identifies a clear need for plain language questions, as mentioned within the Digital Plan of Work.

There are a number of lessons to be learnt from this project.

• Identify upfront in specific LOD detail, what everybody wants.
• A model of this nature can test your computer performance. Identifying IT needs before the project starts is critical.
• Improving data work sets for internal staff and sub contractors can control defining project data. For example consultant worksets and element ownership
• Adopting AEC / National BIM standards will help keep the mass of information organized.

With large scale models, all design and model principles in authoring software must be extremely disciplined. With better foresight many families / custom content could have been standardized. On the next scheme on this nature and scale, I will make the model more free-flowing.

The most time consumption aspect of the scheme is communication and decision making. This is a problem that affects all construction developments not just BIM related schemes. This is where the BIM Task Groups digital plan of work will improve working methods and decision making.

Thanks for reading about the project and I look forward to sharing my knowledge in the future. If you have any questions, please send me an email at [email protected] or go here for more information.

Until next time. Chris