BIM strategies in architectural offices
Learning by Doing Works Best
© Hascher Jehle Architektur
Many roads lead to BIM but you really learn to understand it only when you use it in your everyday planning routines, says Michael Johl of Hascher Jehle Architektur.
Michael Johl, © Frank Woelffing Photography
How has your collaborative work changed due to BIM?
Internally, with respect to model-based working processes, communication has benefitted greatly from collaborative work on 3D models. Furthermore, model testing with our internal quality management, and the corresponding close accompaniment of these processes by trained colleagues, has improved our general understanding of projects: on the whole, we have become more effective. The same applies to project levels where others take part in planning. Thanks to our involvement in the BIM Allianz, we can now exchange ideas about technical matters with other planners. We may be rivals on the architectural level; however, we’re all in the same boat in that we all face the same challenges inherent in BIM. This means we can exchange experiences and thus reduce the effort of implementing BIM for individual offices.
What mistakes must be avoided at any cost when working with BIM?
Don’t be dazzled by advertising promises and presentations! Simply buying a software program is no solution – you have to take a close look at BIM and try to understand it. In general, management must support and enact the decision to use BIM. As a rule, the smaller the office, the easier it is to implement BIM. But the desire to master every single specific application at once is not constructive. It’s better to take a deliberate approach to each step-in a given process. With every process you undertake, you should also question right from the get-go whether a different way of doing things might be better, or lead you more directly to your goal.
Reha-Zentrum Bayreuth, © Hascher Jehle Architektur
BIM training sessions make sense only on a project-by-project basis. Without any reference to practice, you’ll just forget everything. And the employees in the office shouldn’t be left to cope on their own with any problems that arise. You need more than a support hotline that helps you install software!
Volkstheater Rostock, © CtrlViz
What are the most important components of a successful BIM strategy?
People who are willing to try new things. Everything depends on people who are enthusiastic about technical progress and can share this enthusiasm with others. Our own experience has shown that when more people work on technical progress – and digitization and BIM fall into that category – and the means required to use it, then correspondingly fewer people question this progress. It takes time, effort and learning by doing to get there. People have to use and understand the tools that are available to them.
Volkstheater Rostock, © CtrlViz
Michael Johl is a BIM manager with Hascher Jehle Architektur and sits on the board of the BIM Allianz.
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