The MESH Conference, April 2011
What did the MESH conferences achieve?
Almost 300 attendees, speakers and sponsors participated in the MESH Conference held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Universally the engagement and discussion was the best buildingSMART Australasia has ever achieved. This coincides with a strongly increasing adoption of BIM and importantly interest from the larger contractors and client groups in Government and Industry. It also reflects growing appreciation by the Australasian construction sector of the global nature of BIM - a very different context for example when 2D CAD appeared in the 90's.
The format of the conference was based on four focussed panels (rather than traditional project descriptions), and the facilitator Nils Vesk and especially the Integrated Design Scenario session were much appreciated and raised much discussion.
Our special guest, Morten Lie, Director General at the Norwegian National Office of Building Technology and Administration described his government's major commitment to BIM & open standards, as the information flow tool in the entire value chain from early design phase through planning, construction, facility management to demolition of a building.
He reviewed current progress on their recent international competition - considered by many at the outset to be overly ambitious - required in openBIM format, for a new National Museum in Oslo, Vestbanen, which attracted over 240 submissions and a very successful outcome.
The images (right) show the six finalist's schemes set in a 3D city model to support scheme appraisal (download his presentation for more detail on the competition).
The final panel comprised representatives of the Built Environment Innovation & Industry Council with their recommendations for innovation and productivity (of which a key element is the proactive adoption of BIM). This was complemented by buildingSMART's detailed proposal for a national approach to resolving roadblocks, to establish a coordinated use of industry and government resources across Australia.
Conference presentations
Below is the list of speakers that were generous enough to share their time and expertise at the conference. We have the documents they presented at the conference, just click on the name to download a PDF of each:
What was the mix of attendees?
There was as usual a significant percentage of architects and engineers, but strong participation by builders, suppliers and contractors, large and small, together with local government, estimators, planners, client groups, lawyers and asset managers reflecting a broader mix than we have previously seen. The distinctive new participation was from builders who have been slow to engage up till now, but - with more commitment from client groups - will influence the industry significantly.
Feed back from the participants
As one attendee Penelope Dunkley, Associate Director, CCN Group put it "It was interesting to discover most of us are in a similar stage...with regards to the use of BIM". Philip Shanks, Operations Manager for a steel detailing firm said "the talk on Integrated Project Delivery was one of the most logical and clearly delivered presentations".
A topic of considerable interest was the Australian Air Conditioning Manufacturers Association with their plans for BIM based HVAC supply chain integration, bringing to a similar position the level of model based exchange, automated manufacturing and high levels of off-site fabrication as that seen in the structural steel sector.
Roger Hope, AutoCAD Application Manager at Project Services, Queensland Government said "Good industry involvement and real examples of recent experiences. The facilitator was entertaining and kept things interesting". David Yeates, Business Manager, Liquid Blu Architects said "The biggest thing to take away today has been that we need to take action ourselves."
For the first time we see a significant industry commitment to BIM, and one that is not only applied to the design and construction phases of the facility development, but also awareness of its value to local government where planning, infrastructure development, and sustainability issues are a key concern.
What were the reactions to the idea of national adoption of BIM?
The National Strategy for the Adoption & Implementation of BIM proposal was wholeheartedly supported at all three events with an almost universal show of hands in favour. The idea of national pilots - with support from Industry and Government client groups - attracted strong support. The high priority items were BIM compatible product data, Model Building guidelines, and BIM project procurement. Our Web site has taken over 30 registrations of support for working groups implementing these issues, and this will be reviewed at a BEIIC meeting in the national capital, Canberra this week.
building SMART with the support of industry is ready to start the work involved as outlined in the manifesto.
Feedback from the participants has never been so positive!It's time for Government & Industry to commit to addressing the gaps, challenges and changes need to invigorate the building sector, improve the quality of the built environment and do our part in reducing wasteful use of resources and living more sustainably.
Register your support here
A big thankyou to those organisations who sponsored the Conference with contributions from Graphisoft, Thiess, AIA, Bentley, DIISR, Pacific Computing, Autodesk, Surepoint and Artra.
Building Simulation Nov 2011 Conference, Sydney
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