Currently Reading: BIM and Construction Management

Very interesting Book on the BIM process focused on the Construction Management practice
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Someone I like to call my mentor, for I have learned so much in the last months talking to him, recomended me (and gifted me) the book I am currently reading. "BIM for Construction Management. Proven Tools, Methods and Workflows" by Brad Hardin, LEED AP, AIA.

I am half the way through the first chapter and I am already extremely satisfied about the book. The book starts with an introduction to the benefits of BIM (brief) and an overview of the most common construction delivery methods with their strong and weak points. The rest of the book is a compilation of how to plan ahead, how to organize the processes and how to manage the huge amount of information that is generated through BIM. A must read if you are into BIM and Construction Management or Process Improvement, or both or if you simply want to read a great book related to Construction. Some links below if you are interested in getting a copy.

or or

I can't say I read all of it, but I can say I recomend it based on the part and bits of chapters I have read. It talks about processes and I think BIG BIM is all about that: Process, process, process...

For more Book recomendations check here.
Show me more...

Lean Construction and Lean Architecture

Can Lean principles be applied to Architecture? To architects? Or are they only for Construction?
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
I was doing some research on Lean principles applied to Architecture and found some interesting articles I thought I'd share. But first, and for those who don't know anything about "Lean", I'll do a very brief introduction.

The term "Lean" applied to industry comes from the methodology applied by Toyota in their manufacturing to eliminate what is commonly known as "waste". Related to Lean, waste means anything that doesn't bring value to the end customer. I think the wiki article on Lean manufacturing is good to get an insight of the Lean principles, so I will not extent myself much more on the topic.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, some pioneers (mainly Koskela, Ballard and Howell) started to push for the implementation of the principles applied in Lean Manufacturing to the construction industry. This is now referred as Lean Construction, and to summarize in one sentence, it tries to improve the construction industry by eliminating anything in the process of construction that doesn't bring value to the project.

Lately, I was doing some research on how this Lean Principles can be applied to the everyday practice of architectural firms, and to architects in general. I came across this website called Lean Architecture. They have a couple of the articles there available that I found quite interesting, so I thought I'd share them here. Then I thought I needed a bit of an Introduction, and so I ended up with this relatively long post. So hope you find it interesting.

Lean principles can be important to optimize the way things are done in the AEC industry, will dig into them further on later posts, this was just a first intro on the topic. What is your opinion on Lean? Did you know about it? Do you think the principles are useful? Do you think they are too theoretical?


Show me more...

Vasari: Parametric Design and Energy Analysis Webcast

Autodesk is hosting a webinar on Energy Analysis and Parametric Design based on Vasari
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Next Thursday March 17th, there is a webinar from Autodesk about Parametric Design and Energy Analysis. It will show some of the features related to this topic in Vasari.

From the Autodesk Student Community page:

We will discuss energy simulation workflows and why students need to be aware of the tools available. Attendees will learn more about Autodesk® Project Vasari, an easy-to-use, expressive design tool for creating building concepts. Project Vasari is focused on conceptual building design using both geometric and parametric modeling. It supports performance-based design via integrated energy modeling and analysis features. We will also discuss passive thermal analysis and other tools available to accomplish sustainable design goals.

You can register for the webinar here, and see more information and other Autodesk Webinars here.



Show me more...

New Sketchup Online Publication

SketchuCation has released the first edition of their new online publication
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Got an email recently from SketchUcation mentioning the new online publication they just released. It is called CathUp and covers topics related to SketchUp and some of the applications you can use with this great tool. You can either dowload de PDF or see below the interactive version.

Open publication - Free publishing - More sketchup

Nice initiative.


Show me more...

Question: What BIM platforms would you choose for Design through Construction BIM?

What do you use? What would you use?
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
This is an open question for those who are involved in real BIM, not just using it to produce 3D models, but to really squeeze all its power from design through construction (using it for accurate Quantity Take-Offs, Clash Detection, and COnstruction Simulation).

I'd like to know what combination of Software packages are you using to get a first understanding of the budget needed and to get some insights on what you think it is great from your work flow and what it is not.

The idea is that where I work, we want to become BIM for Construction champions in Spain, but the company also provides design services, so the spectrum of BIM needs is quite wide.

My first thoughts are to use Revit as the design platform and to test the Vico Office Suite as our Virtual Construction Module. I am tending to favor Vico products because we already use Vico Control for project scheduling, so the integration with that would be much easier.

Do you find this to be the right combination? How well do Revit models integrate with Vico Products? If you are involved in a similar workflow (and for that I mean you are doing real BIM, not just marketing BIM), what are you using?

Please share your insights in the comments section.

Thanks!


Show me more...