Contract awarded to complete level 2 BIM for HM Government

BDP is part of a team led by NBS that has won the £1 million Technology Strategy Board contract to take forward development of the Digital Toolkit for Building Information Modelling (BIM). The BIM Toolkit has the potential to transform the procurement of buildings and infrastructure by defining and testing the BIM data required at each stage of the project.

The award follows a two stage competition to examine the feasibility of the project, which will deliver the final two elements of the standards and guidance being provided by the UK Government. This free-to-use BIM toolkit will make available a digital plan of work and a classification system which incorporates definitions for over 5,000 construction objects at each of the delivery stages throughout the life of a built environment asset.

The NBS team which includes BDP, BIM Academy, Laing O’Rourke, Microsoft and Newcastle University, conducted an in-depth research programme with the industry to test its proposals for a free-to-use digital BIM tool that will capture, validate and store information based on the publicly available Level 2 BIM standards. A series of workshops and focus groups was held with leading manufacturers, clients, project managers, designers, constructors and operators to ensure that the design of the toolkit satisfied the cross-industry need.

Level 2 BIM, which the government is mandating by 2016, is made up of a number of components as defined by the BIM Task Group. Many of the standards and guidance documents have already been developed; now this project will deliver the final two pieces of the jigsaw.  With the UK market for BIM-related services estimated to be an annual £30bn by 2020 and UK-based firms already exporting £7bn of architectural and engineering services, taking a leadership position in developing BIM will provide strong potential for further export growth.

Alistair Kell, IT director at BDP said of the award: “BDP is delighted to be part of the successful NBS consortium. This is a significant step which will ultimately define the UK as global BIM thought leaders. The outstanding standards are long overdue and will undoubtedly further drive BIM adoption in the UK.

As this next stage of work progresses BDP will be drawing on our interdisciplinary expertise to assist in defining the remaining elements of level 2 BIM standards. In applying our long established design processes, methodologies and experience we are confident that the outputs from this next phase of work will provide a simple framework for BIM classification and Information production to support the design and construction sector within the UK.”

The project is set to start in October and is anticipated to deliver the first phases of the toolkit in the spring of 2015.

For more information about the project and to register your interest in partaking in BETA testing or regular updates, visit www.thenbs.com/bimtoolkit.