To learn more about NIBS and its recent initiatives (that if adopted by industry stakeholders could be game changers), we spoke with Roark Redwood, NIBS’ Senior Vice President of Technical and Government Solutions, and Johnny Fortune, Executive Director, U.S. National BIM Program.

Fortune, who has been in his current position for a year, brings to it a wealth of experience. He worked in the industry for 20 years, where he saw that alarming levels of inefficiency were rife. Now, he couples that observation with a passionate belief in the potential of the building information modeling (BIM) program that NIBS supports to positively improve the industry’s efficiency levels.

“The problem that exists in the construction industry is that it lags behind almost every other industry in terms of productivity,” Fortune says. “The industry surrounding the built environment has been very slow to adopt technology that could make it more productive. I had focused on productivity issues for many years within the construction firms for which I worked, trying to make them more efficient. When I learned of NIBS and the work being done by this organization in information management and the development of standards of data sharing, I saw it as an opportunity to impact inefficiencies and productivity on a national scale,” he says.

“After 10 years of volunteering with NIBS and doing some contract work around re-writing the building information modeling manual for the Department of Veterans Affairs, I knew this was where I wanted to invest my time and energy,” he continues. “Rather than just working for one company, I wanted to help the entire industry by providing it with the data sharing capability so desperately needed.”

The first version of the National BIM Standard – United States, a document produced by the BIM Program, was introduced in 2007 to “provide consensus-based standards through referencing existing standards, documenting information exchanges, and delivering best practices for the entire built environment.”

With BIM standards freely available to all stakeholders, Fortune, along with the committee members who worked on updating them, believes that “detailed models can deliver accurate products that can be used during commissioning and operation to ensure functionality throughout the life-cycle of facilities while delivering high-performance, carbon-neutral, and net zero energy buildings.”

Since 2007, the standards have been revised and updated three times, with input from numerous stakeholders who volunteer on a steering committee and on working groups. Now Version 4 is set to be softly launched at the NIBS Building Innovation Conference, September 5-7 in Washington. This annual event draws stakeholders from across the country who have an impact on the built environment and are seeking solutions for inherent industry problems. Following the formal release, the standards will be freely available to all interested parties.

Fortune noted some significant changes for Version 4, which include “cleaning up the language to clarify the standards” and introducing new features which will impact the standards’ overall usefulness and increase acceptance among stakeholders.

One such feature is an entirely new section on project owner requirements, which will enable owners to be more precise in what they require for their projects and help them define their BIM requirements. They can then clearly specify what they want to see, what the outcomes will be, and communicate them to their project stakeholders: the architects, engineers, designers, and contractors.

What this means in practical terms, Fortune says, “is that since the owners are the ones funding the project, they can put the requirements for data standards into their plan, and then the rest of the stakeholders are subject to compliance and need to follow suit.”

The standards are related to all the issues surrounding the construction industry—safety, workforce, environment. He shared an example of how the standards could assist with reducing carbon emissions by approaching the topic through the type of building materials and furniture that will be used in the building.

“Where the program could assist with decarbonization is by defining new standards related to the rating of materials in terms of their embodied carbon, and putting it in a database that could report a cumulative rating for all of the materials and objects in a building,” Fortune explains.

The standards are also of critical importance in that they can capture the data at different stages of a project or a building’s life cycle and ensure that data can be passed from one stakeholder to another.

There is a plethora of technology, tools, and applications available on the market to help individual stakeholders complete their job. But all too often the information is locked up in a software application and doesn’t get transferred to the next stakeholder when the project is handed over, resulting in inefficiency as the same information will have to be modeled repeatedly, with the owner having the greatest information deficit.

“This doesn’t mean that everyone has to purchase the same software applications,” Fortune said, “but all stakeholders have to be able to get the original data without having to input the same information over and over again, and this is why we are promoting open data standards.”

The previous three versions of the National BIM Standard – United States had a life cycle of three to five years, but Version 4 has adopted an agile, modular approach. This will enable updating of modules within the standard independently, thereby eliminating long revision cycles and allowing for more frequent updates and the ability to add new modules.

Mitigation and building resilience initiatives
NIBS’ Redwood is responsible for the overall performance of the Technical and Government Solutions department by ensuring innovative execution and delivery of services, completing programs, and expanding new business development opportunities. This includes BIM.

Redwood is an architect with 23 years of experience, delivering federal, cultural, leisure and entertainment, higher education, mixed-use, aviation, industrial, commercial, and residential projects. He is an experienced leader of diverse teams of professionals for a variety of clients and project types, complexities, budgets, and delivery methods.

In addition to BIM, there are several mitigation and resilience projects underway through NIBS’ Technical and Government Solutions department.

These include TurboGrants, which is the brainchild of the NIBS Vice President of Engineering, Jiqiu Yuan. TurboGrants is directed toward mitigation and resilience so that non-profit organizations looking to secure or help their communities recover from natural disasters will be able to find resources provided by FEMA, understand the eligibility requirements, and apply.

“This is about being proactive and ensuring accessibility,” Redwood said of TurboGrants. “The notion among Americans is that recovery funds are a given, but the journey to tap into them is not. That’s where TurboGrants steps in.”

Other projects include the development of a mitigation investment roadmap with Fannie Mae. The goal of the Resilience Incentivization Roadmap 2.0 is to identify ways to work with lenders to explore financial products that support resilient buildings, help developers properly evaluate risk and recognize values of resilient buildings and lower the upfront cost, and collaborate with insurers to promote insurance programs that reward safer structures.

Taking the pulse of the built environment workforce
With regard to workforce, NIBS collects valuable information on where things stand.

NIBS released the 2023 Built Environment Workforce Survey in June. The report was completed in partnership with Avenue M Group and dozens of participating organizations, including The American Association of Blacks in Energy; The American Institute of Architects; American Institute of Steel Construction; American Society of Civil Engineers; American Society of Landscape Architects; ASHRAE; Association of Equipment Management Professionals; ASTM International; BOMA International; Building Talent Foundation; Construction Management Association of America; Construction Specifications Institute; Design-Build Institute of America; Green Building Initiative, Inc.; International Code Council; International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants; Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; National Apartment Association; The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; National Building Museum; New Buildings Institute; Northwest Energy Efficiency Council; Phius (Passive House Institute US); Ready Mixed Concrete Research & Education Foundation; Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; and the U.S. Green Building Council.

The report takes a comprehensive look at diversity, equity, and inclusion. More than seven in 10 respondents included race (75 percent), ethnicity (74 percent), gender (73 percent), and age (71 percent) in their definition of diversity within the context of the built environment.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents said it’s important to increase diversity of the built environment. And overall, younger respondents—aged 39 or younger (68 percent) and aged 40 to 49 (66 percent)—as well as women (79 percent) were more likely to indicate the importance with regard to increasing diversity.

Other report highlights include:
• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents were men and about three in 10 (31 percent) were women.
• More than four in five (82 percent) identified as White and/or a person of European descent. 7 percent of respondents identified as Hispanic and/or Latina/Latino/Latinx; 4 percent identified as Black, African American, and/or a person of African descent; 4 percent identified as East Asian; and 3 percent identified as Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit.
• Around two-thirds (67 percent) of women indicated they have experienced discrimination or prejudice in the built environment based on gender.

“While it’s striking that over two-thirds of our respondents were men, the underrepresentation of diverse ethnicities and the significant 67 percent of women who’ve experienced gender-based discrimination in the built environment underscores an urgent need to address these disparities and promote inclusivity,” Redwood says.

Decarbonizing the building sector
This year, NIBS began the Existing Buildings webinar series, opening it up July 12 with a discussion on green retrofits. Building owners are actively using green building retrofits as the key to attracting more tenants; attaining competitive positioning in the marketplace; supporting easier and more cost-effective operations and maintenance; reducing energy bills and consumption; and achieving carbon benchmarking.

The series continues October 24 with Retrofitting for Resilience.

While on the subject of existing structures, NIBS’ Consultative Council this year explored the topic of building sector decarbonization, examining key concepts, challenges, and considerations that can help inform decisions about if, where, and how to pursue decarbonization goals, and providing recommendations to policymakers and industry stakeholders on priority actions and next steps.

The building sector is a significant contributor to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These GHG emissions contribute to the widespread and worsening impacts of human-induced climate change and can adversely affect local environments and populations by compromising indoor air quality and exacerbating outdoor air pollution.

Mitigating these effects by decarbonizing the building sector will take an economy-wide effort, but the need to achieve near- and long-term emissions reductions is critically important.

“NIBS, as a creation of Congress, was meant to lead in building science and technology innovations,” Redwood says. “To our fellow citizens and our partners, we assure you, we’ll rise to this occasion.”

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Following U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement in March 2022 in which she announced the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to improving public transportation throughout the United States, we explored the advent of Hyperloops and Earth-friendlier mass transit. This month, we explore how and whether American and Canadian public transportation is indeed transforming and what is influencing the changes. We also see how the implementation of Hyperloop technology is faring and whether it was worth the initial hype.

Based on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and funded by American Rescue Plan investments, the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal, it stated, was to reduce toxic emissions in a bid to counter climate change. But there was also a social aspect to the mission, with better national health levels, job creation, and improved remuneration all cited as motivation for the public transit makeover.

As statistics indicated that public transit was responsible for just under one-third of all fossil fuels emissions in America, it certainly made sense. With the rise of electric vehicles, the time had come to start cleaning up the sector. The administration’s first stop was to take care of disadvantaged children in under-served communities who have, historically, been exposed to toxic emissions on a much larger scale than children from wealthier areas.

Funding was generous, with over $5 billion in aid arriving via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law toward the Low- and No-Emission Transit Vehicle Program. The Department of Transportation also chipped in with more than $1 billion for this year plus over $2 billion to the American Rescue Plan, which serves around 20 states’ transportation departments.

More than $370 million was earmarked for the Bus and Bus Facilities program. Modesto City Schools in California was one of the first to place an order with electric bus fabricator Blue Bird Corporation (BLBD) of Macon, Georgia, for thirty vehicles to replace half of its original fleet.

In Canada, governments went public in May of this year with historic news of rolling out the largest electric bus plan on the continent. The plan promises to introduce approximately 1200 electric buses, benefiting around ten public transportation organizations and allowing them to transform their fossil-fueled fleets into clean, modern transportation.

In the United States, schools are electrifying their fleets at an impressive rate. Florida’s Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) for one did not wait for the grass to grow following the White House announcements. Thanks to the support of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Electric School Bus Project, BLBD reported delivering its biggest single delivery of buses yet to BCPS in April of this year.

Looking at the BCPS’ collection of over 500 Blue Bird buses, which make up just under half of its fleet, the future of public transportation in Florida is changing faster than, perhaps, expected. BLBD is rightly proud to have delivered more than 20,000 buses running on electricity, propane, and similar. Large enough to transport more than 70 children for over 100 miles per charge, these beautiful yellow school buses are becoming a familiar part of the local landscape.

Staying with electric buses, we also look at Proterra, California’s star electric transit vehicle fabricator. Known for quality electric buses, the company reports impressive recent sales. Since January, it has sold 10 fully electric buses to Sonoma County, 75 Proterra ZX5 emission-free buses to Miami-Dade County, and more to several other areas. Its next largest order has come from the South Carolina Department of Education, which has put in a request for 160 Thomas Built electric school buses to be distributed throughout the state in the coming months.

Airplanes are also slowly becoming battery-powered and Arlington-based Eviation Aircraft is growing. Its famous nine-seater plane, Eviation Alice, is unique in its class and covers about 500 miles on a single charge. While this may be a small start, it appears to be the beginning of the future for commercial electric flying.

In June of this year, the company reported from the Paris air show that Aerolease, a sustainable aviation leader in Miami, Florida, has ordered around 50 of its electric aircraft, bringing its total orders to the region of $4 billion USD.

In addition, United Airlines has planned its first public flights from O’Hare International Airport to Vertiport Chicago in an Archer Midnight air taxi in partnership with Archer Aviation for 2025. As United Airlines’ electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, this five-person, six-battery-pack plane also holds baggage and travels well over 100 miles per hour, sometimes beating congested traffic times by up to 50 minutes.

One of the biggest perks is the cost of travel, as developers describe the price of hopping on one of these instead of sitting in traffic. The speedy aircraft could be joined by the 19-seater electric ES-19 aircraft developed by Heart Aerospace, another United Airlines partner, as soon as 2026.

Many counties are working hard to bring battery-powered electric trains to their communities. Stadler, a well-known Swiss train fabricator, has already signed a deal with California’s San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) for a Flirt H2 train. Entirely hydrogen-powered by Ballard Power Systems’ next-generation engineering, the train is set to start running next year.

And that’s not the only exciting news from Stadler. This year, Utah State University (USU) and its ASPIRE Engineering Research Center will become part of Stadler’s development of the battery-powered “Flirt Akku” model. The project is initially set to transform rail travel along the Wasatch Front, an urban zone that’s home to Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Bountiful, and other cities, and will carry its power packs on its roof. The train is fashioned on an earlier, hybrid model, the 110 Flirt Akku, which has been running in Germany since 2018.

This brings us to Hyperloops. Short of coming to a screeching halt, it appears that most developers are in for tough times with these future-positive projects. While a version of Elon Musk’s Boring Tunnel is functional and cuts down travel time between venues at the Las Vegas Convention Center, passengers ride in Musk’s Teslas rather than the pressure-resistant pods that were originally planned.

Despite setbacks, The Boring Company, Musk’s flagship Hyperloop development firm, states on its website that Clark County, Nevada will become home to several similar new stations and miles of tunnels. However, the numbers mentioned on the company’s website and in the Clark County tweet it refers to do not necessarily correspond. Time will tell.

As some Hyperloop firms seem to struggle with funding, a few such tunnels are also reported to have closed, including Musk’s Hawthorne, Canada tunnel and Hyperloop TT’s tunnel not far from Toulouse in France. While some earlier proponents are now back-pedalling on their former faith in Hyperloops, others remain hopeful.

What experts agree on, however, is that, while maybe a tad on the glacial side in its developmental pace, the technology is desperately needed if the planet is to consolidate its efforts towards more guilt-free, Earth-friendly travel. As one critic of the current Las Vegas tunnel points out, adding cars to tunnels that could accommodate trains is not a sustainable solution for the future of cities. Once you’re through the tunnel and back in the congestion of ground-level traffic, where do you park?

As American and European Hyperloop developers navigate rough economic times, a Dutch developer, generously funded by the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator Program, is making more waves.

Backed by well over 10 million euros last year, Hardt Hyperloop is getting ahead in establishing the European Hyperloop Center tubes by 2030. The company is further supported by POSCO International, a Korean Investment firm that signed a letter of intent at the end of last year.

Until these long-awaited, high-pressure pod trains become a reality, however, traditional public transit infrastructure must be kept in shape, which is proving to be a challenge in many places, despite the high hopes of last year. While New York City was recently assigned $1 billion USD to level up its transit system, in Minnesota, St. Paul and Minneapolis public transportation systems currently rely on a new sales tax that aims to generate over $400 million USD per annum.

As some states have had to fight to have their frustrations over public spending heard, civil protest proves essential in protecting public transportation budgets from potentially being raided to solve local governments’ spending dilemmas.

One recent event took place in June in Chicago and San Francisco, where locals staged mock funerals for model trains and buses to voice their disapproval of the status quo. Their approach worked, and instead of kissing goodbye to $2 billion USD from the public transportation budget—threatening the closure of around 20 bus routes—over $1 billion USD in annual support was pledged toward the public transportation system through the state legislature. At the time of writing, the motion was not yet confirmed, however.

In Canada, statistics are showing a drop in public transportation use since the days of COVID. In January of this year, over four million fewer trips were made on urban transportation, amounting to an almost 30 percent drop compared to January 2019, before COVID got going. The good news is that these numbers are growing.

The light at the end of the tunnel, currently, resides in legislation that makes it worthwhile for municipalities to assign resources to accommodating electric vehicles and the infrastructure to keep them running. Under legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. government can provide for over 30,000 infrastructure construction projects, including restoration work.

While every state or province has its own challenges to bear, big tech, corporations, and civilians alike are proving invaluable in coming up with solutions to the evolution and maintenance of public transportation. And, despite budgets being tight post-COVID, there remain innovators hurtling toward humanity’s environmentally friendly transportation goals. It might just take a little longer than first imagined.

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Founder John Rosier launched the operation as a humble start-up in 2002. He grew it into a leading force in the industry by providing the highest quality Leica products in tandem with steadfast customer care. “John was in this industry for years, working for another company, and that’s really where it all started,” explains Business Development Manager Matthew Biles.

While on the job, Rosier observed that some of the customers weren’t getting the care and attention that they deserved. “They weren’t being taken care of,” Biles says. Rosier saw not only a need, but an opportunity. “He started his own business out of his basement. He had already formed some of those relationships, being in the industry for years. But he really just took it to the next level of taking care of those customers.”

Taking it to the next level often meant long days on the job, personally going out to customers’ locations to ensure satisfaction. “He would drive out to all the job sites for the customers to pick up their equipment,” says Biles. “If he sold equipment, he would deliver it to them out on the job site, and he really went above and beyond taking care of his customers and building those relationships.”

Today, TerraWise Solutions is the number one machine control authorized dealer of Leica Geosystems for all of North America. “We sell, we rent, and we train on all of our equipment, and we also repair equipment,” Biles says. “What sets us apart is we are mobile still to this day. So anywhere in the southeast, we come to you; we come to the job site. If you have equipment at your office that needs to get picked up, [we come to your office]. We go above and beyond to take care of our customers.”

Indeed, customers can rely on TerraWise Solutions for all their service needs. “We also have a full-service center here in McDonough where we work on all equipment,” says Biles. “We are a Leica Geosystems reseller—we don’t resell any other equipment besides Leica—but all of our customers tend to have different [kinds of] equipment, and we work on it all. They’re able to bring all their equipment to us as a one-stop shop.”

TerraWise Solutions carved out its leading position as a Leica Geosystems reseller by helping customers take full advantage of the technology. During the early years of the company, the team realized that customers were missing out on key product capabilities due to a lack of knowledge. Biles likens it to when people buy a newly released smart device and are unable to figure out how to use all of the new features. “It can do so much for you, but we realized our customers were only using ten percent of that equipment, of what it was really capable of doing,” he says.

The team went to work learning everything there was to know about the product in order to fully support the customer. “We ended up being knowledge experts on all the equipment, where we knew the equipment inside and out. So we were able to go out and train our customers to fully utilize that equipment and it created a greater ROI for them, being able to use more features on that equipment. It really built a relationship of trust between us and our customers, just knowing that we were the experts and we were going to lead them down the right path. So what really has kept us successful is being experts on the equipment and then continuing to hire and train people to be the best in our industry. And we pass that on to the customers.”

TerraWise Solutions recently rebranded from its original name, Construction Laser, in response to changing technologies within the sector. “Positioning technology, just like any other technology, is constantly evolving,” Biles points out. “As such, the name Construction Laser once told who we are, but as time went on, became a little outdated. We feel like TerraWise Solutions not only tells who we’ve become and who we’ve evolved into, but it also allows us to keep evolving with technology moving forward.”

TerraWise Solutions’ new tagline, “building superior solutions together,” captures the company’s commitment to partner with its customers. “This is all about who we are,” Biles says. “We sell, train, and repair—but at the end of the day, we’re looking to build that trust. It’s not just about selling the equipment and then walking away from a customer. We’re constantly there, training them on how to use the equipment. If the equipment breaks or fails, we are there to repair or give them a loaner. We create that partnership. We really do become an extension of our customers, and that’s where they rely on us. Together, we’re building superior solutions.”

Although the company has enjoyed steady success, the journey has not been without its challenges, particularly when working to actively expand while carving out a unique identity in the marketplace. “When you’re doing a rebranding, when you’re having the kind of growth that we are, you’re always going to come across little growing pains.” Biles shares. “But we’re working to adapt. Internal processes are changing, all kinds of things like that [are changing] with the growth that we’re experiencing.” Ultimately, he summarizes, the goal is “making sure we’re getting our processes correct and making sure we’re able to handle the kind of growth that we’re seeing.”

After years of focused growth, the team is eager to keep pushing forward to stay at the leading edge of an ever-evolving industry. “It kind of goes together; right now, the industry is growing—the construction industry as a whole—and we’re seeing the same thing within our company. We’re growing rapidly. Our plans are to continue to adapt and continue to grow with the market and within the technology sector. And this means adopting the newest and greatest technology, and making sure we’re experts with that technology.”

The team is also looking to expand geographically in order to reach more customers. “We plan to grow into some more states,” Biles says. “Currently, we’re in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, but we have plans to grow throughout the southeast.”

After transforming from a one-man show in a basement to the number one machine control authorized dealer of Leica Geosystems for all of North America, TerraWise Solutions already has a solid track record of successful expansion. Armed with the industry knowledge and customer-first approach that have brought the company so far, it should only be a matter of time before the team’s future plans come to fruition.

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In just a few years, technologies inside our homes that once seemed futuristic have become everyday devices we take for granted. Smart home products like air purifiers, robot vacuums, and programmable dog feeders are becoming commonplace. Automation and security tech, such as thermostats, all-weather cameras, video doorbells, and digital locks can be controlled by cellphones anywhere in the world.

Most of us focus on devices inside our homes or businesses, but what about the materials and technologies used during construction? We are all familiar with common building products including wood, metals, concrete, aggregates, clay, and brick. Time-tested over centuries, these items are efficient and cost-effective, and are now being joined by processed products like composite wood.

Comprising wood fibers like sawdust mixed with plastics, these composites are attractive and extremely durable, making them ideal for outdoor decking use. Structurally, engineered wood—also known as man-made wood, mass timber, composite wood, and manufactured board—is being used for everything from single-home construction to commercial and industrial buildings. Cross-laminated timber (CLT), meanwhile, is increasingly being used as an alternative to steel and concrete. Lighter than many other building materials, CLT is durable, boasts outstanding thermal and acoustic properties, generates little waste, and is highly versatile.

Changing with the times
Along with newer building materials, new technology, such as 3D printing, is changing the face of construction. The early 3D printers of the mid-1980s were small-scale, and incorporated ultraviolet (UV) lasers and liquid polymers to make objects, often scale architectural models.

Over the years, printer size increased as technology improved. In 2006, 3D printing made its biggest leap when Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California launched the Contour Crafting system. Inspired by its 3D desktop printer predecessors, the method was developed to ‘print’ buildings in place using concrete. This was soon followed by other 3D printers creating full-scale steel bridges, pods intended for shelter during disasters, mansions, and other large structures.

For construction companies, 3D printing boasts a plethora of advantages, both economic and environmental. Since structures are built in place, the carbon footprint is much smaller than it would be if traditional building materials needed to be hauled to site. Since the key material is a mortar mix containing a high cement content, buildings are printed to last a long time. The mix is extruded layer by layer, and there is very little waste in comparison with conventional materials. And since printed projects don’t require as many tradespeople, greater labour savings can be realized.

The size of 3D printed structures is virtually limitless, with the largest to date, a luxury horse barn, completed earlier this year. Using the COBOD BOD2 3D construction printer, the massive Wellington, Florida facility is 155 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 13 feet tall. The building will be known not only for its size but its strength, since it was designed and printed to withstand Florida’s extreme tropical storms and hurricanes.

Not to be outdone, technology has found its way into masonry as well. One of the most exhausting and labour-intensive jobs in construction, bricklaying has been made simpler and more effective through robotics. Patented by Mark Pivac in 2005 as an ‘automated bricklaying system,’ the Hadrian X® was born. In 2016, the bricklaying robot made news worldwide when it laid 1,000 bricks in just an hour, far exceeding human capabilities of 300 to 500 bricks in a day. Continually evolving, the next-generation Hadrian robot recently began laying blocks autonomously.

The future is now
As time passes, it is getting harder to remember a time before certain technologies. Developed in the 1970s, Building Information Modeling (BIM) creates and manages data, creating digital building representations. According to the National BIM Standard Project Committee, “BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A Building Information Model is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition.”

A collaborative tool, BIM software affords professionals, from architects and contractors to real estate developers and property managers, the ability to ‘see’ a structure before it is built. Widely used—and even mandated in some cases—BIM allows for informed decisions, and has transformed how many of today’s buildings are designed, built, and maintained.

Getting it done
Worsened of late by the pandemic, construction has faced a shortage of skilled tradespeople for decades. One of the many reasons companies are adopting new technologies is to supplement their human workforce with artificial intelligence (AI), computer-assisted design, robotics, and automation. One emerging tool is parametric modeling. A time-saving, computer-aided design tool, parametric modeling “is a modeling process with the ability to change the shape of model geometry as soon as the dimension value is modified,” according to ScienceDirect.

Likewise, digital twin technology is being used more and more in construction. Digital representations of actual objects, digital twin tech is being used to create exact digital replicas of a building or buildings, infrastructure like bridges and highways, and even entire cities. When used with BIM and 3D modeling, the technology provides valuable information in real time.

Along with digital twin tech, many companies are now using augmented reality (AR). Generating 3D visualizations, AR allows architects and builders the ability to better plan projects from start to finish. Virtual walkthroughs and progress reports enable stakeholders to see plans for themselves, increase efficiencies, and address potential issues, saving time, money and materials.

In just 27 years, the world’s population is expected to grow from 8 billion to 10 billion. While much has been written about the projected demand for food, the need for housing will be urgent, with some predicting 13,000 new buildings must be built per day between 2023 and 2050 to meet demand. This figure does not include other vital construction, such as schools and hospitals. According to Redshift by Autodesk, the next 20 years will see a worldwide need for $94 trillion USD in investment in global infrastructure. As more people migrate to cities, new roads, bridges, highways, and rail systems will need to be built, along with water, sewage, and power plants.

Faced with a shortage of skilled human workers, growing environmental concern, and the urgent need for on-time and on-budget project completion, the need for AI, robotics, and automation will only continue to grow.

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