Task Group #2: Communicating Design Intent in the Age of BIM

Today’s drafting conventions have been with us for decades, some even for centuries. Our 2D representational diagrams have allowed us to communicate design intent from one mind to another… from the architects and engineers to the clients, regulatory authorities, and especially to the craftpeople and builders that make it real. More than simply intuitive graphics, they are a complex language and like any other language has evolved somewhat over time. With the onset of CAD workflows in the 1980s, these conventions survived because lines were still lines even as the pencil was replaced with a mouse and keyboard. Today, with multi-disciplinary BIM and data-enabled design, construction, and facilities workflows, many more words have been added to this language.
Building on the success of our first task group, this second of three 2017 BSABIM initiatives will be introduced this month by leaders Bill Spaulding AIA and Mike Kyes AIA and the rest of the team. We welcome others to join or at least help contribute to the success of the team as you see fit. To kick things off, the team will show some innovative examples of conventions that are taking the place of older paradigms and will discuss how we got to where we are and identify opportunities for more effective communication methods and information hand-offs. Eventually, we will be diving in to gauge industry understanding of standards such as the NCS, ISO, CSI, the AGC/AIA BIMForum’s LOD Spec, COBie and other metadata structures, BUT FIRST starting with the basics by simply asking “What are the best methods you have seen to get a good design understood easily and built well?” Is it 3D PDF drawings, Cloud-based collaboration models, Virtual Reality, Rapid Prototyping?

Join us May 23rd to engage with this topic and please bring your best examples help make progress together!

To learn more about the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Roundtable, visit architects.org/committees/building-information-modeling-bim-roundtable.

Click Register to attend.