Christopher Groome, buildingSMART UK’s business manager, and Nicholas Nisbet, technical co-ordinator, gave a joint presentation at the Ecobuild conference in London on 1 March 2011, speaking from one of the stands at the trade show, courtesy of software vendor Vectorworks, a member of buildingSMART. Ecobuild is an annual event that showcases and promotes sustainable design and construction, with an exhibition, workshops and product launches.

 

Chris explained the mission, goals and structure of buildingSMART and indicated how the buildingSMART approach helps the parties to a construction project control costs. He explained how building information modelling (BIM) allows the parties to share data and emphasised the sustainability priorities – ‘build smart to build green’ – and the organisation’s aim to help companies improve their business processes and business model.

 

Nick then talked about the three key standards of buildingSMART (data model, processes and dictionary, or IFC, IDM and IFD) and emphasised the versatility of the IFC standard. He gave examples of how IFC is being used in Germany and in a US military project – in the latter case for safe evacuation – and highlighted beacons in the history of IFC, such as the pioneering Akershus Hospital project and the Singapore Corenet system for planning. In environmental assessment and life-cycle costing, he said, the use of IFC is central to the development of efficient tools.

 

The presentations were given on the floor of the trade show, with a floating audience. This enabled Chris and Nick to reach a rather different audience from traditional conferences, and spread information about buildingSMART’s activities and the enabling standards, leading to at least one new buildingSMART member.