Cloud Based BIM – Revolutionising the Construction Sector in Ireland and Beyond

The construction industry in Ireland is going through something of a revolution right now and that is in no small part, due to the technological advances that have occurred in recent years. Cloud computing and its use in Building Information Modelling (BIM) is seen as one of the main drivers of this polar shift in sustainable design methods and construction processes.

BIM Level 2

Cloud-based BIM forms part of BIM maturity level two, which is the level projected to be reached by all construction firms in Ireland and wider Europe by 2020, if the EU’s directive is to be reached by that date. It is unclear at this stage whether this will be the case, however, what is almost certain, are the expected waves of changes to the processes and methods in the construction industry over the next few years.

Building Life Cycle Management

One of the major benefits of using cloud-based BIM, is the extremely valuable insights that it gives during all phases of a building’s life cycle. What is also particularly useful is that this information can be accessed using any number of computing devices, such as PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Academic Review

In 2014, the Journal of Information Technology in construction published a review of cloud based BIM technology and its future role in construction and concluded the following:

• That the concept was increasingly being utilised by the construction industry, but not as much as they would have liked
• There was a lack of clarity about ownership of BIM Models
• That there was a significant need for training on new technology in the industry

The inner legal and organisational company issues were a hindrance to the implementation of Cloud-based BIM

In the intervening years since this study, there have been significant moves in the right direction by the industry as a whole and the understanding and awareness of the advantages of BIM adoption has increased considerably. This has meant that a lot of work has gone into overcoming the issues listed above and at this point, the transition to BIM level 2 across the industry is steadily gaining momentum.

At Varming Consulting Engineers Ireland, we are fully committed to using green technologies and sustainable building design like BIM for a better, more efficient future for the industry.