SHARE
Early adoption and a firm commitment to integrate BIM and Revit into our design methodology sets Boffa Miskell apart.
When Boffa Miskell’s design team made an industry-leading commitment to work within a BIM environment, and use Revit as the software of choice, there were very few standards for how landscape architects and urban designers might use 3D modelling software.
Eight years later, the company continues to lead the way. Yoko Tanaka, Technical Lead for Landscape Architecture, and Izzy Clark, Design Technology Coordinator, explain:
Q: Let’s take a step back, for those who might not know – what is Revit and BIM?
Izzy Clark (IC): BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modelling or Building Information Management. BIM is a broad topic that covers everything from information management to producing digital models that represent physical elements.
Revit is a design and documentation software with the capability to create 3D models, along with 2D sheets, and schedules. Elements that are 3D modelled in Revit have asset information nested within them. A Revit file is a container, it holds views, legends, schedules, sheets, families and groups of objects and dimensional information of elements, links and more.
When you’re working in the Revit 3D digital environment, any changes you make to an object will update all other corresponding areas including model views, drawings, sheets, schedules, section, and plans.
Q: What was behind Boffa Miskell’s decision to move to a BIM methodology? What benefits does working in Revit give to landscape architects, that earlier software didn’t provide?
Yoko Tanaka (YT): Most architecture and engineering firms are working in BIM, so it’s about bridging the gaps between the project team’s disciplines. When everybody – including the landscape architects and urban designers – is in the same medium, we’re able to talk about the design and the form of the spaces, instead of trying to send drawings back and forth.
As landscape architects, previously we would reference an architect’s drawings, which we would receive at certain milestones. Maybe we would receive the drawings at the start of concept design and not get an update until several months later, and significant changes would have been made. Now we are getting updates as frequently as weekly or fortnightly. Plus, the landscape elements are integrated from the beginning of concept design rather than at the end.
IC: Just like GIS connected maps to data, BIM has connected building elements to data. In both cases it’s the “I” that makes the difference - Information. BIM has connected our designs to data and to other disciplines.
Landscape architects have traditionally communicated their 3D designs through 2D drawings, any 3D documentation was considered a nice-to-have and not essential. BIM has now flipped that workflow on its head, we now build our designs in a 3D model in collaboration with other practitioners and the model generates the drawings. The 3D environment of Revit allows landscape architects to visualize the built design and often provide context. For example, we can link in other disciplines' models, and add the site topography to really simulate how the design will look and feel.
Q: It sounds like collaboration is easier, too.
IC: In a shared environment the project team can truly ‘work together’. That means reduced errors, real-time access to building information, full project visualization, and the ability to monitor changes.
YT: We all see the benefits of BIM – the client, lead consultants, and other contributing parties. Working in that digital space allows us to have early identification and mitigation of clashes, so that you fix problems in the digital world as we develop the design, rather than when you’re building on-site; and we can respond quickly and efficiently to any changes coming from the client. The wider team can monitor and track progress during design and construction, see the project coming together, have improved communication across teams, and many more benefits. It means that we are all ‘on the same page’.
Q: Having so many people on a project team making changes to a shared design file in real-time seems like it could be chaotic. What makes it work?
IC: There was (and still is) a ‘New Zealand BIM Handbook’, which is the evolving set of best-practice rules and standards for the building and construction sector. It provides guidance for how to work collaboratively and productively in the digital design space
YT: Eight years ago, when we made the firm decision that BIM and Revit was the way forward for our design process, landscape architecture wasn’t in that space. There were few rules or best-practice standards for landscape architects working in the 3D environment.
Boffa Miskell made a big investment in setting-up processes in-house, upskilling our people, and testing our internal methodology and standards so that we had a workflow that worked for us, as landscape architects, but that had a consistent approach and used a common language to BIM in New Zealand.
IC: We have seen the benefits of BIM through the work we do. We have focused on growing our Design Technology team, an internal group that supports the Landscape Architects through all design technologies. So along with ensuring that our design team is continually upskilling their capabilities, we’re now able to provide BIM coordination on large-scale projects.
Q: What is BIM coordination?
IC: Participating in BIM coordination in a multi-disciplinary project can include several responsibilities. Our discipline BIM Lead is responsible for providing frequent model updates to the wider project team, notifying the BIM Manager of changes made, contributing to the BIM Execution Plan (BEP), and generally participating in BIM tasks throughout the project.
Q: It sounds like the firm commitment to integrate BIM and Revit into Boffa Miskell’s design methodology was the right decision.
IC: Working within a BIM environment and collaborating with 3D modelling is a selling point for efficiency, and it’s a necessity for long-term time and cost savings for a project.
YT: Prior to the BIM era, you could never be sure you’d identified the potential problems until you started to build on site, because you worked on cross-sections and one-dimensional elevations. Now, working in Revit we’re building it in the digital space, and can better predict what will happen on-site, which allows us to minimise risks and solve as many problems as we can before construction. And if we have confidence in our design, then the client can have confidence in the project team.