BIM Design

CHAPTER 8

CONCLUSIONS: AUTHORSHIP AND LINES OF DEVELOPMENT

… The greatest industrial innovations have always, in the end, been communicational … Virtually all gains in efficiency are derived from being able to extract ‘work’ or value from social reservoirs. To say this [in] another way, we must acknowledge that ‘communication’ is a very profound and rich thing, and while it is the foundation of what we are, it is neither exhausted or explained by the one-dimensional activities and apparatuses within which we increasingly confine our lives.¹

Sanford Kwinter, interviewed by Johan Bettum, March 2007

There have been several prominent lines of development with respect to building information models and new modes of project delivery discussed within this text and elsewhere. At one end of the spectrum, the developers of software have created white papers that espouse BIM’s ability to streamline the documentation process, advocating robust virtual environments that encourage collaboration and the sharing of data between parties.

At the other end of this spectrum is the current-day architect, as author, who uses such technologies in the creation of novelty, but has not necessarily adopted collaborative aspects of these new tools. To recall an example at the beginning of the book, the large Midwest contracting firm Mortenson Construction largely took on the responsibility of developing the Daniel Libeskind designed Denver Art Museum from a relatively crude solid model to achieve efficiency ...