IES Blog

Today we’re pinching our blog from our MD’s own site…

Speaking at a recent Autodesk BIM conference Paul Morrell, the UK Government’s chief construction adviser said “We have commissioned a team drawn from BIM users across the industry, both clients and suppliers, and software developers, to prepare a route map that shows how we can make a progressive move to the routine use of BIM. I am convinced that this is the way to unlock new ways of working that will reduce cost and add long-term value to the development and management of built assets in the public sector”.

Mr. Morrell said that the findings of this team will be available in March next year and that he “hopes and believes it will mark the beginning of a commitment to a timed programme of transformation”.

It is great that not only the UK government but many governments such as Singapore and Government Agencies such as the GSA in the US strongly promote BIM.

Consequently, I think it is time for Governments throughout the world to push BIM to accelerate the need for transformation in the construction industry.  I believe a number of governments should fully fund the research and develop of their own BIM products.  These BIM products should be made free to the construction industry to facilitate the required transformation.

Furthermore these new BIM product should be made mandatory for all government projects which will encourage their uptake in the industry.

The cost of the development of these BIM systems will pale into insignificance compared to the benefits of providing free BIM to the industry.

I strongly suggest you petition your local government officials to fund your national free BIM tool to be developed ASAP.

And we concur! (and not just because he is our boss!)

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Tags:Autodesk, BIM, Morrell, UK Government

One of the key challenges facing today’s building designers is understanding and tackling how to incorporate sustainable design principles into existing workflows and processes.

A ‘good design is sustainable design’ ethos promoted by quantitative analysis can make a great impact.  Architects get quick environmental feedback on design iterations and environmental engineers can input more into the design.  Achieving this kind of effective collaboration and cross-discipline understanding, in my opinion is core to achieving truly sustainable, energy-efficient building design.

The advent of BIM (Building Information Modeling), and better integration between analysis and design tools, is helping push this more integrated, information sharing approach to design team working.  In particular, the Green Building XML schema, referred to as “gbXML”, was developed to facilitate information transfer from building information models to design/energy performance analysis tools.

We’ve working hard at IES to drive such integration by developing plug-ins that link our tiered suite of analysis tools to Revit Architecture, Revit MEP and Google SketchUp so users can build their designs in Revit or SketchUp and then easily translate and analyze  them in an iterative fashion.  gbXML was used to streamline the data flow from Revit to the IES <Virtual Environment> in the IES VE Revit Plug-in.

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Tags:Autodesk, daylighting, gbXML, LEED, plug-in, reduce, Revit, sketchup

We love coming back from the holidays to good news. According to Environmental Leader, and specifically by research released by Zpryme, the U.S. green building market is set to grow 146 percent by 2013.

According to the Environmental Leader article, “The commercial sector should get a boost from the news that major real estate firms have signed up for a pilot program that would help building owners, prospective tenants and buyers ascertain the energy efficiency of a building. The Building Energy Quotient program – Building EQ for short – is administered by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).”

We are looking forward to the results of the Building EQ program. Given our position in the industry, it is (and has been from the beginning) our hope that buildings are as energy efficient as possible. For new buildings, this starts from the earliest stages of design. For retrofits, there are many changes architects can implement during the remodel to ensure a building not only reduces its energy usage, but also reduces it carbon emissions.

On another note, and for a little fun to start your new year off right, our partners at Autodesk have created RetroFits, a game to help raise awareness about the benefits of better, greener buildings. Stop by and check it out! Buildings continue to be the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. But we can make them more energy efficient, little by little.

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Tags:Architects, ASHRAE, Autodesk, Building, Engineers, reduce, USA