BIM-technologies for construction companies - the beginning of a new digital cities of the future era

“Information Modeling Technologies - the Beginning of the Digital Construction Era” is the key topic of the V International forum of High-rise and Unique construction 100+ Forum Russia 2018 to be held at the Ekaterinburg-EXPO IEC from 5 to 7 December.

During the forum, well-known Russian and foreign experts will present the most interesting cases implemented through BIM-technologies - experts will share their experience in construction and operation of the Empire State Building, Lakhta Center, Akhmat Tower and sports facilities.

“The world is changing every day and in a little while we will start a new era of digital technologies that enable us to design and construct not only individual buildings but also whole smart cities across the board. During the forum, we will address the most pressing problems of BIM-technologies in construction and design and try to offer approaches for their solution,” the forum organizers comment.

The discussion platform on application of BIM-technologies will open on 5 December, the first day of the forum.

According to experts, notwithstanding the high cost the transition to BIM-technologies in the construction sector will take place in the coming years: “The question is when we will be able to “describe” the existing cities and integrate newly designed objects into the information space for their subsequent analysis. This is a complex task to be solved within upcoming two decades. The whole industry will benefit strongly even if individual construction projects are developed by means of BIM-technologies for a start. At present, 20% of Russian enterprises use BIM-technologies. This indicates certain progress: in 2002 this share was 1-2% only,” comments Maksim Nechiporenko, Deputy Director of Renga Software.

On December 7, several sections of 100+ Forum Russia will address implementation of projects using BIM-technologies from the customer’s and the contractor’s points of view. “Organizational changes associated with innovations are a major challenge. Both parties have to perform reengineering of business-processes, to improve the staff skills, to build communication at a new level. This time-consuming and intensive process is inevitable within the transformation of the industry which takes place currently,” notes Aleksey Kushnir, the Head of the Information Modeling Group at Setl City.

Experts recognize that the development and approval of legislative base will accelerate the transition of construction companies to a new level: “BIM technologies are more time-consuming at the start of a project but save time at subsequent stages. Similar to the case with the pencil and Adobe Photoshop. Earlier the submission of sketches took a long time. Any changes that take place inevitably result in labor costs. New technologies replace the pencil and AutoCAD. High accuracy and execution speed are the main advantages of BIM. By reducing the number of employees and project deadlines, BIM-technologies save costs significantly,” emphasizes Nadezhda Klyukina, BIM-manager at PI Arena. She will present the company’s BIM-cases - sports facilities designed for the FIFA World Cup 2018.