BEALE & COMPANY HOSTS BIM WEBINAR - MICHAEL LISCHER
Fiona Mckay
On the 16th of September AIA UK Chapter sponsor, Beale & Company, hosted another of their popular lunchtime webinars. This webinar was entitled, "Taking Stock on the Practical and Legal Implications of BIM", and was co-hosted with Arup Associates. Andrew Croft from Beale & Company and Casey Rutland from Arup Associates spoke about current best practice and the legal issues that architects need to consider in relation to BIM (Building Information Modelling).
The use of BIM has increased significantly in recent years and the UK construction industry is making progress in the adoption of BIM. This follows the UK Government’s mandate to use BIM on all public sector projects by 2016.
Casey noted, "there are many benefits to using BIM, there are also barriers to its use". Benefits include:
- Better communication among project team members
- Information is continually updated
- Enhanced confidence
- Barriers to the use of BIM include:
- Concerns over rights and liabilities
- Intellectual property rights issues
- A lack of case law for legal guidance
Andrew discussed the legal issues and illustrated how the concerns can be mitigated with an understanding of the risks and use of the appropriate contract. He concluded by stating, "BIM does impact on the architect's rights, obligations and liabilities, and this must be managed. Agreeing the basis of collaboration is key, and making certain the design contract reflects the use of BIM are the best ways to minimize the risk."
The webinar pointed out that BIM type collaborative contracts are becoming more common and everyone should be prepared to use them!
AIA UK members earned 1 learning unit for listening to the webinar.
