Implementing BIM in Built Environment Education: An Opportunity for Change

IMPLEMENTING BIM IN BUILT
ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION
A challenge or an opportunity?

TONY BURKE
University of Westminster

UK Academic Conference on BIM:
Newcastle-upon-Tyne - September 2012

How are we going to
incorporate BIM our courses?


Integrate 3D CAD modelling into
our courses???


The key challenges which BIM
represents for higher education:

 Collaboration
 Integrated project delivery


This is widely recognised…….


“The relationship between those
responsible for design and those
who actually build must be improved
through common education”

…the industry is attempting to attract
its new blood into the same old silos
– taking the problem back to the
issues of fragmentation and the
need for more multi-disciplinary
working”

“..it is scarcely possible that the
innovation and change that is
essential …can be secured through
the industry as it is currently
structured.......and in the silo-based
habits of the industry’s institutions.”

“The relationship
between those
responsible for design
and those who
actually build must be
improved through
common education”

Sir Harold Banwell
1964

“…the industry is
attempting to attract its
new blood into the same
old silos – taking the
problem back to the
issues of fragmentation
and the need for more
multi-disciplinary
working”

Sir John Fairclough
2002


“..it is scarcely possible that
the innovation and change
that is essential …can be
secured through the
industry as it is currently
structured.......and in the
silo-based habits of the
industry’s institutions.”

Low Carbon Construction
Innovation & Growth Team
(chaired by) Paul Morrell
2010

How has this come about?
The historical context….


Eighteenth century

• Gradual breakdown of
medieval model
• Increasing use of
intermediary between
employer and tradesmen


Early nineteenth
century
• Separation of design and
construction
• Emergence of the
‘measurer’ (QS)
• Growth of general
contracting


Professional institutions

1818 Institution of Civil Engineers
1834 Institute of British Architects
1834 Builders’ Society
1868 Institution of Surveyors

..... fragmentation institutionalised

Built environment education in 20C

• Architecture and engineering:
established early in universities
• Surveying and building - tradition of
part time education – relatively late in
universities
• All disciplines subject to control from
professional bodies


The key issues:
• Built environment education reflects the
fragmented nature of the professions.

• Curriculum heavily influenced by
professional bodies through accreditation.


“We educate in
very narrow
silos…they
come out of
university with
preconceived
ideas”

Peter Rogers
Chairman of Strategic
Forum for Construction
2002


• Virtually no undergraduate courses which
are genuinely inter-disciplinary across the
built environment disciplines


University of Westminster
Construction Studies Programme

BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology
BSc (Hons) Building Engineering
BSc (Hons) Building Surveying
BSc (Hons) Construction Management
BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying & Commercial Management

Barriers…….


Professional bodies

• Courses accredited by four different
professional bodies
• Each body has its own specific
requirements for accredited courses


Employers

• Many have a preference for graduates
from accredited courses

Students
•Attracted to professionally accredited courses
•Perception of better employment prospects


Universities
• Unlikely to do anything which
might impact on student
recruitment.


Looking ahead:
Possible drivers for change

HIGHER EDUCATION IN GENERAL

Shift away from….

TRADITIONAL MODEL :

•Instructional
•Knowledge-based
•Focus on the individual

Towards…..

NEW MODEL

•Active learning
•Student engagement
•Group work
•Enquiry-based approaches
•Collaboration
•Reflection

SOCIAL LEARNING

The technologies we now have
available to us fit in perfectly
with social model of learning

• Less emphasis on
knowledge
• More emphasis on:
– creativity
– problem-solving
– using judgement
– working
collaboratively
– coping with constant
change


The low carbon
agenda

• Need for innovation
• A catalyst for new
ways of working


Impact of tuition fees?

• Universities will have to
be more responsive


What can we learn
from other countries?


BIM:
Potential platform for a radical rethink
of built environment education


Implementing BIM in Built Environment Education: An Opportunity for Change

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