Following the appointment of Natacha Redon in March 2015 as Project Manager and BIM Co-ordinator, Identity Consult has been active on several BIM commissions in the Higher Education sector.
Lancaster University are using the major redevelopment of the Management School to start their journey to BIM Level 2.
The redevelopment, likely to result in a mix of new-built and refurbishments, is subject to a design competition launched in August 2015, prior to which Identity Consult developed the BIM standards to be applied.
This included the creation of the Employer’s Information Requirements (EIRs), currently widely requested by the industry but rarely put in place, a draft pre-contract BIM execution plan to support the appointed design team in the development of their BIM processes and a review of all scopes of services to support their alignment to the BIM Level 2 requirements.
Newcastle University also approached Identity Consult to deliver the same services for the new £20m Sports Centre development. This is Newcastle University’s third major new-built project to target BIM Level 2 standards, following the Urban Sciences Building (£58m) and the Conferencing and Learning Centre (£28m), which Natacha was involved with in her previous role.
Additionally, University of Sunderland are embarking on a holistic BIM approach, with Identity Consult and GSS architecture developing an organisational strategy and set of documents and standards to allow the University to roll out BIM across all projects and maximise benefits during project delivery and operation, with facilities management a prime objective in this development.
Natacha’s strategic advice, assurance and BIM Leadership services compliment the cost management services Identity Consult have been delivering over the past few years.
Natacha explained: “BIM should really be embraced by all clients, not only because of the 2016 mandate concerning all centrally funded Government projects, but benefits have been proven and confirmed over and over again by the whole supply chain.
“Significant savings through efficiencies in the project, de-risking through more accurate information and a greater understanding of expectations on all sides of the team are just a few of the benefits achieved by BIM. This is without considering the benefits in operation which can easily represent hundreds of man hours saved.”