Irish building magazine launches BIMIreland.ie
BIMIreland.ie is set to become the focus for the Building Information Modelling (BIM) community in Ireland, helping to fuel the idea of Ireland as a centre of excellence for BIM.
Brought to you by the team behind Irish Building Magazine, the newly launched BIMIreland.ie is the country’s only dedicated BIM exclusive resource. In association with the Construction IT Alliance (CitA), the website will act as a voice for BIM users, stakeholders, educators and trainers in Ireland, providing a one-stop-shop for BIM related news, showcasing the latest technologies and systems and BIM training. Colin Walsh, Marketing Director at Irish Building Magazine, says the website was a natural progression from the BIM related content that features so prominently in the publication. “Irish Building Magazine has led the charge in construction media when it comes to bringing awareness about BIM to the sector. Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve introduced BIM to all the major stakeholders in the AEC sector. BIM deserves an Irish voice so in BIMIreland.ie, we’ve created Ireland’s only dedicated BIM exclusive resource. I’m delighted to expand our association with CITA through the new website and look forward to collaborating in the delivery and expansion of our offering over time.”
When it comes to BIM integration, the Irish AEC sector is currently at the stage where the UK was four years ago. To facilitate the move towards integration, BIMIreland.ie will provide visitors with up-to-date information that’s relevant, current and practical. “We’ll be including case studies of projects that utilise BIM, interviewing the movers and shakers and featuring the latest technology. It’s not just Irish BIM news that we’ll be posting; relevant, interesting international items will feature also.”
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Unlike the UK, the Irish AEC sector isn’t mandated by government to utilise BIM. “I think that’s a positive as it means we can work towards BIM enablement on a controlled and consistent basis and learn from the UK, thus avoiding any potential pitfalls. BIM will increasingly become the norm for the design, engineering, construction and maintenance of buildings. The Irish AEC sector is in the ideal position to make Ireland a centre of excellence for BIM with all the major industry representatives including CIF, RIAI, Engineers Ireland, SCSI and ACEI promoting the benefits of BIM to their members.”
On the face of it BIM may not seem like it is for everyone but companies that are wrongly assuming that they fall into the ‘not for us’ category may miss out on great opportunities. BIM can save your company money in the long run; its greatest strength is productivity. In fact, using BIM can reportedly increase your firm’s efficiency by up to 30%. BIM also helps mitigate design failures during construction, saving your company time and resources. This can only be a good thing.
On the education front, BIM can provide a much needed boost to the sector. “One of the most useful resources on the new website, which will be developed over time, will be the Education and Training section proving an insight into BIM related courses right across the country in all the Institutes of Technology and featuring available training resources. In addition, we will develop a BIM Jobs section which will provide an insight into available jobs in the sector. Providing jobs for BIM Technologists will encourage this emerging talent pool to stay in Ireland and contribute to the industry’s ongoing recovery.”
Irish Building magazine and BIMIreland.ie will be the exclusive Irish construction media partners of the CitA BIM Gathering in November. “We are delighted to be associated with CitA for the Gathering event. CitA have worked tirelessly in bringing awareness to BIM and their efforts have helped bring us to a place where we have major awareness of BIM within the AEC sector.”
Dr Alan Hore, one of the founding directors of CitA, believes the new website will provide a one-stop-shop for BIM users. “The capability and relevance of BIM for the Irish construction sector will be reflected through the high quality content on the website. The establishment of the new site is about Irish Building Magazine and CitA working together on behalf of the Irish construction industry to create a message that’s critically important for the sector.”
The next few months will be a busy month for Ireland in relation to BIM. In addition to the CitA BIM Gathering, Enterprise Ireland will have a BIM pavilion at the UK’s Digital Construction week. It seems the stars have aligned for BIM in Ireland. You can read what Enterprise Ireland is doing in relation to BIM here.
Colin extends an invitation to BIM practitioners and stakeholders to engage with the new site. “Original content will of course be the site’s main focus but our BIM blog will give BIM users their own voice and a chance to communicate their own unique experience.”