“There is an encouraging awakening from the political side to start using BIM”

Birgitta Shock is the chairperson of the buildingSMART Switzerland chapter. We had the opportunity to speak with her on the Fourth Edition of the European BIM Summit where she participated as a guest speaker to explain how OpenBIM enables LEAN and DFMA. 

The buildingSMART Switzerland chapter started its journey more than two years ago. It was mainly due the industry realized BIM was something worth to take a look at. They build an association from scratch called Bauen Digital Schweiz to join the industry, meaning companies, organizations, education, university, researchers and of course all the different parts when it comes to construction. The project offered them the opportunity to join buildingSMART International by creating the Switzerland Chapter. “buildingSMART stands for the standardization process and that’s what we stand for too, for the best practices” states Shock.

From Bauen Digital Schweiz it is very clear that BIM must belong to the national digitization strategy because it is an approach that reduces and thus optimizes complexity in planning, construction and management processes. That doesn’t mean that Switzerland has a BIM roadmap yet because “is the market who has to ask for it”, according to Shock. However, it has been an encouraging awakening from the political side who is starting to consider BIM as a requirement. It is still very early to make any speculation but it is expected that the situation will change by the end of the year, especially with the commitment of the owners who start to realize about the benefits of BIM.

Another good news is that the owner side is starting to ask for BIM because it is part of their business model, especially the transparency that comes along with the BIM model. This principle does not necessarily have to work with companies, that might not see transparency as a key point of the strategy. But that is meant to change. Everybody is now aware of the change we are facing so it’s time to ask themselves “do I really know what is my model?” or “do I want to be ready for the future or get stuck in an old-fashioned method?”. 

Shock also highlighted the importance to define use-cases because they get people together and create a common understanding. That means we can visualize what we are working in and this is essential, especially when we talk about technology which is an important part of BIM. Therefore, it is important to own some physical stuff to get people attracted and convince them that this is the right thing. Finally, Shock highlighted the need to use a platform where people can combine the elements they use because not all the people work the same way.