The above diagram by Mark Bew of BuildingSmart and Mervyn Richards of CPIC shows the evolution from what may now be called ‘traditional’ CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) to an integrated and interoperable Building Information Model (BIM or iBIM). The benefits of editing drawings and schedules from within a single unified database offers clear advantages for many aspects of production from construction to post-occupancy. However, while growth in BIM usage has been noted (up to 80% in some cases), the reality is that not all parties elect to use the same tools. With Revit functioning as the primary BIM platform, many other parametric (Digital Project and Rhino) and feedback (Ecotect, Fluent and Simulex) tools are employed to further enable cost reductions.

Such evolutionary transferrence of information from designers to producers (builders) creates significant challenges to the traditional role of the architect as visionary leader, particularly in terms of design ideation. Yet the key advantage of BIM remains centred on its capacity to integrate lifecycles of social interaction, a shift which earlier CAD modelling simply failed to deliver. While early promises of an architectural revolution by W. J. Mitchell and Nicholas Negroponte may have been overly optimistic, in Vitruvius Redux, Mitchell reminds us that contrary to popular belief, digital design media nostalgically clings to the past, adhering to systems of architecture which can be traced back to early C19 design theories of Durand (below) and Guadet:

‘…designers relied heavily upon abstract ordering devices such as grids and axes… guided by this skeleton they would then consider alternative ways to arrange the major rooms and circulation spaces. Finally, they would develop the design by deploying elements from an established vocabulary of construction elements – columns, entablatures, doors, windows, and so on… a recursive process of top-down substitution.‘¹

1. Antonsson, Erik K.; and Cagan, Jonathan. Formal Engineering Design Synthesis. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Cambridge Books Online. Cambridge University Press. 17 November 2010 http://dx.doi.org/