Hello BIMfans,
Let me start from the beginning.  The idea for There’s No BIM Like Home was born when I bought my first house, Tŷ Crempog.  During this purchase, I quickly realized that I was given an awful lot of information to manage.

Which included:

• Register of title
• Transfer information;
• Energy performance certificate (EPC);
• Record of any planning or building control applications at the property;
• Land registry information;
• 2 Property condition surveys (1996, and 2015);
• Flood risk assessment;
• Chancel check;
• Drainage and water enquiry;
• Damp survey;
• FENSA and Certasss certificates;
• Inspection and testing reports;
• User manuals;
• Warranty information; and
• Much much more…

All of which were given to me as physical documents.  So, first things first, I needed to sort these disparate documents and placed them into a master file to try and keep them organized (I had to buy the document holder myself!).

Looking at this plethora of paper, I asked myself:

“What is going on, this is the twenty first century isn’t it!?  Surely there is a better way to capture all of this information?”

Well, there is.

As a Chartered Architectural Technologist who has specialized in Information Management and Building Information Modelling (BIM), I have both the knowledge of and experience in producing, managing and delivering construction information using an information model.  Note: If you are not sure what this ‘BIM’ thing is, my blog post The BIM Explainer explains it in simple terms.  In short, BIM is a process that uses a digital representation to produce better information; informing better decisions.

To ensure I have done this process correctly I have (as I always do) turned to standards.  Developed in consensus by industry experts, standards are an agreed way of doing something which improves consistency and increases productivity.   When it comes to information management there are currently two International Standards.

• ISO 19650-1, describing the concepts and principles; and
• ISO 19650-2, specifing the requirements during the delivery phase.

In addition to these two, PD 19650-0 outlines several additional British Standards and Publicly Available Specifications which form the ‘core’ of the United Kingdom’s implementation, known as BIM Level 2.

• PAS 1192-3, specifying the requirements during the operational phase;
• PAS 1192-4, code of practice for information exchange (COBie);
• PAS 1192-5, specifying a security-minded approach using BIM; and
• BS 8536-1/2, code of practices for design & construction briefs.

Note:  All of these standards and publically available specifications are available from BIM-level2.org and will be frequently referenced throughout this blog.

Originally developed as part of the Government’s Construction Strategy to support government construction projects, these BIM Level 2 standards are scalable and can be applied pragmatically to a project of any size; making them also suitable for the capture of information relating to my home!

By following these BIM Level 2 standards and other good practice standards relating to information, technical documentation, and document management I will be able to produce an asset information model.  As defined within ISO 19650-1, Information management using building information modelling, an asset information model is:

asset information model
AIR
information model relating to the operational phase
[SOURCE: ISO 19650-1:2018, 3.3.9]

Instead of using the plethora of paperwork I was given, I can instead use this information model to inform decisions about my home.  For example, my asset information model could store product, warranty, and condition information relating to the different components and systems within my home (and if it’s from IKEA a link to the instructions on how to build it!!).

But first thing is first, I need to work out what information I want to capture.  To do so I need to produce a Brief…

Note:  If you have any comments regarding my prologue and the reason I chose to ISO 19650 and BIM Level 2, then please let me know either on Twitter or by commenting below.