The 5th Event of the CitA Smarter Cooperative Building Series 2016, titled “QS 2020 in Ireland – A Time for Digital Transition” took place on September 14th, in the Gibson Hotel, Dublin. Quantity Surveying was the event’s focus and the speakers were Barry McAuley, CitA and Dublin Institute of Technology; Berian Davies, BAM; Gary Comerford, Bruce Shaw; and Trevor Woods, The DPW Group.

BIMIreland.ie spoke to Barry McAuley about the breakfast meeting and what is to come at the next meeting in October. Describing the theme of this meeting, Barry said the theme was based around exploring 5D technologies and processes with a strong focus on Irish case studies.

The first presentation was from Barry who provided an update on the BICP. Berian Davis of BAM presented on bringing theory to practice and applied the NBS Periodic BIM Table as a vehicle to demonstrate this. Gary Comerford of Bruce Shaw discussed his experiences with BIM on the National Children’s Hospital project, while Trevor Woods of The DPW Group presented on current trends within the 5D focused Quantity Surveying profession.

The speakers’ key points covered the BICP, the importance of collaboration, experiences from the National Children’s Hospital, industry involvement in digital technologies.

Barry McAuley’s presentation discussed the progress made to date within the BICP and the launch of www.bicp.ie. He also discussed the future adoption of a BIM Maturity Macro model for Ireland. Berian Davis outlined the importance of collaboration, so as to ensure the successful integration of 5D professionals. Gary Comerford outlined some of the common problems which he encountered on the National Children’s Hospital and in doing so provided valuable guidance to members of the audience who are beginning their 5D journey. Trevor Woods called on the industry to get more involved and to embrace these important digital technologies, so as to streamline the information sharing process.

The Q&A sessions at CitA meetings are very informative and raise good practical questions. This meeting raised a number of questions on industry and education. The speakers were asked a number of questions with queries from the audience about applying best practice and working with the design team to ensure model parameters contain the correct information to help assist in extracting quantities. Other questions which helped initiate a debate included the proposal to move past teaching traditional scheduling techniques and move towards teaching students more innovative 3D focused practices. This resulted in most of the speakers still insisting that traditional scheduling practice still has an important place within academia.

Telling us about the next CitA meeting in October, Barry said “The event which is to be chaired by the Building Material Federation (BMF) will be based around BIM for Product Suppliers/Manufacturers and will take place on October 19th. Steve Thompson of the Construction Product Association (CPA) in the UK, who is confirmed as one of the keynotes, will cover topics within a recent report he finished based around the future of construction product manufacturing for the CPA, covering Industry 4.0, Circular Economy and Intelligent Assets.”

Become a CitA Member: http://www.cita.ie/join-cita/

For more details contact CitA’s General Manager Suzanne Purcell: spurcell@cita.ie

CitA’s Work

The CitA Smarter Cooperative Building Series 2016 will assist in accelerating Ireland’s transition to digitisation and leaner work practices and creating an integrated future for the Irish construction industry.

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