BIM IN ASSET MANAGEMENT MONTHLY FORUM 17-09-2025
1. Introduction
- Focus: BIM in Asset Management September Forum centred on Golden Thread, Fire Safety, and Smart Building integration.
- Key challenge: Lack of explicit government/regulator requirements, requiring industry expertise to interpret and recommend solutions.
- George Stevenson: “If nothing else, [fire safety] is leading to a lot of projects being delayed because of missing or flawed information.”
2. Golden Thread and Working Groups
- BIM4Housing has 6 cross-disciplinary working groups addressing safety, sustainability, and product libraries.
- Workstreams focus on specific tasks, e.g., fire door inspections, fire dampers, lifts, and sustainability.
- Golden Thread Taskforce: over 100 organisations, promoting consistent interpretation, reusable data libraries, and joined-up software.
- Stevenson: “One of the key things… is that you really need to look at the building as a complete system made up of lots of systems.”
3. Roundtables, Polls, and Industry Engagement
- Four roundtables organised to address fire-critical assets (mechanical, ventilation, fire doors, emergency lighting).
- Monthly polls highlight knowledge gaps: e.g., CEOs’ understanding of Building Safety Act duties, compartmentation drawings, AI for handover checks.
- Aim: Encourage engagement from diverse disciplines, including universities, FM providers, surveyors, and software companies.
4. Technology and Innovation
- Integration of 360 imagery, LiDAR, and digital twins for asset capture and validation (e.g., Tower Hamlets, Watney Market).
- Fireguard by Unifi.id: smart fire safety solution integrating with any fire alarm, producing live 3D fire safety models.
- Paul Sheedy: Data-driven risk reduction enables insurers to lower premiums for digitally managed buildings.
- Trigrr (Matthew Deacon): middleware connecting BIM with IoT devices, CAFM systems, and tenant apps.
5. Challenges in Compliance and Handover
- Confusion around regulatory compliance: ISO 19650-6, Uniclass, and RIBA tools mentioned, but industry lacks consistent adoption.
- Nick Nisbet: “There’s a difference between gathering information and demonstrating compliance.”
- Handover information often fragmented; scope gaps between designers and contractors remain unresolved.
- Margaret Sackey: Designers and contractors must sign off compliance; clients must demand robust evidence.
6. PFI/PPP and Schools
- Specialist group on PFI/PPP: addresses handbacks, lifecycle planning, baseline data, and alignment with standards (SFG20, Uniclass, NRM).
- Renewed public-private partnerships may increase importance of strong asset information standards.
- Schools group formed to improve quality of handover information for caretakers and managers.
7. Standards, Safety, and Competence
- Discussion of fire door inspections, safety critical assets, and passive fire elements.
- Concerns over ad hoc fixes undermining compliance and replacing fire doors unnecessarily.
- Emphasis on competence (skills, knowledge, experience, behaviours – SKEB) as core requirement under BS 8670.
8. Smart Buildings and Future Directions
- Growing engagement with smart building community and digital twin projects.
- Workshops planned on integrating smart tech into asset management cost-effectively.
- Call for collaboration to glue together diverse systems, improve interoperability, and standardise data handover.
9. Conclusion
- Forum reinforced importance of Golden Thread, robust asset information, and multi-disciplinary collaboration.
- Key needs: reliable handover data, regulatory compliance evidence, digitalisation, and competence across roles