Welcome to the buildingSMART International Newsletter for December 2020. This edition covers the buildingSMART Virtual Summit that was held between 26 Oct - 6 Nov 2020. The virtual summit brought together over 850 people from around the world and saw a record number of presentations and people!
Other news from around the community includes webinar alerts for you to add to your calendar, a Steering Committee update from the Infrastructure Room and other related news for the community. This edition also covers some of the latest news alerts from the last month.
The buildingSMART Virtual Summit Write-Up
The buildingSMART Virtual Summit was the second virtual event for 2020. This event concluded with some excellent overall statistic, positive feedback and further support that buildingSMART is delivering against its core mission. There is a full event write-up and some high-level numbers below:
The buildingSMART International IFC Road Project is now making significant progress and has reached Candidate Standard. The final conceptual model was recently published, and the project will soon enter phase two of the IFC schema extension development. By the end of 2020, the IFC Extension (MVD) will be ready for implementation. The next step will be the implementation and certification. Click on the link below for more information.
Join this webinar that is in UAE time zone and learn more about the topic.
Webinar: FM Handover COBie 2.5 - project plan and next steps
Please register to attend this buildingSMART webinar titled "FM Handover COBie 2.5 - project plan and next steps" presented by Bill East. For your convenience the webinar is being held twice, so you only need to register for one of the days shown below.
The agenda for this webinar is as follows:
Welcome and introductions
bSI Standards Process
Learn about the history of COBie to date and the progress the project has made since formation
Gain a greater understanding of how COBie works and the improvements planned
Learn about next steps and how you can continue to be involved, including opportunities to sponsor the project
Have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss with the project team
Call for Participation: Facilities Management Handover - COBie 2.5
This project will enable owners to eliminate expensive and wasteful paper and electronic documentation delivered at the end of every job and by doing so reengineering design, construction, facility start-up, and facility management processes to capture real-time building equipment information. The long-term result will be improved budget flexibility, decreased backlogs, and increased resilience. This project is organized in two phases.
The Infrastructure Room Steering Committee, led by Tiina Perttula, hope you enjoyed the bSI Virtual Summit that took place in October and November 2020. Key areas progressed in recent months include:
InfraRoom Roadmap - the InfraRoom roadmap has now been published. A Whitepaper has also been published that looks at current issues, which can be found here. We are inviting comments and would ask you to complete a survey which can be found here. The closing date for the survey is 30th December 2020.
IFC Deployment Project – through collaboration between the InfraRoom and Railway Room, we announced IFC 4.3 as a release candidate 2, related to alignments.
IFC Ports and Waterways – the project is nearing conclusion with ongoing validation of use cases and development of schema, in conjunction with the Deployment Project.
IFC Tunnels – The MoU is now signed, and the project moves to its second phase involving extensive stakeholder engagement with a view to issuing an IFC Candidate Standard by the end of 2021
bSI Fellows – we would like to congratulate IRSC members Tiina Perttula and Jim Plume for being recognized as bSI Follows.
Next meetings:
bSI Summit, March 2021
IFC 4.3 Infra Deployment Project Workshop, 3rd December 2020
In Memory of Charles (Chuck) M. Eastman (1940-2020)
Chuck Eastman (May 5, 1940 – November 9, 2020) was a professor and a pioneer in the areas of design cognition, building information modeling BIM, solid and parametric modeling, engineering databases, product models, and interoperability. He is however perhaps best known for his work on building description system, which later gave him a title as the 'father of BIM.' As a leading figure in the development of buildingSMART, Chuck was a pioneer in these fields and led the theory behind some of the core principles.
Chuck was a true pioneer of CAD for the whole industry, developing research in the field of 3D and early solid and parametric modeling systems for the building industry starting in the mid-1970s. Trained as an architect at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, he focused on tool development for practitioners with the 'building description system (BDS)' and 'Building Product Modeling, later re-branded as 'Building Information Modeling (BIM). He served as an editorial board member of major journals including Research in Engineering Design, Automation in Construction, Computer-Aided Design, Design Studies, and Journal of Information Technology in Construction.
Many will know Chuck from his research work at Georgia Tech where he worked with industry groups to develop new generation parametric modeling tools including Tekla Structures and the courthouse BIM tools, and BIM exchange standards including improved IFC semantic foundations. His research partners included the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, the Charles Pankow Foundation, General Services Administration (GSA), the American Institute of Steel Construction, the American Concrete Institute, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Patrick MacLeamy, Chairman, bSI said "He was a champion for BIM before it was fashionable. He was a friendly, kind man, but had inner strength so necessary for a visionary and pioneer." buildingSMART offers its condolences to his family and friends and thanks to Chuck his many contributions to the industry. There is a short tribute video made by Strategic Building Innovation (SBI).
The buildingSMART community is devasted to learn of the passing of Teo Alvarez. Teo was highly respected and well liked in the buildingSMART community and his friendship history went back many years with members of the leadership team. His support of both the buildingSMART Spanish Chapter and internationally of our work was highly valued and he will be greatly missed.
Teo was the Global Head of Digital Construction and Data Management Strategy for Ferrovial Construction. He was a leading advocate within buildingSMART on behalf of owner operators with full understanding of life cycle needs and provided much leadership guidance and resource support to our programs.
buildingSMART expresses sincere condolences to Teo’s family and our friends at Ferrovial. His perspective and genial personality cannot be replaced and we know his legacy will last through all that knew him and benefitted from his work.
News Alerts
The buildingSMART USA Chapter Re-launches
buildingSMART International is pleased to announce that the US Chapter has re-launched to drive broader adoption of open standards in the US market. With a focus on building and infrastructure projects, and in response to owner mandates and resolutions being passed to support Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and openBIM, buildingSMART International is supporting efforts to develop a new engagement model for the US market.
The buildingSMART Awards Winners for 2020 Have Been Announced
buildingSMART International is delighted to announce the full list of winners and special mentions for the Awards Program 2020. A total of 16 awards were announced at a live ceremony. Finalists presented their projects during the buildingSMART Virtual Summit on the 28th and 29th October 2020.
buildingSMART International: Autodesk Joins Strategic Advisory Council
buildingSMART International announced today the addition of Autodesk to the organization’s Strategic Advisory Council (SAC). As an original founder of buildingSMART, Autodesk has a long-standing relationship with buildingSMART.
buildingSMART International and Digital Twin Consortium Sign Memorandum of Understanding
buildingSMART International and the Digital Twin Consortium signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to align activities and joint working groups. This strategic initiative further strengthens the accelerated focus on the topic of digital twins.