Residential Property Logbook Chimni was today awarded InnovateUK Grant funding for a ground-breaking project to turn the construction data created during housebuilding into useful homeowner info.  The project will examine how to link the data and intelligence created during construction by the latest type of construction software (known as BIM) to the property logbooks given to homeowners.

Chimni and xbim Awarded InnovateUK Grant To ‘Re-imagine’ BIM4Housing

Property Logbook company Chimni has been awarded an InnovateUK grant for a ground breaking project to ‘Re-imagine’ BIM use in the housebuilding industry.

Chimni and Open BIM specialist xbim have been awarded InnovateUK Grant funding for a ground-breaking project to turn the construction data created during housebuilding into useful homeowner info and services.  The project will examine how to link the data and intelligence created during construction by the latest type of construction software (known as BIM) to the property logbooks given to homeowners. The official Innovate UK announcement is below:

The Re-Imagining BIM project will be a joint project with the UK's leading construction software consultancy xBIM. The project builds on the idea that new forms of data will allow innovation in housing products and services. In highlighting the potential innovation, the project will help the construction sector make the case for the adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), and particularly Building Information Modelling (BIM) which have struggled to make headway in housing construction.

With the Hackitt Report into Grenfell calling for a 'GoldenThread of Information' about housing, and with emerging NetZero obligations for our homes, the need for a 'whole-life' data framework for housing grows. BIM should be at the heart of this world. However, BIM has failed to gain significant traction in housing construction.

Research from BIM4Housing and the Cambridge Centre for a Digitally Built Britain (CDBB) suggests that a key reason for the lack of take up is the presumption that there is no use for the data and intelligence created after construction has been completed. Our project makes the case that the homeowner should be viewed as a home's 'Facilities Manager' and could use the data if made available to them.

Secondly, the industry has assumed there is no mechanism to deliver data in a usable form to a homeowner. So there has been little thinking about how to include their needs when thinking about construction data. However, outside of construction, homeowners are rapidly adopting data, apps and service models from other providers (utilities, white goods, smart home providers etc) that could use data or whose methods could be copied.

Our project therefore intends to 'flip the debate' and start with the homeowner. We will look at activity around DIY, maintenance, operation and upkeep of a range of property types and examine where this can be supported with better data from construction or refit. We will:

"put the voice and needs of the homeowner into the BIM Asset Model design stage"

We will also look at the apps and services being used by homeowners and test the project assumption that property 'logbooks' or 'passports' provide a way to deliver construction and product data to homeowners in a meaningful and usable format. The project output will be a series of case studies, with supporting data models and software examples, plus recommendations for data creation in new build and retrofit housing.

The project Press Release is attached below.

For more information contact:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Attachments:

RiBIM Press Release

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