The Building Conservation Directory 2023

43 C AT H E D R A L C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T H E B U I L D I N G C O N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C T O R Y 2 0 2 3 | C E L E B R AT I N G 3 0 Y E A R S P R O F E S S I O N A L S E R V I C E S 1 requisite capabilities are accessible and understood, and while using BIM to support conservation processes has a variety of benefits, a recent study identified that in the majority of projects, key beneficiaries amounted to ‘imagined stakeholders’. MAKING USER INTERFACES MORE ACCESSIBLE Historic England’s second guidance on BIM for Heritage was published at the end of 2019. It interrogated the role and function of BIM in direct terms of the advantages experienced in the AEC industry. Identifying these aspects completely reframed the technology and highlighted a new way that BIM could be adopted in conservation. By shifting BIM’s primary function from 3D visualisation to managing information about the building, using a 3D component model to navigate the shared data repository is no longer essential. An alternative interface could be used, and this could be any kind of inventory system, from a spreadsheet to a file-sharing platform. By agreeing a system and digital workspace to collect, organise and disseminate information, heritage professionals can therefore mirror the advantages of BIM. Very slowly, web-based platforms which are user-friendly for non-specialist users, and host information in the cloud are starting to emerge. With data storage and processing handled in real-time by remote server farms at low cost, such platforms can be widely accessible. This could transform the way project information is exchanged (no more emailing document revisions!) and represent a realistic means of achieving the benefits of ‘traditional’ BIM. BUT IS IT BIM? While using an alternative platform to store and look up building information may look and feel wholly different from the prevailing concepts of BIM, the distinction lies only in shifting the emphasis from ‘Modelling’ to ‘Information Modelling’. BIM has become synonymous with 3D modelling and visualisation, the virtual representation of the building being essential to users navigating to information, and model creation a key barrier to adoption. But the fundamentals of BIM – sharing validated information about a building – continue to be upheld by information-centric platforms. Both see data attached to ‘the building’ rather than the ‘client-consultant’ relationship, and a user-friendly platform facilitates open access to the information about the building, beyond specific people and periods of time, more readily than model- based BIM. Where a ‘model-free’ solution is used, if data is structured intentionally, holistic legacy information can nonetheless accumulate and be ‘3D model-ready’. Namely, if a virtual component model is later created, this information-based BIM can be integrated with it. WHAT NEXT? As soon as information-based BIM platforms can be used intuitively by non- specialist users from any device, the amount and efficacy of information collected, stored, and accessible about our historic buildings, not only for decision making but analysis and dissemination, will sky rocket. Both information availability and the richness of the data held will increase massively as all stakeholders, from industry professionals to building users and custodians, become connected via the data model. Enriched and previously untapped sources of information will give a clearer idea of how people experience and interact with the historic built environment, whether user-entered or collected automatically by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. This means real-time temperature, humidity, air quality and light data, as well as user-input metrics on comfort levels, and open-source data such as MET office weather statistics, can be combined. Then layered with conservation records such as adaptation history and maintenance logging, the virtual representation (albeit a purely two dimensional one) starts to edge towards a completely holistic ‘twin’ of the real-world counterpart. ‘Digital twin’ is a current buzzword in the AEC sector but the concept behind it has a surprisingly long pedigree. It is often cited that the first digital twin was NASA’s Apollo 13 simulation over 50 years ago. Having used computed numerical data to model the spaceship as well as the conditions and events it experienced on its journey into space, those on the ground were able to provide detailed support to its astronauts completely remotely. Whatever we call this digital model, the concept of physical assets being represented virtually, including the processes and people which interact with them, to give context to decisions and interventions affecting their real-world versions, has been around for a long time and will undoubtedly outlive any series of naming conventions. MOVING TOWARDS BIG DATA This next, information-rich iteration of BIM constitutes an even greater amount of data than the previous one. With the inclusion of sources of information which constantly update, and an ever-increasing variety of data which can be easily attached to the subject (a building or monument for example), conservation may find its way into the brave new world of ‘big data’ – a term you might associate more readily with your smart watch or internet habits. Big data may be defined as massive and varied datasets which are processed rapidly to increase understanding of consistent behaviours and awareness of trends. Generally, the aim is to make commerce and industry more responsive, but equally, the insights provided by big data could transform conservation practice as we know it. Supported by IoT sensors, which are frequently described as ‘allowing physical objects to connect to the internet’, this movement could see our buildings virtually become stakeholders in their Without a centralised BIM, investigative research such as paint analysis records may be lost in the client-consultant relationship, inaccessible to future conservators (Image: Lisa Oestreicher) Sharing validated information about a building, attached to its ‘components’ rather than the ‘client-consultant’ relationship, as previously achieved via model-based BIM, can be achieved through accessible, user-friendly platforms, and transcend specific people and periods of time. (Image: Katie Steele) Light blue limewash Titanium white paint Cream limewash Pink varnish on light mauve limewash and lead white preparation layer White plaster substrate