Blog: Digital Construction SECBE Awards 2019 finalist - ECD BIM Consultancy Services at Westminster City Council

14 May 2019

sponsored by Clearbox

*** WINNER *** ECD BIM Consultancy Services at Westminster City Council - submitted by ECD Architects

The training of Westminster City Council (WCC) in BIM by ECD Architects, using the WCC Ashbridge Street project as a live pilot, has upskilled the WCC staff. It has enabled the Council to take this service in-house and implement BIM across its projects - improving project timings, quality and asset management. It has helped them develop best practice for implementation within councils; and propelled the dissemination of this best practice across the construction industry.

Their knowledge transfer and training program is based around “Putting People First”. Training is key when implementing BIM so ECD Architects worked with WCC (and are now working with other councils) to identify what training is needed to reach the next milestone. Training then takes the form of group and individual workshops, work shadowing, and mentoring as appropriate.

In this way, staff and stakeholders learn not just the software or the technical environment required of BIM but also the roles and responsibilities that are critical to achieving BIM. They also learnt change management and good governance, communication skills, stakeholder management and collaborative working practices - as well as project risk and best practice for continuous improvement.

ECD's BIM consultancy programme is now approaching its third year with measurable improvement in both the understanding of BIM and skill level of WCC staff in delivery across all disciplines from procurement to asset management and the wider supply chain of consultants and contractors. This is having a positive impact on each department and is enabling WCC to meet its ‘City for All’ objectives.

Meanwhile the Ashbridge street scheme secured planning approval in 2018 and a contractor is currently being procured. Since then they have also continued to win architectural work from WCC via the DPS framework and are currently assisting them with a further 3 projects including:

• Estate office conversions (small sites)
• Infill housing programme (small sites)
• New 20-unit housing scheme

They continue to provide workshops and seminars for the promotion of BIM across the industry and would encourage others to do this as well. To make the best use of BIM, the industry needs to understand how to use the collaborative capacities of BIM and capture information and ensure building managers understand how to access and use the data captured.

As highlighted within the Hackitt Report: “having BIM-enabled datasets during occupation means that duty holders will have a suitable evidence base through which to deliver their responsibilities and maintain safety and integrity throughout the life-cycle of a building.”

To achieve these targets, ECD provides training and development, as well as work shadowing experience to their clients and supply chain enabling confidence and the experience to enable up-coming BIM Champions the ability to deliver BIM on their own.

Highlights:

• ECD's BIM training and development programme has provided WCC with the opportunity to integrate a collaborative BIM user group from each department within the Council that promotes the use of digital construction across all projects - based upon the success of Ashbridge street and the use of CDE and digital collaboration from this project.
• Their ability to use design and development of proposals for the Council’s Ashbridge Street project provided the Council with a live project to learn from which was then implementable on the Council’s other projects under their appointment as BIM Consultant. This led in to the development of a digital twin strategy allowing councils to capture and manage information of the existing stock to align with the requirements of the Hackitt Report.
• Their presentations and CPD training over the past 2 years to others within the industry, along with social media engagement, has provided a platform for sharing evolving best practice. They remain committed to sharing the journey for the implementation of BIM within the industry.

For more details:

Visit ECD Architects.

The SECBE 2019 Digital Construction Award is sponsored by Clearbox.