Last week I got an unexpected e-mail (actually; I got a few, but that’s a story for another time). It was to introduce me to the BIM2050 group; the CIC’s tendrils into the future- looking to establish what construction (note the three letter drop) will look like in 35 years time, and what we have to do to get there. It turned out they were wondering who was responsible for filling the internet with badly spelt engineering rants…

Because I’m a well balanced individual I responded with a putting-the-world-to-rights tirade of suggestions for what the industry would be like if/when I become undisputed emperor of all engineering. It makes a nice continuation of my old NCE competition entry, and so I thought I’d showcase my continuing frustrations with the industry as my experience of it grows:

Support for disruptive technologies/start-ups in construction

Look at the wholesale change events like Disrupt have brought technology…

Fast track the inclusion of new materials/processes into our regulations

FRP is nearly 75 years old now, and it’s still considered a “new” material…

Democratize the design process

Let the community take ownership over its infrastructure again; surely that’s Sustainability 101.

Rapidly improve our design by building in monitoring to inform future design practices

It’s amazing how many conservative approximate approaches we take as being accurate. Cheap monitoring is already available to show us the truth behind our long-held assumptions…

Reworking our contracts/tenders for collaboration

The do and sue model needs to go; engineers need to start being incentivised to collaborate.

Improve access to innovations

Our industry is full of innovators, but they don’t have anywhere to share or profit from their successes, so they just fall by the wayside.

Import management ideals from other industries

Why aren’t we attempting to be Agile or LEAN? There’s a lot to learn from industries delivering similar mega projects with challenging specifications; let’s give it a go!

Push for parametric pre-modular structures

It’s madness that we still design the same bridges over and over again; let’s standardise our infrastructure like every other discipline.

Establish spaces for engineers to freely mix and safely share new ideas

Maybe the ICE was more effective when it was just a bunch of enthusiastic engineers sitting in a coffee shop?

And if we’re still using BIM in 2050…

I’ll be incredibly disappointed- we should be using whatever is born of the lessons of BIM.

The CIC is actually linked to the government; so if I have faith in anyone to influence the policy we need to help affect change in the industry- it’s them. So watch this space; at the very least I’ll be following their progress with interest…