The BIM in Leicester event for architects, architecture students, academics and those in related disciplines interested in BIM will take place on 5 February 2025 at the Leicester School of Architecture.
The event is now in its seventh year and its first year since becoming a charity – under the BIM in Series name – at the start of this year.
BIM in series was founded by Victoria Farrow, architect, associate professor and subject lead in architecture and the built environment at the Leicester School of Architecture, at De Montfort University. Volunteers from the student body at De Montfort, as well as from schools of architecture from across the country, have lent their support to help deliver the event.
There are five themes to the 2025 event, three carried over from this year: AI, a case study and climate change. The remaining two themes are new for 2025:
- BIM in education, in which schools of architecture will share how they’re teaching BIM: Midland Metropolitan University will share its digital strategy, how it’s equipping undergraduate and postgraduate students with BIM knowledge; and
- BIM implementation, which will look at BIM adoption within a workforce, thus looking a people-led digitisation.
The deadline for speakers’ submissions is 28 October.
It is free for students to attend. Industry practitioners must pay a small fee to attend. Sponsors include Foster & Partners, Vectorworks, ArchAdemia and Architecture Vogue magazine. Tickets are available here.
Major names involved
Last year’s event attracted more than 300 attendees, half of whom were students, researchers and academics, with practitioners making up the other half. Speakers included representatives from BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, CBRE, Professor Stephen Garrison of Marywood School of Architecture USA, UCL, Heatherwick Studio, Bond Bryan and Foster & Partners.
The event started as an afternoon workshop in 2017, when Farrow was at Birmingham City University. She expanded it to a two-day event in 2018 and opened up attendance to other schools of architecture: students from Coventry, Wolverhampton and De Montfort attended.
The conference moved from Birmingham to Leicester in 2024, attracting students from Liverpool, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Manchester Metropolitan University, De Montfort, Birmingham City University, Nottingham Trent University, Lincoln, Strathclyde, Huddersfield and Leeds, and more.
As a charity, BIM in Series aims to support students of architecture and related disciplines, and to bridge the gaps between academia and industry. The charity also raises funds for architectural education as well as support students suffering financial hardship.
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