France and Germany move forward on BIM adoption

The governments of France and Germany last month both took steps to standardise and promote BIM – with France funding its new digital transition plan with €20m and German ministers setting up an industry-led “Digital Building Platform”.

In France, minister of dwellings [ministre du logement] Sylvia Pinel appointed Bertrand Delcambre as president of its equivalent of the BIM Task Group, the “Plan Transition Numerique dans le Batiment” on 20 January.

The transition plan has been funded with €20m over three years. The new group also has a director, Jerome Mast, and a steering group which held its first meeting on 11 February.

According to a French government press release, its aim is to “mobilise and support the sector… to quickly take the digital revolution by deploying operational actions that unite initiatives, capitalise on what exists and create the conditions for a shared benefit for the entire industry”.

The appointment follows six months work by Delcambre, who was last year appointed as the government’s ambassador for digital technology, It also forms the official government response to a report and recommendations he submitted in December 2014.

Delcambre heads the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment (CSTB), roughly the equivalent in France to BRE.

France also has a plan, announced in March 2014, to develop 500,000 houses using BIM by 2017.

Meanwhile, Germany’s federal minister of transport and Digital Infrastructure Alexander Dobrindt last month  used the BAU 2015 exhibition in Munich to announce the creation of  the Digital Building Platform [Platform Digitales Bauen]. 

The group has been established by a number of industry-led organisations with the aim of developing a government BIM strategy. The official government statement talks of  the “standardising of process and device descriptions, develop guidelines for digital planning methods and provide sample contracts.”

But the new intervention has been set up by Dobrindt as an initiative of Germany’s ongoing Reform Commission for Major Projects, a committee of experts set up to examine the underlying reasons why a series of major public sector projects in Germany went badly over budget and/or late.  

They include Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport, the Stuttgart 21 railway station, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall, the new building for Germany’s intelligence services, and the Hochmosel road bridge.