John Adams, director of BIM services at BIM strategy, responds to the newly published Hackitt Report.
From the day of the Grenfell Tower disaster, many of us wondered where it went wrong, but were quietly resigned to the idea we may never know because there are known failures in our industry processes.
The digitally focused innovators have always had confidence that the new processes defined as BIM Level 2 and the surrounding toolset have the power to increase clarity and remove risk.
The persistent misconception that BIM is all about 3D models could have seen the Building a Safer Future report by Dame Judith Hackitt miss this crucial connection between our digital strategy and the removal of risk from our projects.
But the recommendation set out by Dame Judith is strongly in favour of the government mandating digital by default, and that open standards should be used for secure digital record keeping.
While the national media and the RIBA are focusing on the wisdom of combustible cladding panels, the BIM savvy are pleased to see some astute acknowledgement that improved information management using appropriate technologies has been yet again confirmed as essential to resetting our industry processes that have been failing us for too long.
Nobody is saying the use of BIM on Grenfell would have stopped this tragedy, but accelerating our move towards a digital industry is one of the measures needed to address the inadequacies highlighted by this report.
Nobody wants to be associated with an industry accused of ignorance, indifference and inadequacy for any longer than we have to be.
No improvements in our industry can make the events in London a fair price to pay, it will always be remembered as one of our worst failures.
However, if accelerating towards BIM Level 2 as a default might stop the same happening again, we surely have to adopt the recommendations without delay.
