2013 will be a milestone year for the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Australia, industry leaders say.
The architecture, engineering and construction sectors have recognised that significant benefits can be delivered through the use of BIM.
Barriers to adoption are being removed with BIM use set to accelerate as business takes advantage of the many productivity and financial benefits that can be generated through building automation.
Meinhardt Australia CEO Peter Galvin expects to see a continuation of the impact of technology on business, including further development in the move to BIM and 3D design and the application of mobile technologies to provide clients with live data on their projects.
BuildingSMART Australasia vice president, Wayne Eastley, says his organisation will continue to encourage governments at all levels to make BIM a requirement in all building procurements.
"A key buildingSMART Australia initiative being pursued on industry’s behalf is to help the Australian government identify areas where there is insufficient incentive for the market to provide the required BIM solutions and where government funding is warranted to stimulate the uptake of this enabling technology,” Eastley says.
Aurecon CEO Paul Hardy says too often the engineering profession is left out of the decision-making process. “I see 2013 as a year when our profession can step up more to add their voice and expertise to tackle these issues,” Hardy says.
The principal engineer for design, innovation and sustainable buildings at consultancy firm GHD, Tai Hollingsbee, said mass collaboration, environmental monitoring and open source tools for optimising building performance will shape the sustainability discussion in the built environment in 2013.
Skills shortages will also shape the engineering profession this year as demand remains strong. In building-related engineering, steady vacancy levels exist across most of Australia and demand remains strong for senior level engineers, particularly in electrical design.
Civil engineers and senior civil engineers are also in high demand.
By May 2013, jobs are forecast to be growing by 10.2 per cent per annum.
With estimates suggesting Australia has over half a trillion dollars of engineering construction work yet to be completed, Engineers Australia CEO Stephen Durkin expects to see ongoing pressure on the engineering labour market throughout 2013.
In the education sphere, universities are updating their courses to reflect both developments in research and the most recent employment trends.
Flinders University in South Australia, for example, now has a clean technologies course in 2013 as renewable technology continues to advance and become more commercially accessible.
