Caesar from Autodesk started us off with North American BIM news. There is lots happening across Canada in terms of large multi-million dollar projects requiring BIM; Hospitals, airports, prisons.
In keeping with the BIM for Fabrication theme Caesar showed us a Hospital project of which the interiors are largely prefabricated in a factory of 18 people. One dumpster of waste generated, total.
John Peterson of KPMB, our 2011 Content Coordinator spoke to us about how BIM can serve us. In 2011 we will examine cost analysis, more on BIM fabrication as well as hardware, server and software optimization.
John introduced Anna, Katie, Marcus, Laura and Allison of the Ryerson School of Interior Design. We were impressed by the technical level of expertise shown by these students. They presented a complete design and analysis of a local winery using Revit and other technologies.
Julian and Patrick from Feature Walters showed us some current and past projects. One of these projects was the 'Tommy Hilfiger' floating staircase in New York City. Julian mentioned that the entire staircase was digitally prototyped. This means that no two pieces of the staircase physically touched each other before the assembly of the staircase at the store. The treads were manufactured in Brazil from the digital model and shipped directly to the site. Julian mentioned that even after years of doing this kind of work he couldn't believe this could be done until he saw it...more here. Now, more and more of FW projects are being done this way.
