Opinion
Construction Verification I Given the digitisation of the AEC industry, and the effort that firms put into designing and documenting projects ahead of construction, there is a general feeling that not enough is being done to verify and document what actually gets built. A new initiative aims to promote better work practices
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s a magazine we are always wary of the fact that our excitement for new technology can often lead to selling the utopias promised by our friends in software and hardware development. BIM has undoubtedly delivered benefits over drawings, but it has also created its own problems. Many of these technologies also fail to get out to the construction site. So, while architects may get lost in detail modelling, Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and digital twins, in the real world what gets delivered does not match the original design intent. Buildings are not currently delivered by robots. Despite digitisation, errors on site still occur, undocumented changes happen in the white heat of compressed delivery
schedules, and nobody really wants to own them or the associated liabilities. As digital deliverables increase and, perhaps, digital twins become more relevant, capturing the as-built for documentation and use downstream needs to become part of the standard practice of construction work. But this currently comes at a cost. This becomes easier, however, as technologies develop and evolve. While we might not all be able to afford a Spot robot to roam a building with a scanner, iPhone solutions, as we have covered widely this month, mean that anyone can capture and document building elements, or rooms, using a device that everyone has easy access to. The Construction Verification Initiative is a LinkedIn group set up by
professionals working across all construction disciplines, to promote the functional benefits of construction verification and establish good practice for its use. The aim is to educate clients and practitioners to understand the full value of verification and to support the industry in its adoption, align standards and evolve the landscape of legislation around improving construction quality. This month we highlight the opinions of four active members of the Construction Verification Initiative (CVI), coming at the issue from different directions, relative to their roles in the market. Construction Verification Initiative Linkedin Group ■ www.tinyurl.com/CVI-LinkedIn
Construction verification in Verity Image courtesy of Jacob Down
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21/05/2022 07:43
