Choosing BIM for landscape architecture gives us a seat at the table.
As landscape architects, invariably we work in concert with other disciplines – civil and structural engineers, ecologists, lighting designers, and architects to name a few of our critical partners. And, like most businesses today, it is crucial that everyone on the project team keep pace, in real-time, as the project progresses.
The driver for this collaboration in the A&E industry is BIM (Building Information Modeling) which is a cloud-based, intelligent modelling software that produces a digital representation of a project across its entire lifecycle. BIM has wide penetration in the A&E sector, a survey by AIA in 2020 shows 100% of large architects use it and over 30% of small firms.
Landscape architecture has been slow to adapt this technology, lagging on projects where BIM is the driver. Yet at Mantle, we deliberately chose to embrace BIM (Revit) for landscape architecture. Our practice was conceived on the very belief that adoption of BIM was critical to our ability to integrate with our project partners and become agile collaborators.
Our team uses Revit, the industry standard, to access BIM information and to design, collaborate and simulate. Incorporating this tool into our process 100% of the time has been fundamental to our growth and has made us more efficient, proactive and collaborative. The software has allowed us to accelerate changes which benefits us tremendously as a small firm. With AutoCAD only one person can be in a file at a time. But with Revit we can all be in the same file at once. So those times when we are asked to quickly deliver a change, we can turn around the work at speeds not possible with AutoCAD.
It hasn’t been easy. Adoption of the software is a long-term commitment. We have fully trained our entire staff and retained a consultant to offer ongoing support, as well as developed custom built landscape templates. To streamline our work flow and provide the support our team needs, especially when we onboard a new employee, we have authored and created a comprehensive 60 page interactive manual specifically geared to using Revit in landscape. To say the least, we are incredibly invested in this technology.
While using BIM / Revit for landscape architecture helps us keep pace with our project partners and allows us to see the totality of a project outside of our discipline, it also gives us the capacity to integrate modeling and design studies in tandem with the development of project documents. We believe the value in using this software lies in the ability for us to fully integrate with the team and not remain sidelined. By using BIM/Revit, we intentionally remove layers of communication, reduce errors and duplicative work, and can virtually ‘sit in the room’ with our team and be proactive and engaged. This shift means we spend more time looking ahead, anticipating issues and iterating instead of playing catch up, ultimately elevating the role of landscape in the design and construction process.