Sackville Street apartment complex | Courtesy of Idle Architecture
BIG BIM WITH A BIG IMPACT
In a Big BIM workflow, there's a complexity that comes with coordinating information between multiple contractors and various models. The larger the project gets, the more complex it gets. Which begs the question—on a large project, how large does the firm need to be for successful completion?
Idle Architecture, a firm based in Melbourne, Australia, has been doing Little BIM — information modeling among the internal team — since as early as 2005. The 12-person firm stumbled into Big BIM accidentally when consultants on a project wanted to collaborate and address potential issues ahead of time. So they shared BIM models with each other every three-to-four weeks and, without knowing it, completed a highly functional Big BIM project.
Nowadays, Idle Architecture has become a respected standby in the world of architecture. They’ve come to specialize in particularly large projects, which is notable for a medium-sized firm. A recent project, an apartment complex on Sackville Street in Melbourne, shows how the firm has grown over the years into masters of Big BIM coordination despite their 12 seats, which they’ve turned into a strength rather than a weakness.
