Education in BIM and NZEB in order to improve the quality of buildings

Buildings have a central role to play in the energy transition of the EU since our buildings are responsible for about 40% of primary energy consumption in the EU and about 36% of energy-related CO₂ emissions while at the same time around 75% of the building stock is energy inefficient. As all the EU member states prepare for the obligatory nearly zero energy buildings (NZEB)from 2021 it is evident at the EU level that there are acute skills challenges as well as a significant lack of knowledge and competences on NZEB. On the other hand, Building information modelling (BIM)is taking a centre stage in the digital transformation of the construction industry as it serves as the crucial software platform for integrated design, modelling, planning, and collaboration, thereby “providing all stakeholders with a digital representation of a building’s characteristics in its whole lifecycle”. BIM adoption has been slow, despite its many advantages. Design and engineering firms have been among the earliest adopters, followed by construction firms. BIM has great potential to transform operations and maintenance (O&M), but adoption by asset operators lags behind other players, largely because the technology is inaccurately perceived as a purely 3D design application. Government policies and initiatives aiming to foster BIM implementation should be comprehensive, including public procurement, education and development, as well as standardisation. Paper aims to identify the current and predicted skill needs, gaps, barriers and training in the field of BIM and NZEB within the construction sector in all partner countries of the Erasmus+ project BIMzeED.

This paper is published under 21^st International Symposium on Quality “QUALITY –YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW” and can be find here: http://hdmk.hr/papers_2020/hdmk_2020_32.pdf