The Specifiers Thursday with Rafik Remal

Aside from the BIM Management of the project CentraleSupelec of Rem Koolhaas (OMA) made in August 2017, Rafik has participated in some big projects such as the High Court of Paris by Renzo Piano (RPBW), in pre-coordination, or the International Airport of Geneva by Richard Rogers (RHSP).

He also helped for the implementation of the BIM process for some engineering societies, such as: Assystem EOS, ALTO Ingénierie, IGREC Ingéniérie, INGEROP. He is a Revit and BIM instructor in some engineering schools, such as ESITC in Caen and in Koweït, in partnership with the Académie de Paris with some local state organizations.

Since its establishment in 2010, R-BIM is a company dedicated to BIM and new technologies within the construction area, offering these services to manufacturers and AEC professionals:

1. AMO BIM
2. Operational BIM Management
3. BIM Implementation
4. BIM training: tools and process

A few facts

Rafik REMAL states: “The BIM is not made to reinvent the construction jobs; the BIM is not an end purpose either. It is a management and organizational process used to deal with projects. This process first emerged to help AEC professionals, in order to optimize the methods, means, and quality of production by relying on new technologies, on the numeric model, on some standards, and collaborative processes.

He also confirms: “Yes, the BIM changes the user’s habits, since the ways to conceive and to think a project are opposed to what was made before.” In conclusion, Rafik states: “The BIM implies a change for the architecture companies, concerning their production and their organization; and, as all the processes implying changes, it is not simple. It actually requires a serious planning, a real strategy, and some support from BIM experts to make sure the process will be lasting.”

The BIM Manager’s interests

According to Rafik, nowadays it is unavoidable to meet a “BIM Manager” since the implementation of the BIM on projects requires quite a lot of seriousness and method. Above all, people often don’t have a BIM expertise within their society; therefore, to get in a BIM project without knowing anything about it can sometimes be complicated.

The Ecole Centrale of Paris (CentraleSupélec)

After a detailed introduction of the project of the Ecole Centrale of Paris (CentraleSupelec), Rafik was able to talk about the different stakes faced in his job and his day-to-day life as a BIM expert.

The project, led by the OMA agency directed by Rem Koolhaas, is located on the plateau of Saclay at Gif-sur-Yvette (91). It is a new program of 48 500 m² including classrooms, an auditorium, labs, a parkway, some offices, a restaurant, etc.

Rafik Remal  has three missions regarding this project:

• The implementation of the BIM protocol (documents that specifies the human and electronic means established, the rules concerning the relationships between the different persons, the methodology to get a collaborative work, the data sharing, etc.)
• They help to solve any problem or conflict within the staff.

• The quality control: to check that the numeric models are faithful to the BIM protocol.

The digital model of the project: the question mark

After observing the different digital models, the participants asked Rafik a few questions.

Rafik explains the strategy of cutting and assembling the digital model of the project.

Example of cutting out the digital model: the digital model OMA is made of 04 distinct digital models: facades, structures, architecture and interior furniture.

Example of questions: is the BIM Manager supposed to give back one or many models to the builder? Who is going to synchronize the models?

Rafik answers: “There is no point in synchronizing all the digital models in a one and only “super-digital model”. The builder can easily get all the different models within a production software, such as Revit, with a file per model. This file can link all these models. The BIM Manager comes up with a global digital model within an aggregator such as Navisworks or Solibri Model Checker in order to coordinate, visualize, or control the quality.

Not to forget the first purpose of BIM

The builder's ultimate goal is to get back all the information of the building as built, which will enable him to get a reliable and relevant database that supplies the tools on CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System).

Indeed, the BIM project enables to keep the data related to the work in one place (the digital model). The availability and organization of these data are criteria to make sure it is a long-term process.