12 - 01 - 2021
BPTW is pleased to be involved with L&Q’s and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Golden Thread Initiative (GTI). The recently established programme aims to create a standardised digital Golden Thread of building safety information for the construction industry following legislative changes. Mark Waite, BPTW’s partner of design technology, and associate Onur Osman are leading our contribution to the programme as members of GTI’s working groups where industry professionals will collaborate to understand the safety requirements and how they can be standardised and digitised.
Following the publications of the Hackitt Report and the draft Building Safety Bill, the GTI’s vision is to create a standardised, digital Golden Thread that is controlled at component level and with links to associated systems and spaces. The GTI’s working groups bring together industry professionals who will collaborate to demonstrate that it is possible to provide a standardised digital Golden Thread of building safety information to the satisfaction of the Building Safety Regulator. To achieve this, the GTI will review what type of information is required, when it is supplied, who is responsible, where it is located and why the information is needed. These findings will be published in a report for the benefit of the wider industry. Founded by L&Q this year, the GTI’s endorsing partners include CIBSE, HSE, the National Housing Federation and the UK BIM Alliance.
Our involvement in the GTI programme stems from a long history of engagement with Building Information Management (BIM) in the construction and residential sectors. Currently, Mark is leading BPTW’s BIM services growth in information management and BIM standards consultancy to assist the industry’s engagement with BIM. The wider context of our industry-level contribution to BIM includes our membership to BIM4HA (BIM for Housing Associations). This collaborative project has brought together leading housing associations and consultants to develop best practice for digitising asset information. The group is developing a suite of documents for new and existing buildings with realistic plain-language guidance on how to gather and structure digital building information within existing systems.
Inspired by our studio culture of collaboration and openness, our contribution to this initiative is extremely important to us and also for the development of the industry as a whole. We look forward to working alongside other industry leaders on the GTI to shape the programme’s development.
To hear more about how we are assisting our clients in assessing the impact of BIM on their organisations, and assisting them with other BIM services including the role of Information Manager, you can contact us at BIM@bptw.co.uk