International Women’s Day – Celebrating women in the Construction industry!
We interviewed Abby Watts, Business Development Representative at bimstore - A provider of high-quality manufacturer BIM content for the specification market.
Abby has worked within the Construction industry for 5 years and has recently started her new role at bimstore. In this interview, she discusses her experience being a woman in a male-dominated industry, the role of BIM technology, the future of smart buildings design and the need for smart solutions to meet the targets for net-zero carbon buildings.
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Thank you for joining me today Abby, it’s great to have you featured on our series. Today is obviously a very special interview as it is International Women’s Day, and we wanted to celebrate women in the Construction industry!
Do you want to start by giving us a quick introduction to yourself and an overview of what bimstore does?
AW: Yes, I’m Abby. I have worked in Construction for 5 years now, within Sales and I am really enjoying it!
The way I would describe bimstore is we are like Amazon for Architects, Engineers and Designers. BIM itself is the Business Information Model; we use software to create a 3D model of a building or project, within that is every object you can think of from floors, ceilings, lighting and even down to the valves…we create these ‘BIM objects’ in bimstore, this allows users to go into this ‘Amazon-like’ platform and select objects to add to their 3D Business Information Model and that is how a building gets built.
It is a really interesting concept, and it isn’t something I don’t know a lot about, but it is obviously the very beginning of a smart building.
So, what has your experience within the Construction industry been?
AW: In the 5 years I have worked within the industry, I initially worked for a concrete block manufacturer, then a steel reinforcement manufacturer, and now I work for bimstore. I kind of fell into it, really; I came straight out of uni and got my first job, but I’ve enjoyed it, and I’ve stayed in it ever since.
Fab, traditionally the Construction industry is quite male-dominated; how have you found being a woman in that environment?
AW: Well, it’s not without its challenges, but to be honest, like every industry at the moment, it is becoming more inclusive of women, there are women at every stage of the process from the Design to Construction and Engineering stage – there are just more women going into those roles, so I think it is moving forward now.
In your role at bimstore, you’re obviously providing Architects and Designers with components to put into their 3D models, but what kind of job roles are you speaking to on a day-to-day basis?
AW: Well the interesting thing with bimstore is, we’re a small part of the business, as I said we’re the library, so my job specifically, is to speak to manufacturers, I would speak to them, explain the benefits of having their content on our library – increasing their exposure to Designers and Architects and they get specified within their projects. So that is my main role, but in the wider company, we also deal with Designers, Architects and Engineers because we’re actually the ones putting together this 3D model.
Yep, and you’ve kind of briefly mentioned this already, but where does bimstore fit within the smart building ecosystem? I’m guessing at the very beginning?
AW: Yes, so it is at the very heart of it. It is amazing technology; I can’t even begin to describe all of it because I don’t even know it yet, but it is at the forefront because no building can be built without a model. We have gone from using just boards and paper to CAD, a 2D designing tool, to now being able to use this 3D model where you can literally walk around the virtual building and see every part of it before you’ve even put a spade in the ground.
So, just summarising what you’ve said there…every detail of a building is designed in BIM. That model is then used for analysis and to explore different design options and create visualisations to help key stakeholders understand what the building looks like before it’s built, pretty much; so, where do building serves such as lighting fit in? Is that considered at this stage?
AW: Yeah, we have lots of lighting manufacturers currently working with bimstore; they supply their content like every other manufacturer. There will need to be different kinds of lighting that can be specified, e.g. smart lighting, which will have to be specified at this point if it is part of the building design.
Definitely, and going back to that point, briefly pulling in what we do as well. I know you have mentioned within bimstore it is hardware. Obviously, our solution, SmartCore, is the software that powers smart lighting hardware, so in terms of systems and software, this isn’t something that is considered at this stage in the process, is it? bimstore is just the hardware, and the software element would come later down the line, is that correct?
AW: Yeah, but the way it could tie in is that if there was a specific lighting product that would only be capable of doing that smart lighting solution, then I guess in a way you would also be specified because they would need that smart technology to power the lighting, but it is more hardware that is considered at this stage.
Yeah, definitely, and I guess as we are agnostic as software and interoperable with most if not all hardware lighting products (one of our USPs), whatever hardware gets specified within a building at your stage. Then next stage down the line, you’re not going to encounter any problems and find that actually the smart software powering it can’t actually communicate with that hardware because we can communicate with anyone as long as they’re ‘open’, which I think most companies these days are learning that they have to be.
Great, so if we talk a little bit about the need for zero carbon buildings. So, according to the UN, by 2050, the world's population will be 9.7 billion. And there is obviously a global initiative for Zero-Carbon Buildings for All. Do you think the industry needs to embrace smarter, more efficient ways to design and build to achieve this?
AW: Definitely, with regards to what BIM does to help achieve that - it cuts costs massively and saves time, so say a window size needs to be changed within a project, if you didn’t have a building 3D model, you would be stuck at building stage because that window would not only affect the size of a new window it would also affect the concrete blocks, the pipes, the building materials, etc. everything would have to be put on hold, and there would be a lot of changes. So BIM streamlines the process; within the 3D model, you can change the window's size before any building happens, and you are then troubleshooting the issue before it has even occurred.
Yes, it’s obviously cost-saving for the client, but ultimately it is saving a lot of carbon and wastage within the process.
And you mentioned last time we spoke about government buildings and how they have to use BIM?
AW: Yes so, the UK government has now mandated that every building they build, whether that is a school or a hospital, has to be built with a BIM; we get a lot of government contracts because we can supply what they need.
Great, it definitely seems to be the way forward, and it is a positive step towards achieving the goal of zero-carbon buildings.
Finally, just before we wrap up, I just wanted to go back to the original theme. Do you think there is a need for more women in Construction?
AW: Yes, I do; I think the more diverse a company is, the more you're going to get from it. Men can do things that women can’t, and women can do that men can’t; gender shouldn’t be considered, we’re all equal, and I think there is no reason why there shouldn’t be more women in construction. It should be just as diverse as any other industry.
Lastly, have you seen any positive change over the last 5 years that you have been within the industry?
AW: Definitely, so I actually know of many more female engineers now, even me personally, growing up. It was not a career I thought I would try and get into because I always viewed it as a male profession, but actually what I have seen is more and more female engineers, electrical, mechanical - in a trade, there are more women, so I think that is a real big step forward.
