BIM design
Maksym Miatko
24 years in engineering and construction. Mentors the BIM team at the practice. “For many, BIM is still just a pretty 3D image. For the world it is a construction operating system that saves millions and makes projects transparent. Investors want to see managed risks and the lifecycle of an asset, not drawings.”
Concept
The model gives quantities and preliminary economics before any working drawings exist. The cost of a decision is visible while it is still cheap to change, and options are compared on identical data. More on this stage: architectural concept.
Schematic design
The volumetric and spatial structure is tested for feasibility. The model already carries data, so planning and principal structural decisions are checked against each other rather than reconciled through drawings. What the stage covers: schematic design.
Detail design stage
All disciplines come together in one model inside a common data environment. Clashes between architecture, structure and services appear on screen — where a duct runs through a beam, it is visible long before anyone reaches the site. What the stage includes: detail design stage.
Construction documentation
Drawings are generated from the model, so they cannot drift apart. A change in one discipline carries through every set by itself, and at handover the model stays with the client as an asset information model. Next: construction documentation and author supervision.
Who we work with
FAQ
A 3D model is geometry. BIM, or building information modelling, is geometry plus data: what an element is made of, how much of it is needed, when it gets installed. It is the data that produces quantities, clashes and cost, not the picture itself.
BIM at AIMM is led by Maksym Miatko, chief engineer and co-founder, who acts as the practice’s BIM ambassador and mentors the team. On a project, the BIM engineer runs the information model: bringing the disciplines into a common data environment, checking clashes, holding the level of detail agreed for each stage, and preparing the model for handover. For a client that means a single point of accountability for the integrity of the model.
A fuller breakdown of the roles — who models, who federates, who owns the method — is in the article who is a BIM specialist, and what do they do on a project.
No. Nothing in Ukrainian law makes BIM mandatory. The BIM bill passed its first reading on 8 July 2022 and has not moved since. The government implementation concept (Cabinet order 152-r) is still on the books, but its action plan ran to 2025, and the widely quoted target of «at least 10 per cent of publicly funded projects» is a task set for ministries rather than a rule of direct effect. The practical framework comes from the national DSTU ISO 19650 standards and from building code DBN A.2.2-3:2014, which permits information modelling and defers the requirements to the design brief.
The level of detail, or LOD, grows with the stage: from quantities at concept to installation details in construction documentation. Too much detail early is wasted time; too little later is a source of errors. The level required is fixed in the design brief before work starts.
Yes. Two-dimensional drawings and surveys become the basis of the model. How much work that takes depends on how complete and current they are, so we look at the material first and quote a timescale after.
Drawing sets, schedules and quantities, the federated model and the record of resolved clashes. Formats are agreed in advance: alongside the native files, the model is delivered in IFC, the open exchange format every major package reads. The model stays usable whatever software we designed it in.
Modelling takes more effort at the start than drafting does. The return comes later: mistakes are visible before the site, quantities come from the model, and changes do not have to be carried through every set by hand.
Published cases show the order of magnitude. On the Hilton Aquarium hotel in Atlanta the investment in BIM was 90 thousand dollars, or 0.2 per cent of the project budget, against a benefit of 600 thousand attributed to eliminating clashes (CIFE report, Stanford University). On a public sports facility of 25,661 square metres, modelling and design review cost 192 thousand dollars against a total effect of 915 thousand (Lee and Lee, Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2020).
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