Abstract:

The use of parametric modeling through BIM platform to support the architectural project is increasingly widespread not only by regulations in this field, but also by the obvious advantages not only in the design phase but also in those of building management and maintenance.

This adaptation must not be avoided by Courses operating in the architecture and construction field in order to transfer knowledge to students who, once integrated into the job market, will have skills that make them up-to-date and competitive.

In this direction, this abstract introduces a teaching experience carried out in BIM class in the third year of the Bachelor Degree in Building Sciences and Techniques during the first semester (October 2020, January 2021) of the current academic year by one of the authors. The introduction of this class in the Course offers a contribution in terms of innovation of digital platforms to support the building process but also to bring students closer, at the end of their study path, to approaches that are now increasingly widespread in the professional world.

Class in particular, starting from a design experience carried out in small groups in the previous academic year and related to a building replacement for residential use, traces the construction of the design idea supporting it through the BIM methodology. This approach has allowed not only the conceptual and operational advancement from the three-dimensional model to the parametric model with obvious advantages in the graphic elaboration of the project, but also the verification of some design choices with particular reference to technological ones and building materials choice. The parametric contents of BIM modeling, in fact, allows interdisciplinarity between the various contributions offered to the project in aspects not only related to its design but also related to technological, cost estimation, structural factors and all the ones that concern the life cycle building, digitally replicated.

Concerning the teaching organization, the extension in Italy of the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency during the period of the class, made necessary to provide with only on-line lessons, requesting a review of the teaching methods, without prejudice to the already defined class objectives. In fact, the limits that the health conditions imposed for the development of the course were seen as opportunities to experiment remote working methods. As is well known, among the advantages that the BIM methodology offers there is undoubtedly the sharing of design choices among the different actors in the building process who operate with various skills and roles on a single digital model, on which constantly and in real time are verified the choices made. This advantage is made possible by new work paradigms through models stored on the network on servers or clouds and through the creation of work-sets on which hierarchically all users can access and operate. The course has recreated through the topic of the work described above the construction of work teams between students physically distant from each other but who, through the potential offered by BIM software, have been able to operate in remote on a single parametric model, simulating a team work in which they will be involved as future professionals.

Keywords:

Remote learning, building information modelling, database.