On April 23, 2019, GRAPHISOFT, with the support of the Mosstroyinform State Budgetary Institution and the Union of Architects of Russia, held its first conference for students and teachers of specialized educational institutions.
The event brought together more than 200 students and teachers from key specialized educational institutions of the country: Moscow Architectural Institute, MGSU, RUDN, MASI, MGHPA named after Stroganov, as well as representatives of specialized colleges and training centers. In addition to participants from the capital region of Russia, there were students and teachers from Vladimir, Tambov, Kaluga, Belgorod, Ivanov, Rostov-on-Don and other cities, as well as from the republics of Dagestan and Chechnya. Students from Ecuador and Namibia (as part of the RUDN University group) also gained Russian experience in the application and teaching of BIM.
According to the participants and speakers, the conference coped with a truly unique task: it gave a clearer idea of how to teach BIM and how to learn BIM.
The conference was opened by the Vice-President of the Union of Architects of Russia Yaroslav Usov. In his opening remarks, he told his future colleagues about the activities of the Union and its importance for the architectural community of Russia.
What's in the architect's briefcase?
The conference experts started with the tools. In a special practical block of the program "Modern BIM-tools of a young architect" the participants were introduced to an important set of tools that will allow future specialists to be most in demand and successful in their profession. In addition to the already well-known BIM applications such as ARCHICAD, BIMx and BIMCloud, GRAPHISOFT specialists, as well as practicing architects and BIM managers from City Arch, ABV Group and MLN Bureau shared their expertise and knowledge in the use of innovative applications. ONE ". Practitioners talked about such enhancements as EcoDesigner: STAR, Library Part Maker, Octane, Enscape, Lumion, and ARCHICAD-GRASSHOPPER-LIVE CONNECTION.
“The profession of an architect today sets a high standard for the knowledge and skills of a modern specialist. It is necessary to constantly keep your finger on the pulse and be aware of the new capabilities not only of basic BIM programs, but also to be able to use related applications to achieve the highest quality projects. Future designers need to understand that the wider the toolbox and the more knowledge they have in their luggage, the more valuable specialists they will become in their future work. Are you working for GRASSHOPPER and have an idea of the visual programming editor? It will definitely be interesting for your future employer,”said Maria Kalashnikova, specialist in educational programs at GRAPHISOFT.
Profession - an architect. Not standard, but standard
Of particular interest among teachers and senior students was the speech of Nadezhda Prokopyeva, Vice President for Qualifications Development of the BIM Association. According to market experts, the main problem that hinders the more active development of BIM in our country is the lack of qualified personnel in the field of information modeling technologies, and this problem is now being actively addressed. Nadezhda talked about the development of the professional standard "Information Modeling Specialist in the Construction Industry", about what requirements will be imposed on the qualifications of a specialist in the very near future, and what is needed to meet them.
A separate topic was the implementation of a program for the standardization of information modeling technologies, which Vitaly Pugachev, a representative of PTK 705, told the audience about. The topic turned out to be especially useful for teachers and researchers of specialized universities.
The experience of generations is the most valuable
Of course, the practical block about the realities of the profession, which was shared by practicing architects, became valuable information for students. In his speech architect and BIM manager Vitaly Ivankov Using the example of his work in the PRIDE bureau, he spoke about how a modern architectural bureau functions today. Vitaly shared the types of projects in a modern office, the specifics of working with customers, and also gave advice on how to start the student at the stage of choosing his very first job and explained how to avoid the most offensive mistakes for a future career.
Kirill Pernatkin from AB "DUTCH" also immediately found a common language with the audience. An energetic, young, but already very experienced architect conveyed a very important idea to the students in his speech: an architect, first of all, is responsible for common sense! Kirill dwelled on such important points as the responsibility of the architect at key stages of the project, warned about what irresponsibility can bring to them, and also drew the attention of young specialists to the fact that despite the absolute importance of borrowing foreign experience, one should not try to mindlessly shift him at home, not taking into account the peculiarities of the infrastructure, mentality and history of the location of the future object.
BIM: what, where, when?
Block "Where to learn BIM?" attracted close attention of both students and the teaching staff of the audience. Indeed, there is a lot of information on information modeling now on the market, but at the stage of training young specialists it is especially important to have a balanced, modern and proven training program. In this part of the program, the audience learned about the best lectures, popular master classes, special training courses and research projects of the Master's program. Experts from the country's largest universities - MARCHI, MGSU and MARSH - also spoke about their experience in teaching information modeling technologies.
Egor Glebov, architect, BIM expert and managing partner of BORSH, in turn, spoke about his own practice of using BIM in the educational modules of MARCH and MARCHI.
One of the most motivating was the performance of Tatyana Kozlova, a student at Moscow Architectural Institute and the winner of the GRAPHISOFT BIM Project - 2018. Tatyana told her peers how her student and social life had changed after she began to try her hand at architectural competitions, as well as how it is important for the future architect to begin to show himself and make useful acquaintances in the architectural community already from the student's bench.
“In fact, we can say that today's design students are very lucky - when they start practicing, Russia will finally have its own practice of information modeling, which is being actively formed right now, right before our eyes. - BIM-manager Dmitry Gutorkin from the "ABV" bureau shared his opinion. - When I was studying, I had to collect information bit by bit and sometimes rely more on Western experience. Now Russian architects are actively developing their own BIM expertise and, for example, like me, they are actively sharing their experience and knowledge with colleagues, and in this case with future colleagues.
GRAPHISOFT thanks the experts, teachers and students for an incredibly productive dialogue and invites you to return to the event next year.
See more about how it was in the report on the event website.
About GRAPHISOFT
GRAPHISOFT® revolutionized the BIM in 1984 with ARCHICAD®, the industry's first CAD BIM solution for architects. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the architectural software market with innovative products such as BIMcloud ™, the world's first real-time collaborative BIM design solution, EcoDesigner ™, the world's first fully integrated energy modeling and energy efficiency assessments of buildings, and BIMx® is the leading mobile application for the demonstration and presentation of BIM models. Since 2007, GRAPHISOFT has been part of the Nemetschek Group.
