Kimon Onuma keeps whipping up  BIMStorms, his Web-based planning charrettes that can involve hundreds of building team members. The next BIMStorm will be live at the AECST Conference in Washington, D.C., from Dec. 8-11. Onuma, who uses the Onuma Planning System software to en-able the charrettes, plans to have a theater on the AECST show floor. There will be live interactions with teams involved in earlier BIMStorms—a word coined in 2007. For all of 2009, Onuma Inc., Pasadena, Calif., is planning an ongoing “low-carbon collaboration” BIMStorm.

Building Team Views Technological Tools as Best Chance For Change
Photo: Onuma, Inc.

There are two types of BIMStorms: project-related and industry-related. Project BIMStorms are closed to the public and involve real planning exercises. Industry BIMStorms are free and open to the public. Each one has had a different focus and location but they share a central theme of a real-time charrette using many tools, collaborating across as many parts of the industry as possible.


ONUMA

“Open standards were used stretching the limits of what is perceived to be possible today in the industry,” says Onuma.

Since November 2007 there have been 13 BIMStorms. Close to 3,000 participants from 14 countries have “worked on” 2,458 sites, 3,964 buildings, 493,914 rooms, and 485,883,746 sq ft of program area.

A BIMStorm in Los Angeles was the largest. The focal point was a 24-hour period on Jan. 31 where 420 buildings were “created.”