My research is exploring the possibility of applying HBIM asset management principles to heritage assets, HBIM is a hybrid of BIM, with BIM being an element of the Government Construction Strategy: 2016-2020. The Government Construction Strategy sets out a new plan to increase productivity in government construction to deliver £1.7 billion efficiencies. 

The strategy sets out ambitions for smarter procurement, fairer payment, improving digital skills, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing client capability. These themes are consistent with the wider ambitions for industry in Construction 2025 delivered by industry and government through the Construction Leadership Council. 

Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Construction is an important part of the strategy and is helping to increase productivity and collaboration through technology. 

At this moment in time in the case of new build projects where BIM is applied to the project, approx. 33%  apply BIM for the operational phase of a building, with the majority applying BIM to the construction phase, the operational phase of a building accounts for 80% of a buildings total costs, if  HBIM is applied to an  historic assets for refurbishment/reconstruction works can HBIM contribute to the long term sustainability of an historic  asset by reducing the costs of the operational phase of a building, there are issues associated with HBIM and those issues will be examined within the research. 

Web link – https://forms.office.com/r/85HMZezwUg

As part of its commitment to providing high quality education, the University of Sharjah (UoS), in partnership with ICCROM (through its regional office in Sharjah), is studying the feasibility of establishing a new PhD program in “Science and Technology in Heritage Conservation and Management”. The proposed PhD degree is an academic interdisciplinary program in the College of Engineering which targets highly-skilled researchers and professionals able to contribute novel approaches to the field of Heritage Conservation and Management. The Program provides an excellent opportunity to graduates who have completed degrees related to science and Engineering such as architectural, civil and environmental engineering, surveying/geomatics engineering, archaeology, museology, geology, geography, planning, and information technology. The program will include course and research work, and will address areas related to conservation science, engineering, and the use of advanced technologies for effective management of cultural and natural heritage places.

You are invited to participate in this questionnaire, which will take about 5 to 10 minutes of your time. We are interested in exploring potential employment opportunities available for the future graduates of the proposed PhD Program in “Science and Technology in Heritage Conservation and Management”. Your participation is very important to the success of this survey which you can access by clicking on the participate button below. 

Participate in the Survey

The University of York (UoY) and Historic England (HE) are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2021 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme.   Entitled ‘Informing our Heritage Future(s): Preserving our Digital Past(s)’ this project will explore one of the most pressing challenges facing the heritage sector: the consistent capture, selection and archiving of diverse digital data sets that ensure their future accessibility and interoperability by the public and historic environment stakeholders. This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Kate Giles and Kieron Niven (UoY) and David Andrews and Simon Taylor (HE) and the student will be expected to spend time at both the University of York and Historic England as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK. The studentship can be studied either full or part-time.  

The project will take as its focus the historic High Street, which is currently facing a period of unprecedented change as COVID accelerates long-term trends in retail and residential demand, and as developers and local authorities seek to support the sustainable development of this heritage asset to meet key challenges of economic and environmental sustainability, housing needs, and climate change.

Close attention will be paid to the formats of digital data sets generated by stakeholders with particular emphasis on new developments in complex digital data sources such as laser scanning and LIDAR and the capacity and potential of data management systems such as GIS and HBIM to support better sharing, accessibility and interoperability within and between relevant stakeholders, aligning with HE’s Heritage Information Access Strategy (HIAS).  

Details on the studentship can be found at https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate-study/research-postgrads/pgr-fees-funding/ and https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/ahrc-collaborative-doctoral-partnership-cdp-studentship-informing-our-heritage-future-s-preserving-our-digital-past-s/?p132280

The deadline for applications is 31^st May 2021 and the studentship period is four years.