Fixby Hall Case study: Research report

This report presents the main findings of Fixby Hall case study which study the potential of using Building Information Management (BIM) as an innovative method to manage historical buildings’ life cycle. Fixby Hall was chosen as case study due to its relevance as historical building and its suitability to adopt HBIM for its future interventions.
This case study developed by the PhD candidate Isabel Jordan, (Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain), and supervised by Professor Tzortzopoulos, (University of Huddersfield, UK), is part of the doctoral thesis entitled “Method to manage heritage buildings’ interventions using BIM” developed by Isabel Jordan and supervised by Professor Jorge L. García Valldecabres and Professor Eugenio Pellicer Armiñana.
BIM has been used in architecture, construction and sustainability with successful results (Barnes & Davies, 2014). The benefits of applying BIM to historical buildings have been recently studied (Volk et. al, 2014) as Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM) (Murphy et. al, 2009). Recent research indicates that even though BIM technology is well developed, the processes and the human resources adaptation to HBIM need further study (Mondragon et. al., 2015; Zekabat et.al., 2015; Boeykens et. al., 2012; Brumana et. al, 2014).
The aim of the case study with Fixby Hall is to (1) obtain information about the traditional work processes in the historical buildings in order to improve an initially developed method to manage the historical buildings’ life cycle with HBIM (Fig.5); (2) to make the method more user-friendly; and (3) to validate it from its potential user’s perspective.
Fixby Hall could benefit of this HBIM Method having a helpful guidance for its future interventions and knowing the possible benefits of applying HBIM to this historical building.
The data collected through the Fixby Hall case study was obtained from different companies and stakeholders involved with the building in the past and/or present. Those are: a Real Estate company, Huddersfield Golf Club (HGC), an architectural studio, an interior design company, a planning consultant company and a local construction company.
The main findings around Fixby Hall are described in part 3, including:
o History summary and Existing use of Fixby Hall
o Existing stakeholders involved in intervention projects at Fixby Hall
o Past refurbishment’s approaches at Fixby Hall
o Difficulties identified in previous interventions at Fixby Hall
o Existing building information system at Fixby Hall
o BIM applied to Fixby Hall
The findings show a high level of collaboration between stakeholders, ordered processes and clear structures. The aspects that could be further developed include the lack of HBIM implementation and the lack of a central digital archive system.
The conclusions of the report demonstrate benefits in the possible HBIM application to Fixby Hall and the useful HBIM approaches to this historical building’s management.
The main findings around the proposed HBIM Method are also presented in part 3 and include:
o Difficulties for small restoration companies to adapt to the HBIM Method
o UK legislative frame is perceived to slow BIM adoption
o The HBIM Method needs to add the structural study as a complement for the Laser scanner
o The HBIM Method needs to define who documents the model with the construction and maintenance data
o The HBIM Method requires stakeholders with BIM skills
o The HBIM Method needs to define the HBIM model’s levels of maturity
The summary of the HBIM Method’s findings indicated the necessity to simplify the method, increase its scope to include the whole life-cycle of the buildings and make it more flexible to different project’s scales and resources.