The European openBIM Forum initiative is an association of several European buildingSMART chapters at the political level, including Germany, which has set itself the clear goal of harmonizing standards in the construction and real estate industry. The focus is less on new developments and more on the sensible structuring, classification, and synchronization of existing standards. This is an important step toward making openBIM consistent, interoperable, and future-proof across Europe.

Our Chairman of the Board and bSD Talk host Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cornelius Preidel discusses how this is being done with Steen Sunesen from buildingSMART Norway and the European openBIM Forum in episode #34.

One of the key challenges for the initiative is to find the right balance between regulation or standardization and the necessary freedom.

The first framework to be developed was “BIM Harmony”, which has already been adopted by some of the participating countries. It is publicly available and can be downloaded free of charge.

The files support the application of established procedures at the country level and show, among other things, how information models can be transferred to a facility management system. In the future, the framework will be further developed into a kind of toolbox, explains Steen Sunesen, which will offer targeted guidance and support. This offering will also include paid content, but will offer special benefits for buildingSMART members.

More information about the European openBIM Forum here.