BIM, IM, The Golden Thread, And The Value Of Information

In today’s construction industry, BIM, IM, and the Golden Thread are increasingly crucial for buildings and infrastructure.

Understanding what they mean and how they interrelate is essential – as their practical adoption helps to meet competence standards and legal requirements, and to ensure assets are future-proofed, in a world where reliable information is increasingly becoming the gold standard for the built environment.

Differentiating between BIM, IM and the Golden Thread

Each of these is a vast topic on its own, but it boils down to:

• BIM is for Building Information Modelling. It's the digital information relating to a built asset. It's not just 3D models - it's actually about the sum total of all the digital information relating to the asset, like specifications, documents, and other data. This is then used during the asset's design, construction and operation to make reliable decisions throughout the asset's lifecycle, from concept to demolition or repurposing.
• IM is for Information Management. While BIM is about the information relating to the built asset, IM is about how that information and, more broadly, any information concerning the built and managed environment is created, exchanged, recorded, and organised throughout the asset's lifecycle. In the rest of this article, we'll refer to IM rather than BIM to represent the broader concept and value of information (and because BIM is often erroneously considered to only be about an asset's design and build stages).
• Golden Thread is for the golden thread of information that legislation requires for higher-risk buildings (HRBs). Essentially, under building safety laws, HRBs are buildings at least 18m or seven storeys high, containing two or more residential units (with exceptions). By law, a golden thread of information must be created and maintained for HRBs to pass through the building control gateway process mandated by the Building Safety Act, and is maintained throughout its lifecycle thereafter. This is a digital, up‑to‑date record of safety‑critical information for that HRB, maintained to demonstrate regulatory compliance and manage fire and structural safety risks. (Examples of information it could include are here.)

In a nutshell, BIM is digital information about an asset, IM is how digital information is managed, and the Golden Thread is a digital record of safety-critical information required by law for HRBs.

Imperfect overlaps, and the missed chance to perfect it

There is considerable overlap between BIM, IM, and the Golden Thread in terms of managing and recording information, but they are not perfectly aligned. Each has its own scope and priorities.

Also the Golden Thread was established far more recently than BIM and IM – becoming a legal requirement in 2023 (whereas BIM PAS-1192 standards were published in 2013, and the international standard ISO-19650 that replaced PAS-1192 and focussed more on IM was published in 2018).

The golden opportunity to tie the Golden Thread in with IM was potentially missed here. Had this been done, the benefits could have been considerable.

That being said, changes ushering in the new building safety regime came thick and fast in 2023, with laws being drafted and introduced at speed. There was probably little time for the construction sector to explore how the information collected as the Golden Thread could be standardised and aligned with other information depositories such as the information collected by the Building Safety Regulator and the creation and maintenance of Project and then Asset Information Models as part of the (B)IM process.

Now, though, those in charge of creating, organising and managing information about HRBs may find it is well worth looking into standardisation of IM processes to see how it can assist with their Golden Thread obligations. This would extend beyond just using the BIM model as a basis for the Golden Thread requirements and would look to use the Golden Thread as a vehicle to accelerate the adoption of sector-wide, standardised classifications and processes. The benefits would of course extend to non-HRBs too. The Information Management Initiative currently being developed by nima would also significantly help to facilitate this development. 

Information worth its weight in gold

Looking towards the future of the built environment, with impetus from the new building safety regime, there is a growing recognition of the value of information.

Think about buying a car, and how one with a full service record is more desirable than one without.

Now think about buying, renting or managing a building - and how one with a complete digital record could help you understand when and how it was built, what materials were used, where services or fire protection measures are, when repairs or maintenance were carried out and by whom. The information could even extend to environmental and sustainability factors. Information adds real value.

We will see a greater appreciation of this in our increasingly digital construction industry. We will grow accustomed to the benefits of the Golden Thread, and start extending these information practices to non-HRBs. We will appreciate how having fuller information about existing buildings before carrying out further works to them can reduce risk and increase efficiencies. And we will value understanding what is in our buildings increasingly, as we see more building safety-related cases in the courts.

Eventually, more information will be gathered, be better managed, and be more highly valued - and the construction industry and everyone involved in the built environment (including those living and working in it) will be better off.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.