Jan Karlshøj
Chapter: Danish
Role: buildingSMART Denmark Fellow
Where do you live? Virum / Copenhagen
Work history:
Partner, Gravicon DK
Head of Section, Technical University of Denmark
Senior consultant, Ramboll Denmark
CAD-Manager, Carl Bro Denmark
Structural Engineer, Malmstrøm
How long have you been involved in openBIM and buildingSMART? Since 1996
What do you like the most about your work in your chapter? Working together with colleagues from different domains that are sharing the same vision as buildingSMART.
The greatest success achieved within your chapter? The most significant success was the IFC mandate by law as the first country in the world in 2007 in public projects. The mandate was the outcome of the national public-private funded development program "Digital Construction ".
What does openBIM mean to you? The ability to share rich digital information related to the built environment to whomever you want regardless of how the information was generated.
What is the biggest challenge the community is facing today? Organisations in the industry become too dependent on proprietary solutions providers and ignore alternative solutions or miss potential opportunities to improve their performance.
What challenges do you encounter in your country? The lack of willingness to persistent invest in developing buildingSMART solutions. There is so much to do and an acceptance of the potential benefits, but also a belief that the solutions will be developed regardless if the individual company contributes or not.
What are the main opportunities for your market? Denmark adopted BIM years ago and is at the forefront of digitalisation in general. Denmark is a perfect test site for digital solutions providers that can demonstrate gains for the clients, authorities and the industry.
Digitalisation is more and more present today; what do you do in your chapter to meet the challenges it poses:
BIM was introduced in education years ago, and the mandate for IFC in public projects has paved the road for the broad adoption of BIM in Denmark. Molio's ICT contracts have been used voluntarily at national levels for decades and stimulated IFC's use. Trade associations have included digital tasks into their standard services. Clients and trade associations have agreed to introduced digital aspects in templates for standard contracts.
What vision, as a chapter leader, would you give to the whole community? The community must demonstrate leadership and make the right long-term solution instead of quick fixes. We have to commit ourselves to develop sustainable digital solutions to replace individual sponsored projects that only make sharing information more difficult in the future.
What is your overall vision of the future? My vision is to create and maintain a sustainable built environment where access to relevant information stimulate making the right decisions.
Would you like to add something else?
The clients have a unique role in the construction industry compared to other industries and are must act as change agents. I am pleased to see how infrastructure clients' involvement has stimulated the development and deployment of buildingSMART solutions in that domain.
Website URL: http://www.gravicon.dk/
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jankarlshoej/
Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/Jan_Karlshoej
Resumé: Short resume (50 words)
I have been active in buildingSMART since the Nordic Chapter was established and honoured to serve buildingSMART international in different roles. I genuinely believe that openBIM can provide a better and more sustainable built environment and provide opportunities for service providers to be profitable.