Bim and Beyond

Ido de Boer started at Bim&Beyond 2,5 years ago as BIM coordinator. We talk to Ido about his background, his career and his vision for Bim&Beyond.

'My name is Ido de Boer. I am a BIM coordinator at Bim&Beyond. This means that I am basically involved in everything that has to do with BIM, both internally and externally. For example, I help set up projects, come up with more efficient ways to work with BIM and monitor the BIM quality. External BIM coordination consists mainly of writing BIM implementation plans and checking BIM models. As a senior team member, I mainly have a supporting role within the team. This suits me well."

I grew up in a small village near the IJsselmeer. Growing up with water, space and greenery nearby was great, but as soon as I could, the big city beckoned. I have always been interested in both art and technology, so after my final exams I left for Amsterdam to study architecture. I deliberately chose the HTS in order to have a good technical background for designing later at TU.

During one of my first jobs after the TU I came into contact with BIM and Revit in 2005. The agency where I worked received an assignment for the new construction of a large hospital. The condition was that it had to be modeled in BIM. Because until then we had only worked with Autocad and Arkey and BIM was still in its infancy in the Netherlands, this was quite a challenge.

Purchasing software and pioneering!

The enthusiasm and experience I gained here was later used as an independent BIM expert to work on various beautiful projects. It was instructive to do projects of varying scale and complexity for different types of clients (private individuals, architects and contractors). One such assignment was a BIM coordination project for k-support, the forerunner of Bim & Beyond.

After 10 years of self-employment and the need to work with a team in a nice studio environment, I immediately thought of Bim & Beyond. And so it happened.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve our working methods. In addition, managing our team provides enough challenge and that is what makes my job so enjoyable. Also, the diversity of the work and the great stories make for a great working atmosphere.

If we look at our work at the moment, we spend about 80% of our time on modeling and only 20% on coming up with architectural solutions. My goal is to turn this around in the coming years by using BIM smartly. In addition, we are working hard to get Bim&Beyond in the list of the top 10 best BIM engineering agencies in the Netherlands.

If I could give advice to people who are just starting their journey in the world of BIM; don't be afraid to make mistakes. In my career, I have built my BIM expertise by gaining experience. The best learning experience is practice. Try to run with projects as much as possible. Take responsibility, that's where you learn the most.'