Dr.Llewellyn Tang, the head of the Department of Architecture Environment Engineering of UNNC and Director of D-CiTi Lab, and Mr. Yin Qiang, Senior Assistant of President of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co., Ltd, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of strategic cooperation on behalf of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Wanda Commercial Planning Institute. To witness this event came, leaders from BSI, UNNC and other attendees. Two organizations will conduct cooperation on enterprise standard setting, BIM management training, BIM communication with British companies and world leading BIM research. The cooperation will deepen the life cycle BIM application and accelerate the design of BIM management and implementation standards. It is believed that it will also have a positive impact on the Digitalization of Chinese construction industry and the ultimate realization of Smart City concept.

During his keynote speech, Dr.Tang announced that D-CiTi Lab will work with Wanda and other partners to deliver a Sino-British joint report on BIM development. The report will focus on the current development of BIM in Chinese AEC industry and dig the potential opportunity for BIM development to enhance the BIM development and digitalization and informatization in China.

Digital City Infrastructure and Technology Innovation Laboratory (D-CiTi Lab) is a living lab that integrates research and innovation on BIM and Smart City development. Its process integrates both user-centered research and open innovation via multidisciplinary researchers, having Architecture, Built Environment, Civil Engineering, Surveying, Computer Sciences and Geographical Sciences disciplines, clients, Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies, international professional institutions and global software vendors.This laboratory is supported by extensive state-of-art modern equipment and keyexperts in the University of Nottingham and other associated pioneering work of researchers and practitioners. It aims to engage in problem discovery and solution design with leading users, developers and adopters of BIM, further to develop code of BIM in China based on the Digital Built Britain (DBB), which involve code of BIM application, code of BIM storage, code of BIM delivery and code of BIM classification, and more importantly to address the agenda of Smart City and Digital Built Britain.

British Standards Institution (BSI) and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) jointly develop a Building Information Modelling (BIM) management training courses with the purpose of cultivating senior BIM managerial talents who are leading the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. With the focus on bringing in internationally recognized BIM national standards from the UK into China, both parties hope to introduce the life cycle BIM management experiences and best practices to the AEC industry, to provide the industry elites with leading-edge learning resources on BIM management, to improve the core capabilities of BIM management, and to ultimately broaden their horizon regarding the development and contextualizing of BIM and Digital Built into the sector.

UNNC has a great expectation of the cooperation with Wanda. As the Director of D-CiTiLab, Dr.Tang commented: “In current situation, most BIM pioneers cannot gain a direct financial benefit from BIM application. It is a forward-thinking and ambitious decision for Wanda to seek for the breakthrough in digitalization and to lead the whole supply chain to a digital world. I believe it brings benefits not only to Chinese BIM development, but also has a great influence on digitalization of Chinese AEC industry and the realization of Smart City.”

Dr.Tang also expressed that D-CiTi Lab is looking for more chances to collaborate with other pioneers to accelerate the process of Digitalization. He said: “Construction Digitalization is a breakthrough in individual and industry transformation that embraces and facilitates collaboration, integration and innovation. E=MC²; CD = CI²”