Mark Homminga

Mark graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where he majored in architectural design. He practiced as an interior designer for eight years before switching to architecture in 2006. He subsequently worked as a project manager at a number of firms, including OD205 Architects, Van Heerden and Partners and Atelier PRO. It was at the last of these that Mark discovered BIM, a working method that allows architects to create digital models that everyone involved in a project’s development can work on.

“I started out as an interior designer, but architecture captured my attention when I was at a place that did both. The discipline struck me as both more interesting and more challenging than what I’d done before. Besides, I’d already developed a deep interest in technology and had begun to suspect that I was more of a problem solver than a designer.

Then in 2008, while at Atelier PRO, I was assigned as project manager to the construction of a large hospital that we were to develop with BIM. That was my introduction to this virtual method of construction, and executing the assignment meant working intensively with Revit, whose multidisciplinary facility complemented the firm's collaborative approach."

Mark was so struck by the benefits of the method that he decided to become a Revit and BIM specialist. He is now the BIM Manager at Paul de Ruiter Architects and devises our BIM strategy on a variety of projects.

“Mark my word, the verb ‘to bim’ will soon enter the dictionary, because the future of construction is virtual. That said, the level of confidence with which the various parties can get involved on a BIM project depends a great deal on the quality of your model. The neater your model, the smoother the process. My proudest BIM projects are the Breda Courthouse, Lelystad Airport, the NPD development in Overvecht and Unilever. I remember my contact at Dura Vermeer, the contractor on the last of these, remarking that it was the first time that they’d received a model so straightforward that they could get to work immediately. That’s ultimately what I aim for.”