Benefits of Building Information Modelling in the Project Lifecycle: Construction Projects in Asia

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a process involving the creation and management of objective data with property, unique identity and relationship. In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, BIM is adopted a lot in the lifecycle of buildings because of the high integration of information that it enables. Four-dimensional (4D) computer-aided design (CAD) has been adopted for many years to improve the construction planning process. BIM is adopted throughout buildings’ lifecycles, in design, construction and operation. This paper presents five large-scale public and financial projects that adopt BIM in the design, construction and operational phases. Different uses of BIM are compared and contrasted in the context of the separate backgrounds. It is concluded that productivity is improved where BIM is used to enable easy sharing and integration of information and convenient collaboration

Project-based pedagogy in interdisciplinary building design adopting BIM

Purpose – This study aims to present a pedagogical practice in the project-based assessment of AEC students’ interdisciplinary building design work adopting BIM. This pedagogical practice emphasizes the impacts of BIM, as the digital collaboration platform, on the cross-disciplinary teamwork design through information sharing. This study also focuses on collecting students’ perceptions of BIM effects in integrated project design. Challenges in BIM adoption from AEC students’ perspective were identified and discussed, and could spark further research needs. Design/Methodology/Approach – Based on a thorough review of previous pedagogical practices of applying BIM in multiple AEC disciplines, this study adopted a case study of the Solar Decathlon residential building design as the group project for AEC students to deliver the design work and construction planning. In total 13 different teams within the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, each group consisting of final year undergraduate students with backgrounds in architecture, civil engineering, and architectural environmental engineering, worked to deliver the detailed design of the solar-powered residential house meeting pre-specified project objectives in terms of architectural aesthetics, structural integrity, energy efficiency, prefabrication construction techniques, and other issues such as budget and scheduling. Each team presented the cross-disciplinary design plan with cost estimate and construction scheduling together with group reports. This pedagogical study collected students’ reflective thinking on how BIM affected their design work, and compared their feedback on BIM to that from AEC industry professionals in previous studies. Findings – The case study of the Solar Decathlon building project showed the capacity of BIM in enabling interdisciplinary collaboration through information exchange and in enhancing communication across different AEC fields. More sustainable design options were considered in the early architectural design stages through the cross-disciplinary cooperation between architecture and building services engineering. BIM motivated AEC student teams to have a more comprehensive design and construction plan by considering multiple criteria including energy efficiency, budget, and construction activities. Students’ reflections indicated both positive effects of BIM (e.g., facilitating information sharing) as well as challenges for further BIM implementation, such as some architecture students’ resistance to BIM, and the lack of existing family types in the BIM library, etc. Research limitations/implications – Some limitations of the current BIM pedagogy were identified through the student group work. For example, students revealed the problem of interoperability between BIM (i.e., Autodesk Revit) and building energy simulation tools. To further integrate the university education and AEC industry practice, future BIM pedagogical work could recruit professionals and project stakeholders in the adopted case studies, for the purpose of providing professional advice on improving the constructability of the BIM-based design from student work. Originality/value – This work provides insights into the information technology applied in the AEC interdisciplinary pedagogy. Students gained the experience of a project-based collaboration and were equipped with BIM capabilities for future employment within the AEC job market. The integrated design approach was embedded throughout the team project process. Overall, this BIM pedagogical practice emphasized the link between academic activities and real-world industrial practice. The pedagogical experience gained in this BIM course could be expanded to future BIM education and research in other themes such as interoperability of building information exchange among different digital tools

Architectural Design of School Buildings in the View of Concepts and Applications of Artificial Intelligence

An enormous amount of data is usually needed for the design in the early phases of projects. Right now, computational tools are accessible to help the designer use data and information quickly and effectively to do this. Artificial intelligence, or AI,is a recent field of study that uses, analyzes, and manipulates data to complete tasks and reach goals. Modeling, anomaly detection, association, and grouping are just a few of the many sub-fields that make up the current state of AI, The goal of the current study is to make clear the benefits of using AI into architectural design and to motivate architects to begin doing so. A two-pronged approach is used to achieve this: showcasing the relevant literature and the applicable and desired project. Therefore, the continued promotion and implementation of new computer technologies, such as BIM technology, have had an inescapable significant impact on the Egyptian building sector. In this work, we provide the experiments using the Revit program and their conclusions based on the amount of college education. The architectural design major at higher vocational institutions has seen significant changes at this time. The educational objectives of the institution don\u27t align with the field of architectural design\u27s recent growth. We outline the most recent research on BIM-based architecture education in this article. We contrasted the various software programs used in the education sector, including CAD, SketchUp, and Revit. As a consequence of the experiments and projects using the Revit program during instruction, we receive a BIM competency certificate

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Application for a Section of Bologna’s Red Tramway Line

New technologies such as the I-BIM (Infrastructure Building Information Modeling) are radically changing the infrastructure design and construction sector. In this study, the I-BIMapproach has been used for the design of a portion of the future Bologna’s Red Tramway Line. Starting from the topographical survey of the area, a “federated” model was created, aggregating in a single digital environment all the models inherent to the individual disciplines involved. Interference analysis (Clash Detection) between the various disciplines was performed, subject to the preparation of a coordination matrix and the temporal simulation of the worksite phases (BIM4D). The results have shown that the I-BIMapproach represents a powerful tool for optimizing and validating infrastructure design, allowing users to see how the infrastructure integrates and fits into the real 3D environmental context

BIM implementation in architectural practices : towards advanced collaborative approaches based on digital technologies

We are at a stage where Building Information Modelling (BIM) has reached a maturity level to be widely adopted by the professionals and organizations within the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. An industry which is highly fragmented and not advanced in terms of digitalization, making an effective collaboration hard to achieve. The advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought about the promise of improving collaborative procedure in a wide range of industries. The widespread adoption of BIM has paved the way for the introduction of ICT within the AEC sector. The reported benefits of BIM imply on its potential for contributing to a successful inter-disciplinary collaboration. This calls for attention from architects who shall consider how BIM allows the architectural practices to operate in truly novel ways to achieve new building efficiencies and organizations. This research was designed to investigate the crucial factors for an effective collaboration based on advanced ICT and enabled by BIM with respect to architectural practices. An effective inter-disciplinary collaboration allows architects as the authors of the projects to oversee the development and delivery of the projects more consistently with their design intends. The concerns about the move towards adopting BIM by architectural firms were reviewed and its influential factors and barriers were discussed. As we read about it, BIM is indicated by different terms to describe its essence: ‘’BIM methodology’’, ‘’BIM technology’’, ‘’BIM process’’, ‘’BIM systems’’ and etc. However, none of these terms can include all aspects of BIM. The term ‘’ecosystem’’ was adopted to describe the nature of BIM and the reason for which is described in this work. To further constitute the BIM ecosystem, its dimensions of People, Products and Processes were presented in detail with respect to collaborative procedures. It included the delineation of a number of BIM policies and protocols, tools and technologies, roles and skills which are all related to and suitable for architectural practices in their interdisciplinary collaboration. Through three case studies, the research questions and hypothesis were put into investigation. Based on the idea of change management and the socio-technical nature of BIM collaboration, a qualitative research approach was adopted. Various techniques were used to gather information to be analyzed through a coding process of the qualitative data. The codes were interpreted as the factors influencing collaboration and were grouped to form the crucial concepts contributing to effective BIM-enabled collaborative procedures. It was revealed that the “joint decision making” factor is the most crucial one in this respect followed by “collaboration involvement” and “interoperability”. These findings were based on the frequency of the codes related to these factors in the data analysis. The crucial concepts in BIM-enabled collaboration were revealed to be “collaboration conditions” followed by “software capacity” and “human resources organization”. The findings confirm the research hypotheses that BIM implementation asks architects to assume a leadership role in collaborative procedures and that it allows for the integration of ICT into the technological pipeline of architectural practices. However, the validity of the two hypotheses is subject to certain conditions that are discussed in this work. The research finds the area of BIM education a place of great interest for future research work as the factor of “training” has a great influence on the overall success of BIM-enabled collaboration. Furthermore, it was revealed that the crucial factor of “interoperability” needs more attention from both industry and academic sectors. The impacts of BIM implementation on existing and emerging roles within the industry is another area of great interest for future works and research.Estamos en una etapa en la que Building Information Modeling (BIM) ha alcanzado un nivel de madurez que será ampliamente adoptado por el Profesionales y organizaciones dentro de la industria de Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Construcción (AIC). Una industria que es altamente fragmentado y no avanzado en términos de digitalización, lo que hace que una colaboración efectiva sea difícil de lograr. Los avances en las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) han traído la promesa de mejorar la colaboración Procedimiento en una amplia gama de industrias. La adopción generalizada de BIM ha allanado el camino para la introducción de las TIC en el sector de la AIC. Los beneficios reportados de BIM implican en su potencial para contribuir a un éxito interdisciplinario colaboración. Esto requiere la atención de arquitectos que deben considerar cómo BIM permite que las prácticas arquitectónicas operen en formas verdaderamente novedosas para lograr nuevas eficiencias de construcción y organizaciones. Esta investigación fue diseñada para investigar los factores cruciales para una colaboración efectiva basada en TIC avanzadas y habilitado por BIM con respecto a las prácticas arquitectónicas. Una colaboración interdisciplinaria efectiva permite a los arquitectos como autores de los proyectos para supervisar el desarrollo y la entrega de los proyectos de manera más coherente con sus propósitos de diseño. Se revisaron las preocupaciones sobre el movimiento hacia la adopción de BIM por parte de las empresas de arquitectura y sus factores influyentes y Se discutieron las barreras. A medida que leemos sobre esto, BIM se indica mediante diferentes términos para describir su esencia: "metodología BIM", "Tecnología BIM", "Proceso BIM", "Sistemas BIM" y etc. Sin embargo, ninguno de estos términos puede incluir todos los aspectos de BIM. El término "ecosistema" se adoptó para describir la naturaleza de BIM y la razón por la cual se describe en este trabajo. A más constituyen el ecosistema BIM, sus dimensiones de Personas, Productos y Procesos se presentaron en detalle con respecto a procedimientos colaborativos. Incluía la delineación de una serie de políticas y protocolos BIM, herramientas y tecnologías, roles y habilidades que están relacionadas y son adecuadas para las prácticas arquitectónicas en su colaboración interdisciplinaria. A través de tres estudios de caso, las preguntas de investigación y la hipótesis se pusieron en investigación. Basado en la idea de cambio. La gestión y la naturaleza sociotécnica de la colaboración BIM, se adoptó un enfoque de investigación cualitativa. Varios se utilizaron técnicas para recopilar información para analizarla a través de un proceso de codificación de los datos cualitativos. Los codigos fueron interpretados como los factores que influyen en la colaboración y se agruparon para formar los conceptos cruciales que contribuyen a la eficacia procedimientos colaborativos habilitados por BIM. Se reveló que el factor de "toma de decisiones conjunta" es el más crucial en este sespeto seguido de "participación colaborativa" e "interoperabilidad". Estos hallazgos se basaron en la frecuencia de códigos relacionados con estos factores en el análisis de datos. Los conceptos cruciales en la colaboración habilitada por BIM se revelaron como "Condiciones de colaboración" seguidas de "capacidad de software" y "organización de recursos humanos". Los hallazgos confirman la investigar las hipótesis de que la implementación BIM les pide a los arquitectos que asuman un papel de liderazgo en los procedimientos de colaboración y que permite la integración de las TIC en la línea tecnológica de las prácticas arquitectónicas. La investigación considera que el área de educación BIM es un lugar de gran interés para futuros trabajos de investigación, ya que el factor de "capacitación" tiene un gran influencia en el éxito generalPostprint (published version

A review of cloud-based bim technology in the construction sector

Cloud computing technology is regarded as a major transformational force that is causing unprecedented change across the communication and business disciplines. In the architecture, engineering and construction sector, cloud-BIM integration is considered to be the second generation of building information management (BIM) development, and is expected to produce another wave of change across the construction industry. Despite this, few studies to date have attempted to summarise the research literature on cloud-BIM. This paper explores the literature to identify the substantive work on cloud-BIM, particularly regarding building life cycle management, to provide valuable insight for practitioners and to propose avenues for further research. Thirty academic sources, including refereed journal articles and conference papers, were retrieved and analysed in terms of their research focus and nature of application. The review revealed that most cloud-BIM research has focused on the building planning/design and construction stages. The findings suggest that more research should be directed towards operation, maintenance and facility management, energy efficiency and the demolition and deconstruction stages of building life cycle management. Further empirical research on organisational and legal issues, including security, responsibility, liability and model ownership, of the cloud-BIM model is also needed