The practice of interdisciplinary design in Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled projects: A workplace study

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is believed to enable significant efficiency improvements in interdisciplinary design in construction. This is mainly based on the rhetoric of BIM dominated by promoting its capabilities for data transactions. However, literature shows that there are problems in applying BIM technologies in practice, because their use causes unanticipated shifts in the focus and organisation of design projects. Furthermore, changes wrought by applied BIM technologies transcend the boundaries of the organisation of individual projects, and displace the previous ethos of ‘professionalism’ in design in construction. Consequently, there is unresolved confusion and evaluation about BIM technologies in terms of the nature and extent of the change they create. The present research aims to develop a better-informed understanding of BIM-driven change in design in construction through an empirical study of ‘organising’ and ‘order’ in BIM-enabled interdisciplinary design projects. Using a practice-based methodology, this research focused on the interdisciplinary interactions during three projects. A practice-based methodology sees ‘organising ‘and ‘order ‘as continuously accomplished through the ongoing activities that are performed in practices. Therefore, the research scrutinised the interdisciplinary activities and processes which look mundane but enable ‘organising’, and ‘order ‘in the studied projects. Three explanatory organisational concepts are developed through the analyses of the empirical data: ‘organisational premises’, ‘purposeful artefact’, and ‘technological premises’. These concepts provide three different explanations about how ‘organising ‘interdisciplinary design in BIM-enabled projects is accomplished through the ongoing interdisciplinary activities performed in practices. Thus, they produce rich understanding of the complex organisational phenomena. Interdisciplinary design development is then seen as a ‘continuous process of (re-)establishing a shared sense of purposefulness ‘among the members of a design team, which largely depends on previous shared experiences. This continuous requirement for mutual dependency does not align well with the operational characteristics of BIM technologies, which are fundamentally planned and rigid. Therefore, practitioners experience divergent views of ‘organising’ (i.e. and ‘work’) in BIM-enabled projects. The ‘ordering ‘induced by BIM technologies appears in the interface of these different views of ‘organising’(and ‘work'), as it is here that practices unfold, and become directed towards one or other view. In such cases, the extent to which information modelling and design development can be prioritised is determined by the level of reliance on technology, and the level of authority of those individuals who are in control of the BIM technologies. The practice-based understandings of ‘organising ‘and ‘order ‘that emerge from the analyses are used herein to refine the notions of ‘design’, ‘design collaboration’, ‘use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in construction design’, and ‘CT-driven change in construction design’. Thus, the practice-based methodology reveals that some of the main arguments upon which the promotional rhetoric of BIM is founded are incomplete or flawed. Through its methodological and theoretical contributions, the present research evaluated BIM-driven change in design in construction, and created an agenda for further critical and practically-relevant studies into interdisciplinary design in construction. This shows the need for further research which should re-establish the use and development of BIM by aligning it with the realities of actual practice

Politics of social value in the built environment

The built environment can have a major impact on people’s economic prospects, health and wellbeing, and affect their everyday lived experiences. Additionally, due to their high costs, construction investments, which shape the built environment, involve high opportunity costs for society. Following from an increasing awareness of these issues, social value has become a rapidly growing area of research and practice in the built environment, accompanied by policy interest. Despite its popularity, theoretical engagement with the concept of ‘social value’ has been very limited. Particularly, so far, the politics emerging from subjectivity of value(s) have been either ignored or mentioned in a broad-brushed manner. However, the politics need to be considered at the core of any debates relating to social value due to the tensions between different views involved in conceptualising/analysing, creating/implementing and realising/experiencing social value. To address this gap, this paper introduces three types of politics of social value: analytical politics, participatory politics and lived politics. By clarifying these types of politics that are key to any social value consideration in the built environment, this will allow a deeper and more democratic engagement with the concept of social value

Project value as practice: Interactive valuation practices in architectural design projects

In project research, value has been conceptualized either as something subjective in peoples’ minds or as an objective reality. However, in practice, project actors encounter, express, and negotiate value both subjectively (e.g., as ideals and beliefs) and objectively (e.g., as the price) depending on the evolving circumstances of real-life situations. To capture the project value phenomenon from project actors’ perspective, we adopt a projects-as-practice approach on project value, which puts the emphasis on the activity, process or practice of valuation rather than on value as something in itself. This suggests that project value must be understood with a focus on valuation practices, through which various project actors express what they value, and through which they evaluate the alternative ways of proceeding with the project tasks in hand. Using practice-level interaction data from three projects in an architectural practice, we reveal three nexuses of interrelated valuation practices with distinct practical rationalities, through which various considerations of project actors manifest themselves and get resolved in different ways. We argue that these valuation practices combined create an ongoing process of reconciliation in the observed projects and enact project value on an ongoing basis. We discuss how the cross-cutting issues of relational constitution of valuation practices, temporality as well as power relationships configure the practical rationality of valuation practices, thus determining the enacted project value. Our study complements the existing research on project value by establishing project value as practice, and by highlighting relational constitution, temporality, and power as key issues for the study of the project value phenomenon

Understanding the polarized perspectives in BIM enabled projects

Successful implementation and use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) require consideration of people issues. Two polarised views of BIM are shown from the literature based on technology-centred or human-centred perspectives each of which acknowledges the other but subsumes this into their view. Indeed it is the way that each adopts the other that is problematic. This paper demonstrates that acknowledging these differences and working with them better addresses the management of the implementation of BIM. Empirical findings, from in-depth interviews in a multi-disciplinary engineering company, show that individuals use BIM but are confused by its role depending on their job and perspective. Given this, collaboration and development are held back by the un-expressed differences. It is argued that recognising these differences and using them in a balanced way is essential for the successful adoption of BIM

Semantic correction, enrichment and enhancement of social and transport infrastructure BIM models

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) models in the design, construction and operation of buildings and infrastructure is leading to a stronger focus on the quality of the models. Models may need correction, enrichment or enhancement to meet the expectations for quality and completeness, especially if models are to be taken as legal documents, for example for regulatory approval. Past work on semantic development has looked at specific scenarios such as scanned geometry or missing classification. This paper describes an innovative unified approach to the documentation of semantic expectations by actors in the AECO (Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Operations) domain and the means to put them into effect. RASE (Requirements, Applications, Selections and Exceptions) semantic mark-up is used to make both the requirements and any supporting resources both human-readable and machine-operable. Two example models from industry, a motorway bridge and a healthcare space, are used to demonstrate applying geometric, schema and classification knowledge. This knowledge is represented in a number of different styles. This extends our understanding of the nature of the knowledge found in dictionaries, classifications and development specifications, demonstrating how this knowledge can be made operable. This bridges the gap between the application of static compliance knowledge and the accurate and efficient application of correction, enrichment and enhancement knowledge

Innovative Capability of Building Information Modeling in Construction Design

The construction industry has long been urged to innovate, but innovation has been elusive because of the inherent social and organizational complexity of construction. Therefore, developing insight into the practice of innovating is needed to better understand and perform innovation in construction. Focusing on the practice of innovating requires exploring the enabling capability of solutions for practitioners to establish novel ways of doing things for improvement, referred to as ‘innovative capability.’ Building information modeling (BIM) has been promoted as an enabler of innovation in construction design because of its data management capabilities and the opportunities for interdisciplinary work based on them. Nevertheless, previous work presents divergent results exploring what BIM technologies can do for people and what people can actually do in BIM-enabled design practices, which presents confusion about the innovative capability of BIM. This paper aims to establish the basis of this confusion as a necessary step in developing more realistic ways of assessing and exploiting this capability. A conceptual continuum is proposed based on the functionalist/technology-centered and nonfunctionalist/human-centered perspectives on BIM to consider divergent arguments about its innovative capability; this continuum is used to analyze empirical findings from BIM-enabled design practices. The analyses suggest that individuals use BIM but are confused about its innovative capability because they adopt different views of BIM depending on their job and perspective. Given this, innovation is held back by the unexpressed differences between the views of BIM adopted by various practitioners who have to work together. It is argued that recognizing these differences, and working toward their reconciliation, is the way forward in establishing and exploiting the innovative capability of BIM

Leveraging collaboration through the use of building information models

Building information models are a major new means of design information communication and therefore they are of primary importance for successful design collaboration. However, in addition to communicating the design information, models are used in many different situations for different purposes by different stakeholders at different stages in construction projects. The developing model is a result of the different situations encountered in its production through the interaction of stakeholders. Consequently, it is important to evaluate different uses of models by different stakeholders collectively in order to understand the implications of these differences on models and therefore on design collaboration. The paper investigates this through two educational building projects and establishes the origins of these differences to identify how particular situations affect the developing model. Findings suggest that a successful collective use of models requires structure and planning but these plans need to be adapted to the situations in order to enable collaboration

Value implication of digital transformation: the impact of the commodification of information

The transforming construction agenda argues that digitalization enables better value by addressing coordination challenges. However, this claim poorly articulates how value is constituted, and ignores the problems with digitalization in real-life practices. The paper presents a finer-grained analysis of the value implications of digitalization in a critical discourse, organized in two parts, using the two value creation logics in construction as proposed by Bygballe and Jahre and the concept of “commodification” as proposed by Prudham. Through a critical literature review, the first part argues that digitalization mainly supports “production value creation logic” focussing on the integration of business processes at an organizational level, while creating challenges for “project value creation logic” by hampering mutual adjustment in situated practices. The second part conceives of digitalization as “commodification of information” to expose the complex set of processes causing digitalization to impact differently on the two value creation logics. It reveals that digitalization elevates the digital exchange value of information above its situated use value, and so, it systematically shifts the social and business contexts of coordination. Thus, digitalization shifts what, how, by whom and to whose advantage, value is created and captured, making it a politicized change with implications for management and policy