BIM solutions for construction lifecycle- A myth or a tangible future?

Abstract

Building information Modelling (BIM) lies at the centre of construction industry’s interest nowadays, with a revolutionary impact on the ways that professionals work, collaborate and conduct business. The application of BIM is not as straightforward as it sounds though, with numerous software solutions available, various implementation processes across the project lifecycle, which challenges the interoperability and how information flows throughout the various project stages. This paper performs and presents a systematic review of the BIM software landscape currently available for the construction industry across the various project phases and in alignment with the 2013 RIBA Plan of Works. A gap analysis is conducted among these BIM solutions to examine the different software application areas, software architecture, interoperability possibilities, accessibility and affordability, by applying descriptive statistics. Surprisingly, the BIM software ecosystem is fragmented across the different project stages and highly proprietary and further hindered by the large number of specialised and highly sophisticated solutions addressed to advanced computer users. To this end, the paper aims to inform the industry’s stakeholders, policy makers and software vendors, while shedding light on the extent that sophisticated BIM solutions can be disseminated to the market.