Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 12141

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, School of Architectural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: BIM; process management; digital twin; life cycle management; ICT for construction; digitalization; sustainability; durability; service life planning

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, School of Architectural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: BIM; process management; digital twin; life cycle management; ICT for construction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research activity about Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now one of the most important in the field of ICT for the construction sector, as there is a need to apply it for different innovative applications in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sectors. This Special Issue surveys the latest research developments surrounding BIM throughout the entire building process, from the early design stages to the construction of the building and its management, until the end of its life cycle, including demolition and deconstruction. The Special Issue also looks at other related areas of potential, including, but not limited to, building renovation and heritage conservation. We invite submissions of both relevant original research and critical review papers addressing the above themes as well as exploring the future extensions of BIM such as digital twins; the adoption of advanced systems (e.g., virtual reality and augmented reality) to better support communication and collaboration in BIM; and the integration of IoT and artificial intelligence for enhancing decision making and automation in the building life cycle.

Prof. Dr. Daniotti Bruno
Dr. Mirarchi Claudio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 10658 KiB  
Article
Construction Progress Monitoring through the Integration of 4D BIM and SLAM-Based Mapping Devices
by Giorgio P. M. Vassena, Luca Perfetti, Sara Comai, Silvia Mastrolembo Ventura and Angelo L. C. Ciribini
Buildings 2023, 13(10), 2488; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13102488 - 30 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1491
Abstract
In the architecture, engineering and construction industry, site management during construction is a key phase. Scheduling activities and monitoring their progress allow any deviations from the schedule to be identified so that timely action can be taken. Until now, the monitoring phase has [...] Read more.
In the architecture, engineering and construction industry, site management during construction is a key phase. Scheduling activities and monitoring their progress allow any deviations from the schedule to be identified so that timely action can be taken. Until now, the monitoring phase has mainly been characterised by inspections in which the construction site manager manually collects data and produces a summary report. This proves to be a time-consuming process and is prone to errors. The authors propose an innovative construction progress monitoring method that combines BIM-based construction scheduling (4D BIM) with periodic geometric surveying using an indoor mobile mapping system (iMMS). Ten surveys were carried out on a real case study, producing point clouds to be compared with the 4D BIM, thereby comparing the as-built with the as-planned. The comparison was carried out using Sitemotion exploiting a custom class, the work breakdown structure (WBS), added to the BIM to associate each element with its scheduled construction date. The results show how the proposed method can effectively support the evaluation of construction progress, allowing the monitoring to be performed digitally and linked to the BIM. The paper details the proposed methodology, highlighting the problems encountered and suggesting adjustments for future implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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25 pages, 8769 KiB  
Article
An Analysis of the Qualitative Impacts of Building Information Modelling (BIM) on Life Cycle Cost (LCC): A Qualitative Case Study of the KSA
by Esam Alasmari, Pedro Martinez-Vazquez and Charalampos Baniotopoulos
Buildings 2023, 13(8), 2071; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13082071 - 15 Aug 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2051
Abstract
Building information modelling (BIM) continues gaining popularity in engineering construction as it helps lower the life cycle cost and ensure sustainability. The primary aim of this study was to delve into the effectiveness of BIM implementation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) [...] Read more.
Building information modelling (BIM) continues gaining popularity in engineering construction as it helps lower the life cycle cost and ensure sustainability. The primary aim of this study was to delve into the effectiveness of BIM implementation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry and understand the benefits, challenges, and risks associated with it. The present study has incorporated a qualitative and case study research design to investigate the effectiveness of BIM implementation. To this end, information was gathered through interviews involving BIM experts in the KSA, from which a thematic analysis was derived with the help of NVivo software. The results obtained highlight various benefits, challenges, and risks associated with the implementation of BIM tools, also covering the life cycle cost (LCC) and the procurement and type of contracts, initially referred to during the interviews, indicating that the importance of estimating the LCC in a project is crucial in the design phase, which also informs the decision making. In this case, 96.7% of the participants agreed with this view. Moreover, two case studies were analysed to further demonstrate the effectiveness of BIM adoption. The outcomes of this study have the potential to add significant value to various aspects of engineering practice in the KSA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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26 pages, 1013 KiB  
Article
A Multivariate Analysis of the Variables Impacting the Level of BIM Expertise of Professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industries of the Developing World Using Nonparametric Tests
by Georgina Esi Takyi-Annan and Hong Zhang
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1606; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071606 - 25 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1722
Abstract
Building information modeling (BIM) mandates are becoming more widespread because BIM allows design and construction teams to operate more productively and also enables them to collect the data they generate during the process for use in operations and maintenance tasks. As a result, [...] Read more.
Building information modeling (BIM) mandates are becoming more widespread because BIM allows design and construction teams to operate more productively and also enables them to collect the data they generate during the process for use in operations and maintenance tasks. As a result, professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries are expected to possess excellent BIM expertise. Despite the fact that the developing world has largely not adopted BIM, many studies have been conducted on BIM usage, awareness, drivers and barriers with a focus on the developing world. Numerous studies have pointed to the professionals’ lack of BIM expertise in the developing world’s AEC sector as a major barrier to BIM deployment. Nevertheless, no research has been conducted to assess the variables impacting the level of BIM expertise among professionals. After a detailed review of the literature, the study developed five study hypotheses and created a conceptual model to help assess the variables impacting the level of BIM expertise of professionals in the AEC industry in the developing world. After that, a questionnaire survey was carried out to collect data from 103 seasoned professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry. Nonparametric tests, such as the Kruskal–Wallis, pairwise post hoc Dunn, Mann–Whitney, Pearson’s correlation and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS SEM) tests, were adopted to assess the relationships between the level of BIM expertise of professionals (BE) and the following variables: (1) profession (P), (2) the frequency of BIM use by professionals (BF), (3) the highest dimension of BIM adopted by AEC firms and companies (BD), (4) professionals’ perception of BIM (PB) and (5) the BIM implementation barriers (BIMIBs). P, BF, BD and PB were found to have a substantial impact on the level of BIM expertise acquired by professionals. With regards to professionals’ perception of the BIM software and process, only one (PB3–BIM is not useful to our company at the moment) out of ten of them was found to have a significant impact on BE, highlighting the impact of employers on the level of BIM expertise of professionals. In addition, the study discovered that any resolution made in an attempt to tackle the lack of/insufficient level of BIM expertise among professionals would prove futile without significant effort from the higher education sector (HES) of the developing world and the entire world at large. The study’s conceptual, empirical, managerial and theoretical implications and findings would serve as a roadmap for researchers, professionals and academics in developing nations as they endeavor to seek more ways of increasing BIM expertise among their professionals and to encourage BIM usage throughout the project lifecycle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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18 pages, 2114 KiB  
Article
Towards an Integrated Framework for Information Exchange Network of Construction Projects
by Yingnan Yang, Xianjie Liu, Hongming Xie and Zhicheng Zhang
Buildings 2023, 13(3), 763; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030763 - 14 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1235
Abstract
The application of building information modeling (BIM) disrupts the interaction between individuals and industry organizations from time and spatial dimensions. However, the temporal dimension of interaction is usually a neglected factor in the application of social network analysis (SNA) when studying the project [...] Read more.
The application of building information modeling (BIM) disrupts the interaction between individuals and industry organizations from time and spatial dimensions. However, the temporal dimension of interaction is usually a neglected factor in the application of social network analysis (SNA) when studying the project communication networks. Additionally, the social incorporation of BIM enables full collaboration across multiple disciplines and stakeholders, which calls for multi-dimensional research agendas and practice of different network models. To fill the gap, this study aims to develop an integrated framework to guide the analysis of information exchange in construction projects. According to the findings, three network models can be used for network analysis at the industry, project and individual levels. It is worth noting that the majority of recent attention about the project communication networks has been focused on industry and project levels. The network analysis at the individual level is under-researched so we actively explore how to extend the scope of the network analysis from the project and industry level to the individual level. An ego network model was thus proposed to explore the project communication networks at the individual level, where the network indices were derived. The outputs implied that the proposed model has the potential to explore the ego-centric network in the construction projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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20 pages, 4301 KiB  
Article
A Qualitative Investigation of the Obstacles Inherent in the Implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM)
by Abdulrahman Altassan, Mahmoud Othman, Emad Elbeltagi, Mohammed Abdelshakor and A. Ehab
Buildings 2023, 13(3), 700; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030700 - 07 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2142
Abstract
The Middle East construction industry is fragmented, which makes project data inaccessible and underutilized. Building information modeling (BIM) provides innovative solutions to the AEC industry. Due to a lack of awareness of BIM’s successful processes, protocols, and workflows, some Middle Eastern organizations have [...] Read more.
The Middle East construction industry is fragmented, which makes project data inaccessible and underutilized. Building information modeling (BIM) provides innovative solutions to the AEC industry. Due to a lack of awareness of BIM’s successful processes, protocols, and workflows, some Middle Eastern organizations have tried to create their own systems but have not always chosen BIM. Some users did not comprehend BIM’s benefits, and the construction business was not ready for BIM technology. Furthermore, BIM’s benefits were not well known. This study intends to investigate construction practitioners’ awareness of the BIM field, the BIM adoption situation, and procedures in Middle Eastern design companies, by identifying and assessing construction professionals’ perceptions of impediments to BIM implementation in Middle Eastern construction. This research conducted a semi-structured interview to collect data and information from design teams currently adopting BIM at the project design stage. Thirteen of thirty-nine accepted to participate, with four invalid samples. Data collection reached a saturation point after the fifth interview. The descriptive and empirical analysis showed few BIM studies, lack of knowledge, insufficient government policies, high implementation costs, inadequate contractual coordination, lack of specified standards, cost of data and information sharing, technological availability issues, stakeholder reluctance, business and cultural changes, data and intellectual property issues, and interoperability issues. The factor analysis identified three main BIM implementation difficulties in Middle Eastern construction. These factors are training, cost, and economic constraints. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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21 pages, 1666 KiB  
Article
Profile Characterization of Building Information Modeling Users
by Eric Forcael, Carolina Puentes, Rodrigo García-Alvarado, Alexander Opazo-Vega, Jaime Soto-Muñoz and Ginnia Moroni
Buildings 2023, 13(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010060 - 27 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2186
Abstract
Nowadays, BIM (Building Information Modeling) has steadily been introduced into the construction industry as a promising methodology for managing projects. Therefore, it is necessary to study the users of its processes. Worldwide, there are already systems that classify companies according to how they [...] Read more.
Nowadays, BIM (Building Information Modeling) has steadily been introduced into the construction industry as a promising methodology for managing projects. Therefore, it is necessary to study the users of its processes. Worldwide, there are already systems that classify companies according to how they use BIM, although only a few studies have been conducted on how individual users are classified. Hence, the present study sought to develop a model that characterized BIM users based on several parameters. The methodology employed defined variables based on a literature review, which experts subsequently validated. These variables made it possible to develop the measurement instrument: a structured questionnaire applied to construction professionals. The necessary parameters for the user characterization model were extracted using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. This model met the structural evaluation and measurement criteria, which confirmed that it was valid and reliable. It was found that three main aspects mainly characterized users: (i) their use and command of the software and the methodology, (ii) the experience and degree of adoption of the technology, and (iii) the individual’s knowledge of process levels and standardization concerning BIM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on BIM-Based Building Process Management)
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