Changing roles through BIM application

Hospital building projects, are of key importance, and involve significant investment, and usually take a long-term development period. Hospital building projects are also very complex due to the complicated requirements regarding hygiene, safety, special equipments, and handling of a large amount of data. The building process is very dynamic and comprises iterative phases and intermediate changes. Many actors with shifting agendas, roles and responsibilities are actively involved, such as: the healthcare institutions, national and local governments, project developers, financial institutions, architects, contractors, advisors, facility managers, and equipment manufacturers and suppliers. Such building projects are very much influenced, by the healthcare policy, which changes rapidly in response to the medical, societal and technological developments, and varies greatly between countries (World Health Organization, 2000). In The Netherlands, for example, the way a building project in the healthcare sector is organised is undergoing a major reform due to a fundamental change in the Dutch health policy that was introduced in 2008.

The rapidly changing context posts a need for a building with flexibility over its lifecycle. In order to incorporate life-cycle considerations in the building design, construction technique, and facility management strategy, a multidisciplinary collaboration is required. Despite the attempt for establishing integrated collaboration, healthcare building projects still faces serious problems in practice, such as: budget overrun, delay, and sub-optimal quality in terms of flexibility, end-userrsquo;s dissatisfaction, and energy inefficiency. It is evident that the lack of communication and coordination between the actors involved in the different phases of a building project is among the most important reasons behind these problems. The communication between different stakeholders becomes critical, as each stakeholder possesses different set of skills. As a result, the processes for extraction, interpretation, and communication of complex design information from drawings and documents are often time-consuming and difficult. Advanced visualisation technologies, like 4D planning have tremendous potential to increase the communication efficiency and interpretation ability of the project team members. However, their use as an effective communication tool is still limited and not fully explored (Dawood and Sikka, 2008). There are also other barriers in the information transfer and integration, for instance: many existing ICT systems do not support the openness of the data and structure that is prerequisite for an effective collaboration between different building actors or disciplines.

Building information modelling (BIM) offers an integrated solution to the previously mentioned problems. Therefore, BIM is increasingly used as an ICT support in complex building projects. An effective multidisciplinary collaboration supported by an optimal use of BIM require changing roles of the clients, architects, and contractors; new contractual relationships; and re-organised collaborative processes. Unfortunately, there are still gaps in the practical knowledge on how to manage the building actors to collaborate effectively in their changing roles, and to develop and utilise BIM as an optimal ICT support of the collaboration.

This paper presents a general review of the practical implications of building information modelling (BIM) based on literature review and case studies. In the next sections, based on literature and recent findings from European research project InPro, the framework for integrated collaboration and the use of BIM are analysed. Subsequently, through the observation of two ongoing pilot projects in The Netherlands, the changing roles of clients, architects, and contractors through BIM application are investigated. In conclusion, the critical success factors as well as the main barriers of a successful integrated collaboration using BIM are identified.

Building information model (BIM) comprises ICT frameworks and tools that can support the integrated collaboration based on life-cycle design approach. BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its lifecycle from inception onward (National Institute of Building Sciences NIBS, 2007). BIM facilitates time and place independent collaborative working. A basic premise of BIM is collaboration by different stakeholders at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify information in the BIM to support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder. BIM in its ultimate form, as a shared digital representation founded on open standards for interoperability, can become a virtual information model to be handed from the design team to the contractor and subcontractors and then to the client (Sebastian et al., 2009).

BIM is not the same as the earlier known computer aided design (CAD). BIM goes further than an application to generate digital (2D or 3D) drawings (Bratton, 2009). BIM is an integrated model in which all process and product information is combined, stored, elaborated, and interactively distributed to all relevant building actors. As a central model for all involved actors throughout the project lifecycle, BIM develops and evolves as the project progresse

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Changing roles through BIM application

Hospital building projects, are of key importance, and involve significant investment, and usually take a long-term development period. Hospital building projects are also very complex due to the complicated requirements regarding hygiene, safety, special equipments, and handling of a large amount of data. The building process is very dynamic and comprises iterative phases and intermediate changes. Many actors with shifting agendas, roles and responsibilities are actively involved, such as: the healthcare institutions, national and local governments, project developers, financial institutions, architects, contractors, advisors, facility managers, and equipment manufacturers and suppliers. Such building projects are very much influenced, by the healthcare policy, which changes rapidly in response to the medical, societal and technological developments, and varies greatly between countries (World Health Organization, 2000). In The Netherlands, for example, the way a building project in the healthcare sector is organised is undergoing a major reform due to a fundamental change in the Dutch health policy that was introduced in 2008.

The rapidly changing context posts a need for a building with flexibility over its lifecycle. In order to incorporate life-cycle considerations in the building design, construction technique, and facility management strategy, a multidisciplinary collaboration is required. Despite the attempt for establishing integrated collaboration, healthcare building projects still faces serious problems in practice, such as: budget overrun, delay, and sub-optimal quality in terms of flexibility, end-userrsquo;s dissatisfaction, and energy inefficiency. It is evident that the lack of communication and coordination between the actors involved in the different phases of a building project is among the most important reasons behind these problems. The communication between different stakeholders becomes critical, as each stakeholder possesses different set of skills. As a result, the processes for extraction, interpretation, and communication of complex design information from drawings and documents are often time-consuming and difficult. Advanced visualisation technologies, like 4D planning have tremendous potential to increase the communication efficiency and interpretation ability of the project team members. However, their use as an effective communication tool is still limited and not fully explored (Dawood and Sikka, 2008). There are also other barriers in the information transfer and integration, for instance: many existing ICT systems do not support the openness of the data and structure that is prerequisite for an effective collaboration between different building actors or disciplines.

Building information modelling (BIM) offers an integrated solution to the previously mentioned problems. Therefore, BIM is increasingly used as an ICT support in complex building projects. An effective multidisciplinary collaboration supported by an optimal use of BIM require changing roles of the clients, architects, and contractors; new contractual relationships; and re-organised collaborative processes. Unfortunately, there are still gaps in the practical knowledge on how to manage the building actors to collaborate effectively in their changing roles, and to develop and utilise BIM as an optimal ICT support of the collaboration.

This paper presents a general review of the practical implications of building information modelling (BIM) based on literature review and case studies. In the next sections, based on literature and recent findings from European research project InPro, the framework for integrated collaboration and the use of BIM are analysed. Subsequently, through the observation of two ongoing pilot projects in The Netherlands, the changing roles of clients, architects, and contractors through BIM application are investigated. In conclusion, the critical success factors as well as the main barriers of a successful integrated collaboration using BIM are identified.

Building information model (BIM) comprises ICT frameworks and tools that can support the integrated collaboration based on life-cycle design approach. BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its lifecycle from inception onward (National Institute of Building Sciences NIBS, 2007). BIM facilitates time and place independent collaborative working. A basic premise of BIM is collaboration by different stakeholders at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify information in the BIM to support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder. BIM in its ultimate form, as a shared digital representation founded on open standards for interoperability, can become a virtual information model to be handed from the design team to the contractor and subcontractors and then to the client (Sebastian et al., 2009).

BIM is not the same as the earlier known computer aided design (CAD). BIM goes further than an application to generate digital (2D or 3D) drawings (Bratton, 2009). BIM is an integrated model in which all process and product information is combined, stored, elaborated, and interactively distributed to all relevant building actors. As a central model for all involved actors throughout the project lifecycle, BIM develops and evolves as the project progresse

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