Building Information Modeling for a Smart and Sustainable Urban Space

1BIM: A New Paradigm

1.1. Introduction

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new concept that is revolutionizing business practices in the field of construction engineering, through the introduction of new work methods that save time, optimize costs and increase productivity and quality of services during the various phases of the building lifecycle (design, construction, operation, maintenance, demolition). In addition to providing an intelligent digital model to support a construction project, BIM can be seen as a virtual process that integrates several aspects, disciplines and systems related to a building, allowing several stakeholders (architects, engineers, developers, clients, etc.) to collaborate in an efficient and interoperable way (Kymmell 2008).

In a BIM context, the traditional “design–bid–build” approach, which is based on a sequential process and a bi-directional exchange of files, is abandoned in favor of a collaboration that is established at the beginning of the project, in order to produce a design that will be simulated and optimized in terms of quality, cost and time (Azhar et al. 2012). The approach is conditioned by the implementation of a collaboration framework that ensures easy and interoperable access to the digital mock-up by the different stakeholders (Figure 1.1).

This chapter presents the fundamental basis for understanding BIM. It begins with a historical overview of BIM (section 1.2), followed by a definition of the concept in terms of its ...