Design Economics for the Built Environment: Impact of Sustainability on Project Evaluation

Chapter 21Building Information Modelling: A New Approach to Design, Quantification, Costing, and Schedule Management with Case Studies

Aviad Almagor and Barry Symonds

21.1 Introduction

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the building process was effectively managed by the Master Builder. Much has been written regarding both their existence and subsequent demise due to the industrialisation of the construction process but clearly the Master Builder was a capable professional manager, mastering all design and construction aspects and phases. Indeed in the case of Thomas Cubitt (London1788–1855), he also pioneered prefabrication and supply chain techniques (Cooney, 1955) that reduced costs and increased profits. This may be the reason that his business survived whilst most of his contemporaries found themselves in bankruptcy. From early design to project handout, the Master Builder was a source of knowledge and the solution provider. Keeping a unified vision, an integrated approach, and an overall responsibility for the project, the Master Builder coordinated the work, controlled the budget, and monitored the schedule. In the modern era, the enormous and diverse amount of information requires dozens of design experts and specialised sub-contractors to perform the work of the Master Builders of the past centuries.

However the UK construction industry since the Second World War has been plagued by inefficiencies and a lack of integration in the building process. The reasons ...