Built Information Modeling for the 3D Reconstruction of Modern Railway Stations

The BIM process applied to the built environment represents a much debated topic in the last decade, but it still contains unanswered questions. National and international frameworks introduced standards mainly focused on the levels of detail definition related to new project, leaving a wide interpretation on the 3D reconstruction of existing building. On the other hand, the increase in the use of this modeling approach and the possible expansion of this application in the nearly future lead to predict a significant rise in built field, requiring a general assessment both on global methodology and on its peculiarities. Starting from the complete description and analysis of two modern railway architectures, based on integrated survey, 2D representation up to 3D modeling in BIM environments, the article tries to highlight the limits in the 3D BIM modeling applied on existing construction, suggesting possible solutions in relation with the obtained results. The process is critically evaluated in each passage, in order to focus the BIM research areas useful for built environment analysis