Study of the potential of BIM technology and its implementation in construction

The work presented herein is intended to treat the main theoretical and technical concepts that compose Building Information Modelling (BIM) in an organised and comprehensive way. In the initial parts of this work the very fundamentals of this new approach are addressed, putting special attention in the technological shifts that support BIM and the main efforts and challenges that are to be faced. In essence, BIM technology allows the generation of accurate virtual representations of a project, which include all of their physical and functional characteristics. These BIM models are then used to simulate the conception, design, construction, operation and eventual demolition of a facility. The combination of these models with specific simulation and analysis tools allows BIM users to take solid informed decisions throughout the whole lifecycle phases of the project. But beyond technology, BIM unfolds a whole new set of design and construction capabilities with regard to traditional practices. These workflows encourage all project stakeholders to collaborate from initial design stages, creating changes in roles and relationships amongst them. In this line, the work visits the path towards collaborative workflows, pointing out the main changes that appear at a business and organisational level. In order to contrast how BIM differs from traditional approaches, current AEC industry practices are overviewed. This puts in evidence the areas in which BIM provides new or improved capabilities. The advantages resulting of BIM implementation are then described, emphasising on the obstacles that have to be overcome beforehand. Finally, after an adequate knowledge base is acquired, a set of practical examples are developed in an attempt to contrast and evaluate the capabilities of BIM technology. In these examples, a generic building project is developed in a realistic and consistent way. The developed example emphasises on simulating a design process by exploring the roles of owners, structural engineers, architects and contractors. The concepts that have been reviewed throughout the length of the work are put into practice in this final part. To conclude, several lines of development for future works are proposed based on the gained experience