Current use of building information modelling within Australian AEC industry

It has been widely acknowledged that Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an emerging technological and procedural shift within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. BIM represents a methodology to manage the building design and project data in digital format throughout a buildings lifecycle. It is based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), which is an open standard to enable interoperability between project supply chain phases as well as between proprietary BIM solutions. In Australia, the need for BIM stemmed from several issues identified by Engineers Australia, most notably the lack of integration along the supply chain linking parties, and between the project phases. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to provide an updated view on the current practices on the use of BIM within the Australian construction industry. This is necessary to understand the level of readiness of BIM adoption among Australian construction organisations given the push for the adoption of "full BIM" by the Australian Government as mentioned above. The research was conducted through a series of interviews with 25 AEC companies from two major cities in the state of Queensland. The findings highlighted the current issues related to the application of BIM technology such as: intellectual property, responsibility issues, data ownership issues, and security issues. The findings also indicated the number of current adoption barriers being faced by firms/organizations operating in the Australian AEC industry such as interoperability, resistance to change and lack of BIM understanding.