Today, we will discuss What is Building BIM? What are the future development trends of building BIM? Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a three-dimensional concept composed of components that carry detailed building information throughout the entire lifecycle. For instance, the main structural elements of a building typically consist of components such as columns, walls, beams, and slabs. When creating a model, volumetric data like length and volume can be integrated along with additional building information such as material properties, costs, and manufacturer details. This information is stored directly within the BIM components as attributes, enabling users across different lifecycle stages to perform data processing, analysis, and simulation—facilitating data sharing and information reuse.
The adoption of BIM technology in the construction industry to boost productivity and competitiveness has become a global trend. Leading countries worldwide continue to advance in the field of BIM application. Currently, BIM development goes beyond spatial volume information composed of points, lines, and surfaces. By integrating project scheduling data into traditional 3D BIM, we get 4D BIM. This allows simulation of construction progress at various project phases, enabling better manpower planning, project resource allocation, and early detection of conflicts between construction activities.
5D BIM takes this further by adding project cost information alongside the schedule dimension, facilitating expense estimation. It allows detailed cost breakdowns at project and component levels within the model, supporting subcontractor management and lifecycle needs. By leveraging dynamic BIM models, project costs can be estimated early in the design stage, with clear methods for extracting component volume information (Cheung et al., 2012). However, the quantity data from BIM models may not always meet all cost calculation requirements. To address this, Monteiro et al. (2013) proposed a quantity-oriented component design program to create components tailored for accurate quantity extraction in subsequent applications.
Additionally, 6D BIM incorporates facility management data, improving the transfer of information between builders and maintenance teams, which significantly reduces maintenance time and costs.
McGraw Hill Construction (2013) conducted a global survey on BIM adoption in countries with significant BIM usage, including the United States, Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The report evaluates BIM application levels across these regions and highlights trends. One key finding shows that 63% of contractors use BIM for construction projects, while 32% use BIM for non-construction projects, indicating growing BIM adoption beyond traditional construction.
The proportion of BIM application across various project types
BIM Tasks in Design (Pre-Construction Stage)
Furthermore, McGraw Hill Construction (2013) analyzed how contractors use BIM during the design or pre-construction phase of projects. According to the report, BIM is most commonly employed for collaborative work (Multi-Trade Coordination), visualizing design intent, modeling for constructability evaluation, and quantity takeoffs from the model. These activities represent typical BIM uses in project management. The adoption rates of 4D BIM and 5D BIM stand at 29% and 24%, respectively. Although these figures are under 50%, these BIM dimensions are expected to have a significant impact on the future of BIM development and will be key areas for construction project applications.
That concludes our overview of What is Building BIM? What are the future development trends of building BIM? We hope this article has been helpful!
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