Although the design cost of engineering construction projects accounts for only 1% to 3% of the total construction and installation expenses, the design phase influences over 70% of these costs. This highlights that design is a critical factor in effective project cost control. Setting cost limits encourages design teams to manage resources efficiently, shifting the traditional focus from purely technical aspects to economic considerations and fostering a stronger awareness of conservation among designers. By ensuring functional requirements are met, design optimization can be achieved through this approach.
Limit design involves reversing the planned investment budget and allocating it across various individual projects, unit projects, and sub-projects. Designers then select suitable shapes and structures within these predefined limits, while balancing the owner’s requirements and design standards.
However, under traditional manual methods of quantity calculation and pricing, implementing quota design presents significant challenges. First, quota design struggles to cover multiple disciplines comprehensively. Designers often lack investment quota awareness and inter-disciplinary communication, leading to repeated coordination efforts. Additionally, cost data is not readily or dynamically accessible. Second, design drawings typically lack sufficient cost-related information, making it difficult to synchronize cost management with the design process and to adjust design plans promptly based on cost constraints. Lastly, cost management during the design phase tends to be retrospective rather than integrated, making it difficult to link cost calculations to specific design steps or to decompose indicators needed for quota design.
Design limits are often established by referencing similar past projects. However, many projects lack thorough post-completion summaries, and cost data is often not carefully organized or verified to support future limit design efforts, reducing its reliability. The BIM model addresses these issues by incorporating rich design parameters and material information. An enterprise’s BIM model database accumulates cost indicators from historical projects, which can guide the setting of design limits before the new design phase begins.
During the design process, the BIM model combined with standardized data exchange protocols enables multi-disciplinary collaboration. It allows for real-time cost calculations and monitoring. Once the design is complete, the BIM model can be quickly analyzed to verify whether all cost indicators remain within controllable limits. Using BIM technology for real-time cost simulation facilitates ongoing cost assessment and adjustment, empowering designers and cost managers to optimize design schemes effectively and achieve quota design, as illustrated in the figure above.
Moreover, integrating BIM models with financial analysis tools provides a comprehensive view of investment returns, helping owners understand how design modifications impact overall investment performance. BIM technology also supports construction cost analysis and building energy consumption evaluation, enabling more informed initial decisions and reducing unnecessary expenditures during construction and later stages.
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