Although BIM design during the project’s design phase has not been fully completed, it is evident that the design institute is still at a very basic level in utilizing BIM. At this stage, the use of BIM is limited by the designers’ ability to provide meaningful guidance on construction progress, processes, planning, and procurement management. It also falls short in simulating and analyzing critical medical and patient needs, such as outpatient flow, treatment duration, and hospital workflows. Currently, BIM usage by design institutes remains isolated and has yet to be integrated with construction or operation phases. The following points discuss how design units should approach and utilize BIM.
Current Status of BIM Application in Design Units
Since 2000, design units have been adopting BIM, promoting its use for over 20 years. BIM application in design units primarily focuses on three areas:
- Schematic design during bidding: Simple visual models are provided to construction teams to help them understand design concepts and ideas more intuitively, increasing the chances of winning bids.
- BIM design: The core use of BIM by design units, including parametric design, architectural form creation, associative design, and collaborative design.
- Design review and optimization: At present, most design units mainly focus on creating visual models and optimizing drawings. In some cases, like this project, BIM is even used post-drawing to identify component clashes and pipeline conflicts.
However, using BIM merely as a design review tool, combined with insufficient model accuracy, limits the value of BIM information from design institutes throughout the project lifecycle, making it difficult to realize its full engineering application benefits.
Additionally, extended BIM applications—such as green energy consumption analysis, water retention and carbon sequestration studies, and structural seismic analysis—are rarely utilized by design institutes at this time.
BIM in Early Development: Primarily a Design Model for Design Units
Since its inception, BIM has been promoted not just as a model but as a comprehensive simulation of information collection, transmission, and application throughout the entire project lifecycle. For construction teams and project consultants, this broader concept holds true, encompassing multiple dimensions such as time and cost.
However, for design institutes—especially small and medium-sized ones—their involvement is generally limited to delivering finalized design products. Their relationship with other project phases such as bidding, construction, sales, operation, maintenance, renovation, expansion, or demolition is not tightly integrated. Design units typically provide product descriptions to various stakeholders across different phases or modify designs as needed.
Given this reality, it is neither practical nor necessary for design units to fully consider the entire project lifecycle during the design phase. This is especially true during BIM’s promotion stage, where the technology is still evolving and seeking greater development and value-added opportunities. When a project adopts BIM, design units must create models that are usable by various stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle; this is foundational for effective BIM implementation.
Despite BIM’s promotion, most design institutes remain in the early stages of adoption. While models are still under development, it is advisable not to push comprehensive BIM concepts aggressively—except in more capable institutes—but rather to encourage the practical application of BIM software within small and medium-sized design firms. Professionals should focus on their expertise, and in these early stages, design institutes should concentrate on producing functional models to meet qualification standards.
BIM Represents the Future of Design
The technological advancements brought by BIM in China’s engineering and construction field are increasingly recognized, even at the national level. For the design industry, BIM is akin to the shift from traditional drawing boards to computer graphics. Any technology that shortens design cycles, lowers costs, and improves quality and standards will inevitably transform the existing design process. Moreover, these benefits align perfectly with the needs of construction teams.
Currently, most design units are in a phase of passive learning and applying BIM as needed, which is a natural progression for new technology adoption and partly due to the relative immaturity of BIM in engineering construction. Once a supportive environment for BIM is established, its application will become essential for design firms’ survival. In fact, some large design institutes and groups in China have already gained a competitive edge by leveraging BIM technology.
——Excerpt from “Reflections on the Current Status of BIM Application in Design Units: A Case Study of BIM Design in a Hospital in Kunming”
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