Document Type

Other

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Civil engineering, Architecture engineering, Construction engineering

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish the level of BIM adoption by larger-scale residential property developers in Ireland and investigate the benefits and challenges of implementing BIM for residential housing. While BIM is a relatively new concept in Ireland for housing, developers and investors in larger scale developments are beginning to recognize areas where BIM can add value to their projects. The research also indicates that while there is evidence of successful BIM implementation for housing resulting in savings in cost and time, widespread adoption is hindered by a lack of knowledge and skills, costs of implementation, lack of client demand and difficulties with downstream adoption by sub-contractors and the building products supply chain. The research highlights how this has the potential to create a two-tier system, with more large-scale adoption by small and medium sized developers less likely, unless action is taken to increase the level of BIM maturity in the construction industry. It also proposes supports be provided for smaller developers who currently are unwilling to risk the financial exposure in adopting new technologies and additional expenses of training and changing work processes to cope with new technology, and with little or no client demand. However, with Government being the largest client for housing in Ireland, Government need to take the lead in driving innovation by mandating BIM for housing.

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