Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

An emerging trend within the construction industry is the expectation of the customer to experience and sense the product, maybe even in a customized manner. The latter trend would extend the necessity of incorporating not only function and aesthetics, but also perception and sensation. To meet this trend while at the same time improve the productivity the use of information technology such as BIM and technical platforms has increased in construction projects. Nevertheless, in spite of large investments, the construction industry has not managed to increase the effectiveness and productivity as much as other industries. Evident is that successful use of information technology depend on the integration and collaboration of various experts in a continuous and dynamic process. Such multidisciplinary team may be organized within a single organization or between business partners.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the use of BIM and technical platforms from an architectural perspective. This is done by evaluate the influence and impact of BIM and technical platform on the architects’ role and work process, evaluate how BIM and technical platforms affects the collaboration and communication between architects and other actors within the project and evaluate how architects use BIM and technical platforms to attain architectural values, style and design quality.

Thirteen interviews with participants in the design phase of two Skanska Xchange projects and five interviews with experts in information technology have been conducted. The results show that a multidisciplinary development organization, initial education, former experience and how much a participant is encouraged to share professional knowledge are factors that have a large effect on the success of the end result of the construction project. In addition the technical platform limits the choice of solutions possible, provides other requirements than traditional projects and changes the roles in the design phase.

The risk of relying too much on technology may contribute to decreased quality due to less questioning. Since a building is created and designed to experience and live in, participants in every phase of the construction project have to attain an active role to assure that the end result has a high quality of living. The influence and professional knowledge of each participant is equally important in the design phase. A straight forward and simple structured communication plan would minimize misunderstandings and provide each participant with clear responsibilities. In addition, a work plan for each role explaining how the technical platform system and BIM should be used, why and what the expected outcome is, would facilitate the understanding of the Skanska Xchange manual.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, technical platform, architect, multidisciplinary, construction industry, industrialized building.