A BIM framework for collaboration in construction phase

The high number of stakeholders involved in the building process and their heterogeneity makes it necessary to develop new strategies for their communication and cooperation. Current interaction models among the stakeholders are no longer suited to the context in which these people are working and new solutions are needed. Recent advances in the IT sector support a new "production process" model, based on integration, sharing, cooperation and synergy between stakeholders with diversified skills. The adoption of building information modelling (BIM) is becoming a common practice in construction business though limited to the design stages. Extending the BIM use to all the construction phases is critical as it means that project participants should share updated information in a consistent and reliable fashion throughout the duration of the project. This paper proposes a framework that models a collaborative environment for sharing data and information throughout the lifecycle of a building in order to improve effectiveness of construction phases management. It considers construction activities as business processes carried on by various actors with well-defined roles. A BIM platform and application software originate shared documents, namely the digital assets of a project, that support actors in performing their activities while a common data environment facilitates the share of context information to make appropriate decisions. The proposed framework was verified through the development of a case study focusing on construction inspection and documentation within the construction of a commercial building to determine the quality and quantity of construction work as the construction progresses. The case study considers the use of a commercial BIM platform for architectural and structural design and a cloud platform to facilitate document sharing among project stakeholders.