INTEGRATE BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM) AND SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

AT THE CONCEPTUAL STAGE OF BUILDING PROJECTS

Construction industries have significant impacts on the economy, society and environment. One of the
current challenges is how to develop smart and sustainable buildings, so they use a minimum of non-
renewable energy, produce a minimum of pollution, and a minimum cost of energy, while increasing the
comfort, health, and safety of the people who live and work in them. Today, we are looking at not just
buildings’ certification but sustainable practices that go beyond ratings to satisfy our social
responsibilities. The use of Building Information Modelling( BIM) has provided a means of increasing
total project quality, providing accurate quantity take offs and improving scheduling, consequently
diminishing total project contingencies and costs. Although BIM is a recent development, a lot of
research has been conducted in order to further enhance the capabilities of BIM in design and
construction. But, the important thing is that there has been very little research done so far on the effect
that BIM has on sustainable construction practices. This paper does not attempt to address all aspects of
BIM functionality because the scope of BIM is very great and the resources of this research were limited.
Keywords: BIM, sustainable design, scheduling, project contingencies