BIM adoption across the world: a Global Outlook
Contributing Author: Lot Kaduma
It is no longer news that BIM is THE buzzword of the construction industry all thanks to its growing popularity across the globe. Several factors have led to such a dramatic increase in demand for BIM in the recent past. In addition to accelerated growth and access to digital technologies over the last two to three decades, policy initiatives are a key factor that we all need to pay particular attention to. This is precisely why we intend this blog post to provide an overview of the state of BIM adoption in each region and country.
BIM Adoption according to Key Historical Events
Although the first commercially available BIM software were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s such as ArchiCAD and Revit, it was not until the 2000s that we begin to see the emergence of coordinated policies at national and regional levels.
The first glimpse of BIM adoption across the world can be found in the United States of America way back in 2003 with the formulation of the National 3D-4D-BIM Program by the General Services Administration (GSA) — an independent agency which acquires and manages thousands of federal properties on behalf of the US government. The program was focused on establishing policy to require model-based design, including native and IFC BIM and open-standard facility management data for all major projects of the GSA.
In 2007, Finland became the first country in Europe to introduce a BIM mandate when the state-owned Senate Properties (Senaatti), launched its first BIM guidelines requiring the use of IFC files (an Open BIM format) for new buildings. Afterwards, a series of government-led BIM initiatives across the European continent began to surface. Norway followed suite in 2008 when the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property, also known as Statsbygg, launched its first Open BIM mandate. Again, another Scandinavian country Denmark announced in 2011 that BIM will be required for all government-owned buildings after BIM was legalized in 2007, while in the year 2012 the Netherlands initiated its Open-BIM for Infrastructure program. In response to the growing popularity, a European Public Procurement Directive was introduced in 2014 by the EU to encourage the use of BIM among its member states. In addition, Austria introduced Open BIM standards based on the IFC in 2015, while the Swedish Transport Administration — Trafikverket, made BIM mandatory for all its projects.
However, the most significant event occurred in 2016 when the United Kingdom launched its BIM Level 2 mandate as part of the Government’s Construction Strategy. It drew a lot of attention across the globe because such initiative helped to elevate the BIM methodology as key to the government’s overall goal of increasing productivity of the construction sector with the aim of achieving 20% savings in procurement costs. Unlike most countries where BIM is a requirement, the UK made it compulsory for all projects as a condition for securing government contracts and as a result, accelerated the adoption within contractors.
We begin to see significant progress with BIM adoption within the continent as other countries caught the bug with the launch of several initiatives. In 2017, France announced its roadmap for a BIM mandate called ‘Plan for the digital transition in the building industry’ or PTNB as part of the French national strategy for digitizing the construction industry and followed by the launch of the Plan BIM 2022 program. In Germany, the phased implementation of BIM for infrastructure projects occurred from 2017 to 2020 which was coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) with the sole aim of making BIM mandatory for all transport projects by 2020. Again, in 2017 the Czech Republic launched its BIM program with a target mandate in 2022. Also, a handbook for the introduction of BIM by the European Public Sector was published by the EU BIM Task Group, which makes 2017 a significant year for adoption in Europe. Next, BIM Mandates for large public projects were introduced in Spain and Italy respectively in 2018 and 2019. Finally, a decree was issued in 2021 by the Russian Federation for BIM to be mandatory for all federal contracts starting in 2022.
Other Key Global Highlights
Aside developments in the United States and Europe, other key BIM initiatives were happening across the globe. In Hong Kong, a roadmap was initiated since 2014 which led to a government BIM mandate in 2017, while in Singapore BIM electronic submissions for regulatory permits was mandated by the Building and Construction Authority since 2015. Also, South Korea made BIM compulsory for public sector projects worth over S$50 million from 2016, while Malaysia unveiled a mandate for public projects exceeding RM100M (€20M) in 2018. In the year 2020, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MILT) published its Guidelines for BIM Standard Workflows, and in the other hand, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China (MOHURD) had planned a government driven BIM policy by 2020.
In the middle east, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw its first BIM mandate in 2013 as the Dubai Municipality made it mandatory for all the projects that are 40-stories and higher, or 300,000 square feet and larger. Similarly, the Abu Dhabi government announced its desire to mandate BIM technology by 2019. For Australia, the Digital Enablement for Queensland Infrastructure was launched in 2018 as part of the Queensland Government BIM Implementation strategy, while the Victorian Digital Asset Strategy (VDAS) was published in 2020 by Office of Projects Victoria (OPV) as a guide for digital engineering of built assets in the state of Victoria. Also, the New Zealand government has been supporting the increased use of BIM since 2014 through the BIM Acceleration Committee.
In South America there are several noteworthy initiatives to mention. In 2015, the Government of Chile created PlanBIM as a public-sector driven program to support a BIM mandate for government projects by 2020. In 2019, the Peru BIM Plan was created as a decree for the integration of BIM into public projects, while in that same year Argentina announced the SIBIM (Sistema de Implementación BIM) plan for the adoption of BIM in all public works from 2025. Also, in 2021 through the decree 10.306 / 2020, BIM became mandatory in Brazil for the development of federal projects relating to existing buildings, extensions, or renovation.
Finally, it is worth noting that some private sector initiatives in different regions have been advocating for the adoption of BIM such as the Canadian BIM Association (CanBIM), the India BIM Association, BIM Turkey, and BIM Africa to mention a few.
Concluding Thoughts
It is obvious to see that a major factor that has established BIM’s global popularity is the occurrence of various government policy initiatives. Being the biggest clients and regulators of building and infrastructure projects in every country, the public sector has an important role to play towards driving BIM adoption in the construction industry. As such, to provide deeper insights on this topic, our next blog post will focus on a deep dive into the outcomes of some policy initiatives, with a view of exploring both the successes and setbacks of BIM adoption that have occurred so far across the globe.
References
[1] “Introduction to BIM: Making sense of THE Buzzword.”, Specter automation Insights, July 14 2022, https://medium.com/specter-automation-insights/introduction-to-bim-making-sense-of-the-buzzword-b73d556a9e01
[2] “BIM adoption around the world: how good are we?”, Geospatial World, December 15 2018, https://www.geospatialworld.net/article/bim-adoption-around-the-world-how-good-are-we/
[3] “The 2022 global guide to BIM mandates and initiatives”, BIM Object, Retrieved October 11, 2022, https://business.bimobject.com/en/resources/a-manufacturer-s-guide-to-global-bim-mandates-and-initiatives/
[4] “BIM Adoption in Europe.”, MagiCAD, Retrieved October 11, 2022 https://www.magicad.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BIM-Adoption-in-Europe-White-Paper-02042020.pdf
