Application of BIM in Multifamily Residential Design & Construction

Abstract

The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) conducted an initial survey in 2014 about the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in residential construction. Their study concluded that although, BIM had not been widely adopted in the residential market yet, there was growing interest in BIM’s future use. Four years later, in 2018, the authors, Prof. Ghosh Dastider and Matt Jefferies used a similar research methodology to investigate the changes, if any, in BIM’s application in the residential market since the initial study in 2014. The authors reached out to several local and national designers and contractors to collect data regarding BIM’s usage in the projects they were involved in. They collected, tabulated, analyzed the data from 296 residential projects and compared them with the initial study. The resulted data showed a significant increase in BIM’s application in the multifamily residential industry. It also showed increased application in the construction firms along with design-build firms, as well as, non- design phases such as construction and life cycle analysis. Based on these results, the authors also concluded that BIM’s applications is very likely to accelerate in residential construction market in next few years beyond deigns and construction.