BIM adoption across the Chinese AEC industries: An extended BIM adoption model

Abstract

AbstractDespite strong encouragement by government guidelines and promoting efforts by the software industry, BIM is adopted at relatively slow speeds in construction industries across the world. The study presented in this paper examines the challenges to BIM adoption faced specifically in the Chinese construction industry across architecture, engineering and construction. We review recent literature addressing BIM adoption in the international context and develop a critique of common approaches to describe processes of BIM adoption. Substantiated with the analysis of detailed survey data obtained from AEC professionals in the greater Shanghai area, we propose a new, extended model to describe and assess processes of BIM adoption. Utilising this model, we evaluate temporal and collaborative dimensions of BIM adoption, and present results from detailed survey data. We further discuss how current Chinese BIM adoption in practice diverges from overseas BIM adoption strategies and examine how the extended BIM adoption model can provide a more accurate representation of BIM adoption processes observed in practice in and beyond the context of the Chinese AEC industries.Highlights BIM adoption across the Chinese AEC industries is still uneven and over reported. Chinese AEC industries' BIM adoption differs from overseas models. An extended BIM adoption model allows charting BIM adoption along AEC workflows. BIM is adapted for linear Chinese workflows rather than collaborative work.