BIM and the future of architecture teaching

Abstract

Innovations offered by digital technologies to architecture, civil engineering and construction can significantly alter professional practices. Among the alternatives, BIM (Building Information Modeling) can accelerate the design management through a process based on the interoperability, leading architects, and engineers to work collaboratively. Since 2007, there was a huge increase on research related to BIM possibilities. However, the rapid pace of research has not been accompanied by the necessary changes in the curriculum of architecture and civil engineering undergraduate courses. In Brazil, Decree No. 9,983 of 2019 stablished the basis for BIM’s National Strategy, starting initiatives to leverage actions promoting gains in productivity and competitiveness in the civil construction sector. This paper presents the results of a research that aims to analyses the potential of BIM Domain Model Uses as an alternative to stablish a pathway for including BIM in architecture undergraduate teaching process. A case study has been conducted in two phases: the analysis of the current curriculum of the architecture undergraduate course of a Brazilian Faculty and the analysis of the new curriculum recently approved by the institution. Preliminary result allows to identify alternatives to include BIM since the first periods of the course, increasing gradually in complexity until the capstone project. Among the aspects to be considered, the adoption of a collaborative teaching process is the most important. However, the mindsets and attitudes need to change to fully take advantage of BIM potentialities in architecture teaching.