Sociocultural sustainability in green building information modeling

Abstract

Building information modeling (BIM) technology used to further processes in the green building industry has received wide coverage in the literature. Some companies have leveraged this natural synergy but many remain on the sidelines, unable to fully exploit the potential offered by BIM in green projects. Moreover, most literature focus on technical aspects of BIM use while ignoring social and cultural aspects of its application. This narrow, tactical focus can undermine the synergy between BIM and green building, and prevent achieving strategic, sustainable goals. The objectives of this article are to: (1) review BIM status in the context of social and cultural sustainability within the building industry; and also, (2) propose criteria for furthering integrative applications that achieve social and cultural sustainability in the green building industry. Five layers of social and cultural sustainability were identified and classified within a framework of BIM applications for purposes of analyzing guidelines and standards. The proposed criteria relates to complexity found in the green building industry and uses BIM integration capability in attempt to achieve social and cultural integration. The criteria proposed serve as a basis for evaluation of BIM performance and therefore, as a solution to mitigate differences in existing guidelines and standards.