ABS206 - A need for negotiations? Coordinating the uses of building information modelling in designers’ collaboration

Building information modelling (BIM) is an example of advanced technology changing how work is organized. BIM refers to a family of three-dimensional virtual model software to which data of the building elements are integrated (Eastman et al., 2011). There are many oversized promises characterized as a “BIM utopia” (Miettinen & Paavola 2014). Implementation of BIM and the aim of increasing productivity have, however, triggered real changes in construction projects. These changes challenge traditional, linearly and sequentially coordinated projects with more collaboration in all phases of the construction project (Kerosuo et al., 2015). Project partners need to agree on aims, ways of working and reconciliation of different tools and softwares in different phases of the construction project (cf. Monteiro et al., 2013, ”juggling” with multiple systems). New roles of BIM-coordination have emerged being important in providing means for “parallel” collaboration (see Puonti, 2004; Engeström et al., 1997). In the presentation ways of organizing the BIM use by a BIM expert is analysed in design meetings of a construction project (for a building of an educational institution) in Finland. Besides, thematic interviews (n=21) of central, Finnish actors responsible for the use of BIM in different organizations are analysed. It seems that most actors see the construction project basically linearly where the uses of BIM are agreed at the beginning of the project and followed accordingly (traditional coordination). At the same time, the use of BIM seems to require more negotiations in different phases and by different partners of the construction project.