Integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) into Facility Management: towards Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

The research shows that the applications and uses of Building Information Modelling (BIM) across planning, design and construction of built assets have received a significant attention over the last two decades. Studies have addressed themes related to visualization and virtual reality; information exchange and interoperability; semantic enrichment and information retrieval; cloud computing and Semantic Web, among several other themes.

More recently, research has started to explore the interactions of BIM with facilities management, with the overarching aim of improving the sustainability of built assets at individual building, district and whole city level. This shift requires researchers to broaden their investigations to consider aspects such as: the extended view of the life cycle to consider supply and demand of services, use of services, and circular economy; proactive and sustainable management of built assets (e.g. energy efficiency, intelligence and predictive maintenance); new design approaches (e.g. design for disassembly); new production methods (e.g. offsite manufacturing); data-driven decisions deploying Artificial Intelligence and other Industry 4.0 enablers; and new information management practices and business models.

The aim of this Special Issue is to trigger discussions and set the stage for revisiting the transformative role associated with BIM-integrated facility management and its sustainability implications for the built environment. This include technology, process, and policy implications; barriers and drivers; and outcomes and risks involved in such a transformation. The intention is to provide a repository for relevant studies and lessons learned, and an opportunity to facilitate knowledge sharing and discussions among researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

This Special Issue targets up-to-date modelling, analysis, computation and synthesis approaches with a particular focus on BIM-integrated facility management, big data, Industry 4.0 and real-time managerial frameworks, sustainable and predictive maintenance of architectural, engineering and construction projects. Studies of theoretical, empirical, and experimental nature along with case studies on the description of real-life projects are welcome. Of particular interest are multidisciplinary research studies involving industry practitioners, built environment experts and facility managers that provide rigorous BIM uses on real-life facility management projects.

Dr. Saeed Banihashemi
Dr. Mohamad Kassem
Guest Editors

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