Building Information Modeling in Concept

School of the Built Environment
B UILDING I NFORMATION M ODELLING

IN C ONCEPT D ESIGN S TAGE
Kereshmeh Afsari
Student ID: @00296833
A Dissertation presented to the
University of Salford
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in
Digital Architectural Design
May 2012
A BSTRACT
Building Information Modelling is known as a revolution in the industry and it is
changing the design process and the way designers create the buildings.
Among the stages of design, conceptualisation is being affected by BIM
adoption as well. BIM has brought a lot of benefits to design but still designers
are struggling to implement BIM at the very early stage of the design process.
Thus, this study has been conducted to investigate how BIM is transforming
concept design process and what could be the possible answer to overcome
the barriers of BIM adoption at conceptualisation. Within 6 major objectives in 5
chapters, different aspects have been addressed in this regard.
At first, within literature review the transformation of the design process
within BIM methodology is explained and also general features of concept
design stage are depicted to study its transformation within the evolution of
Information Modelling. Besides, by critically reviewing the research strategies
and techniques, mixed methods have been selected to further the study. Hence,
case studies within 3 projects as well as 3 interviews with BIM professionals as
methods of data collection have discussed the actual benefits of BIM at concept
level, BIM tools that currently provides potentials and brings limitations to
concept design and also, existing challenges that designers face when adopting
BIM for concept generation. Findings from the interview have also
demonstrated the required improvements in this regard.
Research has concluded that BIM has assisted concept design stage
based on what technology is applied and has made the conceptualisation more
integrated and collaborative. However, when it comes to achieving a fast
responsive process in evaluating design possibilities and choosing the most
efficient conceptual design solution within integrated simulations, there are still
challenges. For that reason, technology needs improvements both in software
and hardware to support the thinking process of concept creation. Moreover,
other facts such as advanced mindsets and a proper methodology will facilitate
BIM conceptual design. In this research, discussions on the findings have
revealed some important issues ended up with recommendations for some
potential solutions in improving BIM adoption at conceptual stage.
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A CKNOWLEDGEMENT
Sincere gratitude is hereby extended to the following people who have made
the completion of this dissertation possible:
My supervisor, Dr. Tuba Kocaturk for her encouragement, support and

guidance throughout the course and in this dissertation
Research Methods team at the School of the Built Environment for their
interesting sessions and constant support
Research participants for their taking part and valuable discussions,

appreciations to Mr. Simpson, Mr. Wallbank, Mr. Moazami and Mr. Brown
Professor Kiviniemi for his valuable advice and participation in this research
Rita Newton for her endless support
Centre for Construction Innovation (CCI), Nancy Porter and Roy Stewart for
their assistance in finding interview participants
All my family members for their love and motivation
My friends for their help and good memories
And
Utmost appreciation to the Almighty God for making this exciting journey
possible
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T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract......................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgment........................................................................................... ii
Table of contents........................................................................................... iii
List of Tables................................................................................................. vi
List of Figures............................................................................................... vii
Abbreviations................................................................................................ ix
1- Introduction to the research................................................ ..................... 1
1-0- Introduction .................................................................................... 1
1-1-Research background..................................................................... 1
1-2-Aim of the research......................................................................... 2
1-3-Research objectives........................................................................ 2
1-4-Justification...................................................................................... 2
1-5-Research method.......................................................................... 4
1-6-Structure of the dissertation............................................................ 5
2- Literature Review ..................................................................................... 7
2-0-Introduction...................................................................................... 7
2-1- An insight into BIM.......................................................................... 7
2-2-BIM and Design Process............................................ ..................... 8
2-3-Requirements of Concept Design phase........................................ 10
2-3-1- Energy analysis in conventional concept design.................. 11
2-4-Benefits of implementing BIM in concept design ........................... 12
2-5- BIM Technology and concept design.................................. ........ 15
2-5-1- Interoperability standards.......................................... ........ 16
2-5-2- BIM platforms................................................................ 16
2-5-3- Design coordination tools.............................................. 19
2-6-Existing challenges ................................................................ 20
2-7-Summary of the literature review............................................. 21
3- Research Methodology........................................................................... 22
3-0- Introduction .................................................................................. 22
3-1-Research Approach....................................................................... 22
3-2-Literature review............................................................................ 23
3-3- Research Strategy and Techniques.............................................. 23
Page iii
3-3-1- Case study procedure .......................................................... 27
3-3-1-1- Selection of Cases.................................................. 28
3-3-1-2- Data collection technique....................................... 29
3-3-2- Interview procedure............................................................. 30
3-3-2-1- Interview participants.............................................. 30
3-3-2-2- Interview format....................................................... 31
3-4- Approach to analysis..................................................................... 33
3-5- Challenges of study...................................................................... 34
3-6- Ethical consideration..................................................................... 35
3-7- Summary of the research methodology......................................... 36
4-Research Findings and Analysis.............................................................. 37
4-0- Introduction................................................................................... 37
4-1- Findings from the Case studies...................................................... 37
4-1-1-Case 1: Masdar Headquarter building................................... 37
4-1-2-Case 2: Basrah Stadium........................................................ 42
4-1-3-Case 3: Lotte Super Tower.................................................... 48
4-1-4-Cross-case analysis............................................................... 52
4-2-Findings from the Interviews........................................................... 55
4-2-1- Interview 1: Professor Arto Kiviniemi.................................... 55
4-2-2- Interview 2: Mr. Martin Simpson........................................... 58
4-2-3- Interview 3: Mr. Benedict Wallbank...................................... 60
4-2-4- Emergent themes from the interviews.................................. 63
4-3- Fieldwork summary........................................................................ 67
5- Discussions & Conclusion....................................................................... 68
5-0- Introduction.................................................................................... 68
5-1- Research questions....................................................................... 68
5-2- Summary of the findings................................................................ 68
5-2-1- Literature review................................................................... 68
5-2-2- Fieldwork................................................................................ 69
5-3-Discussions...................................................................................... 69
5-3-1- The relationship between research findings and literature.... 70
5-3-1-1- Actual benefits of BIM in conceptualisation.............. 70
5-3-1-2- BIM Technology....................................................... 71
5-3-1-3- Challenges............................................................... 72
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5-3-1-4- Required improvements........................................... 73
5-3-2- The implication of this study................................................ 74
5-4- Limitation of study......................................................................... 75
5-5- Recommendations........................................................................ 75
5-5-1- Potential routes for improvements....................................... 75
5-5-2- Future research................................................................... 77
5-6- Conclusion.................................................................................... 77
References.................................................................................................. 79
Appendices.................................................................................................. 85
Appendix 1: Ethical approval
Appendix 2: Participants information sheet
Appendix 3: Research participant consent form
Appendix 4: Interview Guide
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L IST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: Summary of the research methods.............................................. 5
Table 3.1: Research methods with regard to the research objectives........... 26
Table 3.2: Summary of the criteria for selection of cases............................. 29
Table 3.3: Interview Participants and approach............................................ 31
Table 4.1: Emergent Themes from Cases.................................................... 53
Table 4.2: Interview participants' information................................................ 55
Table 4.3: Categorised emergent themes from interview 1........................... 63
Table 4.6: Summary of emergent themes from interviews............................ 66
Table 5.1: Comparing theoretical and actual benefits of BIM........................ 70
Table 5.2: Comparing potentials and limitations of

BIM technology in literature and fieldwork................................... 71
Table 5.3: Comparing challenges of

BIM in conceptualisation in literature and fieldwork..................... 72
Table 5.4: Required improvements found in literature and fieldwork............ 74
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L IST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Concept of BIM........................................................................... 8
Figure 2.2: Architectural services outline...................................................... 9
Figure 2.3: Comparing different distributions for design services................. 10
Figure 2.4: Example of integrated assessment for concept design review... 13
Figure 2.5: Concept design in Revit by CASE.............................................. 17
Figure 3.1: Research onion according to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill..... 24
Figure 3.2: Data collection methods according to Kumar............................. 25
Figure 3.3: Multiple-Case Study approach according to Yin......................... 27
Figure 3.4: Target group for interview participants....................................... 31
Figure 3.5: Three categories of questions and themes in interview guide.... 32
Figure 3.6: Summary of data analysis procedure......................................... 33
Figure 3.7: Content analysis according to Kumar......................................... 33
Figure 4.1: External view of Masdar Headquarter Building........................... 38
Figure 4.2: Concept for the cones................................................................. 39
Figure 4.3: Ventilation of the building through cones.................................... 39
Figure 4.4: Left: Interior view, Right: Cones and ventilation of the building... 40
Figure 4.5: Sectional perspective of the building........................................... 41
Figure 4.6: Cones and their complex structures........................................... 42
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Figure 4.7: Basrah Sport City....................................................................... 43
Figure 4.8: Basrah main Stadium................................................................. 43
Figure 4.9: Basrah stadium concept............................................................. 44
Figure 4.10: Basket for collecting dates, a regional icon.............................. 44
Figure 4.11: Stadium skin and five types of panels on each

45
of the two curvatures in End zone and Side zone...................
Figure 4.12: An example of using powercopy tool inside Digital Project...... 46
Figure 4.13: Panels made in Digital Project with information on Excel........ 47
Figure 4.14: Interior view and the skin panels.............................................. 47
Figure 4.15: Lotte Super Tower.................................................................... 48
Figure 4.16: Building's form.......................................................................... 49
Figure 4.17: 3D model and unfolded model................................................. 50
Figure 4.18: Early stage solar analysis........................................................ 51
Figure 4.19: Modelling workflow in Lotte super tower................................... 52
Figure 4.20: Common and possible benefits of BIM in the study of cases.... 54
Figure 5.1: Summary of the discussions in identifying existing situation....... 73
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A bbreviations
BIM= Building Information Modelling
AEC= Architectural Engineering Construction
FM= Facility Management
NIST= US National Institute of Standards and Technology
GSA= General Services Administration
MEP= Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health
CAD= Computer Aided Design
IFC= Industry Foundation Classes
IAI= International Alliance for Interoperability
ISO= International Organization for Standardization
CATIA= Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application
DP= Digital Project
Page ix
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to the research
1-0- Introduction
This Chapter provides an overview of the study by introducing the focus of the
research and major parts of dissertation in brief. Background of the research is
described and also the aim and objectives of the study are presented. Then, the
significance of the research is justified. In addition, an overview of the research
methodology is presented addressing the research objectives and dissertation
chapters are introduced.
1-1- Research background
BIM has become an emerging theme within the AEC/FM industry in recent
years, although the concept is not new (Succar, 2011; Kiviniemi, 2011) created
first in mid 1970s known as building product modelling and then it started to
grow in late 1990s with the development of IFC standard for data exchange
(Kiviniemi, 2011). When NIST reported in 2004 that almost 16 billion Dollars are
being wasted each year because of interoperability problems and inefficiencies
of paper documentation, BIM was recognised as a proper answer (Masterson,
2007; Aranda-Mena et al., 2008).
Conventional approaches in the construction industry are based on 2D
drawings and paper-based documentation, thus because of the separate
documentation mistakes are inevitable ending up to delays, losses and conflicts
between parties (Eastman et al., 2011). Building Information Modelling claims to
be a new benchmark for the design and documentation of the buildings to
improve the existing inefficiencies and to boost collaboration among parties
within the industry (Aranda-Mena et al., 2008). In other words, BIM is
transforming the entire industry from the conventional methods' inefficiencies to
a more collaborative and integrated process (Eastman et al., 2011).
Since its emergence, there have been several views and studies on the
area of BIM from what BIM actually is (Aranda-Mena et al., 2008; Eastman,
2009) to presenting a BIM handbook addressed several parties involved in
creation and management of BIM (Eastman et al., 2011) and investigating the
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features of parametric objects (Lee, Sacks and Eastman, 2005) as well as the
benefits of its implementation (Azhar et al., 2008b) and its impact on the
business model (Kiviniemi, 2011).
BIM is a major step change and it changes the building documentation
and visualisation as well as the processes in which buildings are created
(Eastman et al., 2011). This research is conducted to investigate how BIM is
transforming the design at the very early stages.
1-2- Aim of the Research
The research aim is to investigate the impact of implementing BIM on

conceptualisation phase in the design process.
1-3- Research objectives
This research is seeking to address the following issues:
1- To have an overview on how BIM has changed the design process

2- To review the general requirements of the concept design phase
3- To investigate the theoretical benefits of implementing BIM in the concept
design stage from actual impacts in practice.
4- To investigate BIM technology potentials and limitations for concept design
5- To identify the existing challenges of implementing BIM at the concept
design stage
6- To recommend potential routes to improve concept design process in BIM
1-4- Justification
Building Information Modelling acquired strength in 2004 when US National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reported 15.8 billion Dollars of
loss because of the technological inadequate interoperability and paper
documentation (Masterson, 2007). As a response, General Services
Administration (GSA) made the use of BIM technology mandatory in the
buildings' documentation. BIM as a revolutionary change in AEC/FM industry, is
a collaborative approach in which all the information needed in a building could
be accessed and managed within an integrated model throughout the lifecycle
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of the building (Lee et al., 2008; Kiviniemi, 2011). For that reason, it has widely
been acknowledged that BIM has economic benefits and productivity for the
industry (Azhar et al., 2008b). Based on the benefits of BIM, the industry started
taking strong steps towards BIM adoption in recent years and therefore a
massive investment has been made (Masterson, 2007).
BIM affects all aspects of the building from concept to completion and
operation (Eastman, 2009). Needless to say, almost all decisions about the
building are being made in the phase of the design (Masterson, 2007) thus
proper implementation of BIM in the design process is critical. Such huge
transition towards BIM requires a wide range of research and development
(Kiviniemi, 2011). This shows the significance of the study on BIM and its
impact on design.
On the other hand, BIM provides a number of integrated analysis and cost
estimation from the early stages of the design process (Eastman et al., 2011;
Stumpf and Brucker, 2008). It also facilitates the information flow among the
design members and disciplines (Kiviniemi, 2011; Rosenburg, 2007) and
because of these capabilities, designers can investigate the building
performance early enough in the design process thus the design decisions can
be made easier (Stumpf and Brucker, 2008).
BIM is supposed to support the whole life-cycle of the building. However,
there are challenges in implementing BIM in the concept design stage when fast
and inter-related sketches are required. For that reason, sometimes designers
prefer to use other platforms to accomplish the concept design faster and within
more creative form-finding process (Eastman et al., 2011) but this will cause
problems in data integration especially in later stages (Howell and Batcheler,
2004). Despite its importance, the critical question on how BIM can be adopted
properly in the conceptual phase of the projects, has not been answered yet.
In brief, the rationale behind this research is that a massive investment is
taking place in the industry to make a transition towards BIM implementation
and this will bring a number of benefits especially to the design process but
while BIM is known as an integrated management of information throughout the
whole life-cycle of the building that the design is one of its stages, designers are
still struggling to implement it in conceptualisation because the requirements for
this particular stage of the design are not properly there yet in BIM tools.
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Therefore, as well as investigating BIM benefits in concept design stage, by
pointing out what requirements are not completely fulfilled yet within BIM tools,
what challenges exist in reality and what potential routes can be considered for
its improvements, the study will contribute to the existing knowledge.
1-5- Research method
Research methodologies in terms of data collection methods, data processing

procedure, data analysis and presentation of the findings, are in two categories:
Qualitative or Quantitative (Kumar, 2005). This dissertation is designed within a
qualitative study to interpret the process of concept design stage in BIM
adoption in terms of the meaning that actual practice and people in practice
have brought to it.
Moreover, reviewing focal literatures is an essential part of the research in
order to define the position of the study within the existing knowledge and
compare the findings with the works of others. It should be a continuous
process within the study which starts before the finalisation of the research
problems and should be carried on to the end of the study (Kumar, 2005). Thus,
by reviewing the focal literatures on BIM influences in the design process, BIM
adoption benefits, BIM tools and technologies and the general requirements of
conceptualisation, it will formulate the research problems. The literature review
results have addressed the objectives 1 to 5 which are studied further through
appropriate strategies and techniques of data collection.
Research strategy is known as the overall approach used in the response
to the research questions (Barrett et al., 2011). Research techniques are the
tools, sometimes knows as methods, used to collect information in order to
apply the research strategy (Gray, 2004). It is very important to use objectives
of the research to decide about the selection of research methods (Barrett et al.,
2011). In this regard, Case study and interview have been selected to find the
answers to the objectives of the research. For undertaking Case study,
documentary analysis and secondary sources are used and in order to conduct
the interviews, Semi-structured interviews are used to collect data among BIM
professionals. Table 1.1 illustrates the relation between objectives and the
methods of data collection used in this study.
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Research Methods Chapter
Objective 1 Literature Review 2
Objective 2 Literature Review 2
Objective 3 Literature Review & Case study 2,4
Objective 4 Literature Review & Case study 2,4
Objective 5 Literature Review & Interview 2,4
Objective 6 Interview & discussions 4,5
Table 1.1: Summary of the research methods for each of the objectives
within the dissertation chapters
1-6- Structure of the dissertation
This research is designed in 6 main chapters as follows:
I. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the study and orients the research

questions by explaining a background of BIM and the significance of
research. This chapter also presents a summary of the selected research
methods.
II. Chapter 2 presents an extensive literature review on the research
questions. This chapter looks into 5 of six objectives by reviewing the focal
literature on BIM and its impact on the Design process, features of Concept
Design stage, technology related issues and lastly the challenges of
implementing BIM in conceptualisation.
III. Chapter 3 is about the research methodology. It introduces the strategy
and techniques that have been selected for this research. In addition, the
practical implementation of the research techniques is discussed and
ethical issues considered in the research are mentioned.
IV. Chapter 4 looks into the findings of the research. The results from case
studies and interviews are presented in details. Furthermore, the data
collected from the research are analysed to answer the research questions
regarding objectives 3, 4 and 5.
V. Chapter 5 is the discussion and conclusion of the research where a
summary of the findings through literature review, case studies and
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interviews is stated and by making connections between literature and
fieldworks, the sixth objective of the research is fully addressed. Also
recommendations are presented.
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CHAPTER 2: Literature review
2-0- Introduction
In this chapter, the research objectives 1 to 5 are investigated in extensive
literature reviews. The study looks into the transformation of concept design
stage by describing the impact of BIM in the design process and looking into the
requirements of early design stage. Also, the research explains potential
benefits that BIM brings to conceptualisation through critically studying of the
theoretical references. Then, by focusing on technical issues, BIM tools and
their areas of improvement are discussed. Finally, some of the challenges of
implementing BIM at the concept level are identified.
2-1- An insight into BIM
In 2002 US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) started to

study about the additional cost incurred in the building due to problems of
interoperability and later the report showed $15.8 billion cost each year is the
result of inadequate interoperability from design to operation. BIM adoption
could be a step towards correcting these inefficiencies (Eastman et al., 2011)
which is known as a revolution in the AEC/FM industry and has established new
processes in practice (Azhar, Hein and Sketo, 2008a; Kiviniemi, 2011).
BIM is an n-D model of the building that carries all the information needed
in the whole lifecycle of the building (Lee et al., 2008; Azhar et al., 2008b) that is
not only transforming the design creation (Pihlak et al., 2011) but affecting the
building's appearance (Eastman et al., 2011). In other words, building
information model is representing the building digitally and assisting the
exchange of information (RAIC, 2007) and performs as a database for sharing
and using any information related to the building (Figure 2.1).
As the conventional design and construction process mostly rely on paper-
based design with 2D drawings, always inaccuracy and mistakes happen
because of the separate documentation ending up with delays in project, losses
of budget and conflicts between parties. Also, in this process lots of time should
be spent for coordinating information and generating documents. BIM is a
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different way of managing building data and is changing the industry from such
inefficiencies to an integrated and coordinated process (Eastman et al., 2011).
This trend is comparable to the changes happened when mobile phone
emerged in the late 1980s and transformed the industry and people's attitude in
communication (Kiviniemi, 2011).
Figure 2.1: Concept of BIM. Copy rights: Buildingpedia
Many firms are making fundamental changes in their design process and
although several benefits of BIM are obvious, they are concerned about the
challenges, time and money required for this change. (RAIC, 2007). Most
importantly, implementing BIM has an effect on the design culture of the firm
bringing its own challenges (Bachman, 2009).
2-2- BIM and design process
Building information modelling has emerged as a phenomenon that

potentially affects every process from design to facility management (Eastman,
2009). BIM is transforming the design process and is affecting how we
formulate design solutions (Bachman, 2009). In the design process, the first
player in creating BIM is the architect who is responsible for setting up the
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design and for spatial planning. The information will be then transferred to the
structural engineer who adds data in the model such as foundations, columns,
floor, etc. Then the architect completes it with walls and finishing. Finally the
design is passed to the Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health (MEP)
Engineers who design building services by adding space reservation for the
service routes (SCRI, 2010). The overall process consists of several stages
such as conceptualisation, feasibility studies, detailed design, production
planning and construction detailing (Ertas and Jones, 1996). Traditional
architectural services according to Eastman (2011) presented in Figure 2.2.
Schematic Construction Construction

Feasibility study predesign
design detailing review
Figure 2.2: Architectural services outline
BIM literally changes the design process (Figure 2.3) by providing the
followings (Eastman et al., 2011):
• Earlier and more accurate design visualisation
• Integrated and interrelated changes
• Accurate 2D drawings as well as cost estimates extraction from building's 3D
model
• Collaborative design
• Sustainable design improvements
Because BIM provides the information flow within one model in a multi-
disciplinary process, sustainability issues and building performance analysis
would be facilitated throughout the design process while conventional process
requires a lot of time and a great deal of interventions and interpretations by
designers to achieve such analysis (Azhar, Brown and Farooqui, 2009). The
impact of BIM on design process can be studied in three categories:
"Construction-level modelling" that is the strongest point of BIM, "Integration of
engineering services" with the support of integrated analysis and simulation
capabilities, and "Conceptual design" by facilitating preliminary exploration and
assessment of design (Eastman et al., 2011) which means BIM integrated
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procedure that facilitates interdisciplinary design, changes the generation of
architectural design concepts as well (Pihlak et al., 2011).
Figure 2.3: Comparing different distributions for design services.

Copyrights: Marcatects
The major feature of BIM is that its model provides intelligent building
components through which the building data is accessible (Lee, Sacks and
Eastman, 2006) thus offers manageable changes within integrated components
of the building based on their parametric relations (Sanguinetti, 2008; Eastman
et al., 2011). This characteristic of the building's 3D components has made the
BIM model interpretable for several analyses (Eastman, 2009; Rosenberg,
2008). Indeed, modelling in BIM is not based on geometrical elements but is
defined by the parametric building objects (Rosenberg, 2008). Now, the
question is that how BIM is transforming the concept design stage. First of all,
specific features of this particular stage of design should be studied.
2-3- Requirements of Concept design phase
In the concept design, sketching is the most important activity where designers
try to create flexible and conceptual representation of their ideas and therefore,
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sketches play a critical role in achieving a creative solution, which begins from
the stage of showing what is going on in the designer's mind to the level of
visualising the functional elements of the building (Suwa, Gero and Purcell,
2006). Many used 3D modelling platforms to visualise the concept and at the
same time to provide the client with more understanding about how the space
will look like (Lee et al., 2008). Such building modelling is of the interest of
Architects as they can create more exotic shapes with more control on
geometry (Eastman, 2009).
Besides, in the conceptualisation, architects most of the times review the
options on aesthetics as well to make the Architecture distinguishable (Pihlak et
al., 2011; The Foundation, 2009). They sometimes think about the forms,
materials and combinations that might not have been explored before. For that
reason, conceptualisation is the step that needs more free design explorations
(The Foundation, 2009). On the other hand, some digital design methods such
as Generative approach have introduced new ways of design and modelling
through computation and algorithms (McCormack, Dorin and Innocent, 2004)
that has brought more creative controlled exploration to the design (Meredith,
lasch and Sasaki, 2008) and more innovative conceptual free-form creation
which cannot be found in the existing BIM platforms (Eastman et al., 2011).
When the concept of the building is finalised, the architect and the
engineers begin to conduct several analyses such as structural behaviour of the
building elements or energy analysis that each will bring feedbacks, most of the
time changes, to the design. At this stage also, some questions as "what ifs" will
be asked that makes the design team to think about other possibilities for the
most efficient and practical project (The Foundation, 2009).
2-3-1- Energy analysis in conventional concept design
The most effective decisions about building's energy consumption and

sustainable design are made in the early design stage (Azhar, Brown and
Farooqui, 2009) and the life-cycle energy, thermal comfort, and daylighting
performance of the building is determined at this stage (Sweeney, 2008).
Although there are some energy analysis platforms along with conventional
CAD modelling tools for the benefit of energy-efficient buildings, there are two
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obstacles in considering these outcomes (Stumpf and Brucker, 2008;
Autodesk, 2007). Firstly, most of the times analyses are done in later phases
when the documents are produced (Azhar, Brown and Farooqui, 2009),
sometimes too late to be implemented as it would cause a great amount of
changes to the components of the building while the design is about to be
finished. If energy analysis can be done early enough in the design process
then it can be easily coordinated with any changes required (Stumpf and
Brucker, 2008; Autodesk, 2007) which current tools and processes do not
support such rapid generation and analysis of design alternatives (Sweeney,
2008) needed for concept sketching. Secondly, as modelling platform is
different from the analysis platform, some data are in risk of missing in exporting
and importing the model between applications (Stumpf and Brucker, 2008;
Autodesk, 2007). Thus the lack of analysis integration into the design process
generally ends up with inefficiencies and in order to achieve a proper study on
building performance in the early design, a set of data regarding the building’s
form, materials, orientation and alike are needed early enough in the process
(Azhar, Brown and Farooqui, 2009).
2-4- Benefits of implementing BIM in concept design
BIM gives the opportunity to investigate several possibilities of the design not
just based on their geometric expression but also with testing its performance to
achieve the optimum result whether it is energy consumption or cost or
construction thus the errors and conflicts can be reduced (The Foundation,
2009). From the very beginning of the project, BIM provides preliminary cost
estimation, construction sequencing and energy analysis (Eastman et al.,
2011). So, by using BIM the designers will be able to create integrated designs
while checking their performance too (The Foundation, 2009).
An interesting example of the benefits of integrated assessment and
analysis for concept design phase has been developed by Georgia Tech team
for GSA, considering GSA design process standard. Initial designs submitted
for GSA review known as "Preliminary concept design" and firms are required to
present at least three alternatives of spatial concepts (traditionally in paper) so
that each could be assessed regarding space programme, standards, cost and
energy use estimation clearly done by hand. But as this example describes
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(Figure 2.4) several assessments can be achieved from a single conceptual 3D
model (Eastman et al., 2011).
Model data
Figure 2.4: Example of integrated assessment for concept design

review. Copyrights: Georgia Tech
In brief, BIM benefits at this particular stage of design can be categorised

as the following items:
• Accurate visualisation: One important driver of BIM adoption is the
advantages of 3D representation which this kind of visualisation assist
the design team to understand the design and resolve the problems
better (RAIC, 2007). This is known as the key benefit of BIM which
provides accurate geometrical representation of the building's
components in a database (Azhar et al., 2008b).
• Design optimisation: By BIM implementation, Design “errors” and
mistakes are significantly reduced thus fewer changes needed in later
stages of design (RAIC, 2007). Design alternatives can be precisely
analysed and simulated fast which can improve innovative design
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solutions end up with better (Azhar et al., 2008b) and higher quality
design.
• Design Coordination: A Building Information Model provides an
integrated database of the building (Azhar, Brown and Farooqui, 2009)
thus within a single database coordination among design team members
can be improved (RAIC, 2007) and information can be shared more
easily (Azhar et al., 2008b). BIM facilitates communication between
designers assuring them that there will be no clashes, conflicts or errors
in later stages (The Foundation, 2009).
• Environmental analysis: The integration of BIM with performance
analysis tools provides complex analysis allowing the architects to have
easy access to tools thus feedback on design alternatives would be
achieved fast and early in the design process (Azhar, Brown and
Farooqui, 2009). At this stage to model the thermal zones and achieve
building the amounts of energy usage, a perimeter and core thermal
modelling approach is used and the designer can make some limited
changes to the defaults to test design variations (Eastman et al., 2011).
Eventually this can enhance the design in terms of building orientation,
building massing and skin type, daylighting analysis, water harvesting,
sustainable materials and masonry (Azhar, Brown and Farooqui, 2009).
• Cost estimation: At this early stage, all the geometric information
required for quantities is already available in the model (Bailey et al.,
2008) therefore, quantity take-off can be automatically driven from the
Building Information Model, accurate cost estimation can be provided
which supports fast feedback on design (Eastman et al., 2011).
Some would believe concept design stage is more creative and would not
need any integration to other phases of design. However, it is in this stage that
the building and its costs are being shaped and because of such importance,
information modelling would need to begin from the initial stage (Lee et al.,
2008; Autodesk, 2007). If we want to use both processes to achieve more
freedom in concept design and more integrated detailed design in BIM then the
importing and exporting would take a lot of time (Autodesk, 2007) and
inefficiencies in exchanging the information will happen (Eastman et al., 2011).
Page 14
Even if we assume that we will not lose data in this process, imagine the
situation that the detailed design has been progressed and an unexpected
change happens that directly relates to concept of the building. In this case
designers would need to start again to create these separated models and
obviously will lose time and money (Autodesk, 2007).
2-5- BIM Technology and concept design
As BIM was enabled by the advancement of technology, software platforms

play a critical role. But it should be noted that BIM is a process and is not just
software and software only facilitates the approach (Malone, 2010) and this
major change is not only technology change but is a process change (Eastman
et al., 2011).
Building Information Modelling incorporates parametric modelling as a
powerful tool for visualisation and analysis (Sanguinetti, 2008) within its 3D
object oriented environment (RAIC, 2007). It represents the development and
use of computer-generated n-D models to simulate the design and helps
designers to visualize and simulate what is going to be built and to identify
potential issues. With BIM technology, an accurate virtual model of a building is
digitally created (Azhar et al., 2008b). The elements of the building can be
displayed in several views graphically while carrying non-graphic attributes with
them. This kind of parametric geometry of 3D components with assigned rules
and variable dimensions, bring intelligence to these objects that are
representing both geometric and functional relationships between building
components (Howell and Batcheler, 2004).
Software providers have taken major steps to move from vector-based
geometric objects to 3D-based parametric objects (RAIC, 2007). Almost all of
the technology vendors across AEC industry that were earlier providing CAD
solutions now are offering key technologies for BIM solutions. Also, there has
been a fast growth in the number of new technology providers developing add-
ons in order to improve the capability of their BIM applications (Eastman et al.,
2011; Malone, 2010). Some of the major BIM platforms include Autodesk Revit,
Digital projects, Bentley systems, ArchiCAD (Wortman et al., 2008) (Eastman et
al., 2011) that each provides different potentials while not being
comprehensively developed (Eastman et al., 2011) in terms of geometry and
Page 15
data components. In other words, they do not treat the process as a whole and
it is required to standardise the BIM process. Thus suitable solutions are
needed to be developed to overcome these challenges (Azhar et al., 2008b).
2-5-1- Interoperability standards

There are two approaches to support collaboration among project members and
integration of data with workflows. First, to use one vendor tools, that means all
designers in the team should incorporate tools with same vendor. Second, to
use different vendors' tools while considering industry supported standards
providing interoperability among applications (Eastman et al., 2011) such as
IFC. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a neutral and open specification
that is not controlled by a single vendor or group of vendors. As a commonly
used format for BIM, it is an object oriented file format with a data model
developed by IAI to facilitate exchanging of information and interoperability in
the building industry (RAIC, 2007) now endorsed as a draft ISO standard
(Howell and Batcheler, 2004). XML is another schema support data exchange
which is an extension to HTML and is good for small amounts of data. It is
anticipated that these supports for exchanging data will grow especially with
regard to incremental data updates (Eastman et al., 2011).
2-5-2- BIM platforms
Generally SketchUp, Rhinoceros and BonZai are favourite sketching tools that
are user-friendly and supporting freeform sketching. BIM software developers
have included some of these capabilities for concept design in their products to
compete with this market (Eastman et al., 2011). There are plenty of BIM
software applications (RAIC, 2007). The top three software packages are:
Autodesk Revit, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, Bentley Architecture (Azhar et al.,
2008b). Some of the major BIM tools are critically reviewed in brief as below.
• Revit:
Currently, there are a lot of architects who are using Revit Architecture
(Hergunsel, 2011) which is known as the most realistic interpretation of a BIM
package performs as a central project database. The ability to coordinate every
Page 16
building element in one database is the strength of this approach, which is
providing users with the ability to see the results of design revisions made in the
model immediately reflecting them in the related views and to detect any
coordination issues (Howell and Batcheler, 2004; Hergunsel, 2011). The
package includes several software applications: Revit Architecture, Revit MEP,
and Revit Structure (Azhar et al., 2008b) and AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite
(The Working Group, 2010).
Figure 2.5: Concept design in Revit by CASE.

Copyrights: Autodesk
For estimating purposes, information can be exported to other estimating

programs which have been designed to work with Revit Architecture (Azhar et
al., 2008b). Revit has built-in sequencing options while each object can be
assigned a phase and can also be updated via MS Project (Hergunsel, 2011).
At the moment 31% of the market share belongs to Autodesk and due to
increasing number of designers switching to Revit, it seems that the market will
remain at the same direction (Malone, 2010). Ecotect and Green Building
Studio are owned by Autodesk while the former is an environmental analysis
tool that is the least versatile in terms of value and costs and the latter is a web-
based energy analysis service that provides users with the capability of
evaluating the environmental impact of building components in the early design
Page 17
stage, more versatile than Ecotect but lacking Acoustic capabilities (Azhar,
Brown and Farooqui, 2009). In initial form-finding stages, the current set of
interfaces in Revit imposes constraints and often explorations of form are
executed in a flexible environment and imported into Revit and currently it is
used more successfully as a project delivery platform (Park and Holt, 2010).
CASE (Figure 2.5) has provided a conceptual design whitepaper for Autodesk
describing how Revit features can be used at concept design and analysis
(CASE, 2010).
• ArchiCAD
Graphisoft's ArchiCAD application is orbiting a virtual building model rather than
being seen as the central archive for the entire model. ArchiCAD has been
regarded as a BIM system since its inception over 20 years ago (Howell and
Batcheler, 2004). Although in many ways it is similar to Revit, its interface is
completely different and learning the software is not as easy as Revit. There are
a number of add-ons to be used for structural analysis, energy use and facility
management (Malone, 2010). Its server capabilities facilitate collaboration and
object-level design coordination (Eastman et al., 2011). Although its limitation in
parametric modelling decreases the variations, it has large object libraries
(Malone, 2010). It has effective ways to manage large projects but because it is
an in-memory system it has scaling problems with large-scale projects
(Eastman et al., 2011).
• Bentley Systems:
Within Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, Bentley HVAC, Bentley Civil,

Bentley Building Mechanical and some more, Bentley Systems (The Working
Group, 2010) offers a very broad range of modelling tools (Eastman et al.,
2011) interpreting BIM differently comprising a family of application modules
(Howell and Batcheler, 2004). It supports modelling with complex surfaces. For
developing parametric objects, it has multiple levels of supports through
Parametric Cell studio and Generative Components. It supports large projects
with many objects as well as multiplatform and server capabilities. However, its
products are partially integrated and for data consistency it takes more time
(Eastman et al., 2011). Also the highest levels of interoperability can only be
Page 18
achieved when the entire family of Bentley products employed on the project
(Howell and Batcheler, 2004). Bentley used to have a large number of drafting
users because of its rendering quality (Malone, 2010).
• Digital project:
Digital Project comprises nine modules: Designer, Foundation, Viewer,

Structures, MEP, Knowledge Template, Knowledge Advisor, Project Manager
and Primavera Integration (The Working Group, 2010). It is created by Gehry
Technologies and launched in 2004 using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA V5 as a
core modelling engine (Dassalut Systems, 2012). Its engineering-calibre
geometry engine provides the designer with a toolkit for constructing complex
3D surfaces and solids (Park and Holt, 2010). It can integrate 3D models and
perform automated clash detection (Dassault systems, 2011). It offers powerful
and complete parametric modelling capabilities (Eastman et al., 2011). The
specification tree lists all the geometry and features but this organization
method is rigid and limits the designer to think of the parameters in a particular
way. The parametric relationships have not been developed properly to
anticipate certain changes and it is difficult to alter them and to maintain any
parts that depend on a relationship. For earlier stages design, such constraints
imposed by the platform are not desirable (Park and Holt, 2010). It has a
complex interface and its predefined object libraries which are external third-
party object libraries, are limited. Besides, the architectural drawing capabilities
are not fully developed (Eastman et al., 2011). Scripting within DP can relieve
some of the rigidity but the user is still tied to the platform-specific geometrical
primitives. Parametric modelling toolset cannot capture the progression of the
design logic through various iterations and changes, either due to immaturity of
the toolset or its rigidity (Park and Holt, 2010).
2-5-3- Design coordination tools
Most of the major BIM tools support model review and online mark-ups which
are light, view-only tools that rely on a neutral format like VRML or IFC and can
be transmitted quickly enabling collaborations via web conferences (Eastman,
2009). BIM tools that support coordination are Navisworks, ProjectWise, Digital
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Project Viewer, Solbiri and Vico. Brand new Tekla BIMsight also helps the user
to combine models and add comments (Hergunsel, 2011). Autodesk
Navisworks and Solbiri allow multiple models to be overlaid and displayed
together (Eastman et al., 2011).
Autodesk Navisworks is a well known platform for design review and clash
detection. However, it comes with a feature called Timeliner to simulate
construction schedules. While Timeliner can link Microsoft Project, and
Primavera project planner with various BIM formats, it is a unilateral information
exchange platform (Hergunsel, 2011). Generally, two-way workflow can be
achieved between BIM platforms and structural analysis tools but development
is still needed for effective two-way exchanges in most other areas (Eastman et
al., 2011).
All in all, in reality, because of the limitations of BIM platforms designers

are using separate 3D conceptual models being created in other tools such as
SketchUp (Howell and Batcheler, 2004). The reality check leads the study to in-
depth investigation of the challenges.
2-6- Existing challenges
Despite the benefits of BIM for design, its potential for early stages of the design
process has not been fully realised because current tools and processes do not
support fast generation and evaluation of alternatives (Sweeney, 2008). In
other word, current BIM tools are inappropriate for the concept sketching
because of their restricted parametric object-based features in dealing with
complex forms. That means, while BIM promises an integrated design process,
a fully supported workflow has not been achieved yet (Eastman et al., 2011).
And if designers use other design solutions at this stage, the information flow
and coordination issues will be affected (Howell and Batcheler, 2004).
BIM weakness in supporting freeform conceptual design have been
recognised by some of the software developers and started to be developed by
adding some tools for sketching exploration but the workflow is not smooth
enough yet (Eastman et al., 2011).
Indeed, BIM should make a balance between the requirements of concept
design and the data integration. But none of the existing BIM tools has
Page 20
comprehensive capabilities for these requirements (Eastman et al., 2011).
Further work is needed to improve appropriate building data captured within the
model for energy analysis. It needs to document the critical design parameters
and parametric relationships that must be considered in the effective design of
energy systems during the conceptual phase. Moreover, a methodology needs
to be developed that designer can use simulation cycle to investigate more
design alternatives in shorter time (Sweeney, 2008). BIM providers are aware of
the limitations and this is an ongoing development (Eastman et al., 2011).
2-7- Summary of Literature review
In this chapter, research objectives have been investigated through the review
of literatures. BIM impact on design process has been discussed and the
requirements of concept design such as sketching have been identified.
Benefits of BIM for conceptualisation has been summarised in to items such as
design optimisation and better design coordination. Also, by looking into the
features of BIM technology, potentials and areas of improvements of major BIM
tools such as Revit, Bentley, ArchiCAD and Digital Project have been
described. And by critically analysing the reviews, some of the existing
challenges of BIM implementation at conceptualisation such as weaknesses in
delivering free forms have been recognised and some of the required
improvements have been identified.
Page 21
CHAPTER 3: Research Methodology
3-0- Introduction
In this chapter, the overall methodology for research is described. At first, the
mode of study is explained and a critical review of literatures regarding research
methodology is presented. Referring to the research objectives, selected
methods are explained. For each individual method, the detailed procedure is
presented and data analysis plan is described. The challenges of study are also
identified and finally, the ethical consideration is reviewed.
3-1- Research Approach
Planning a research is similar to planning a trip and the researcher should

decide about quite a few things before starting the research (Merriam, 1998).
Research is one of the several ways for collecting information to answer the
questions involved, within a process that is objective and has a framework of
thinking based on reliable methods (Kumar, 2005). Clearly, these methods
should be selected regarding the nature of research objectives.
Qualitative and Quantitative mode of study are both similar in research
process but the methods of data collection, the procedure of data analysis and
the communication of findings are different in each (Kumar, 2005). Qualitative
research is mainly emphasised on the processes, meaning and understanding
of an issue, generally undertaken when there is a gap in theory (Merriam, 1998;
Denzin and Lincoln, 1994) tries to develop a theory in an inductive study
(Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007). It interprets a phenomenon by the
means of the definitions that people provide (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). On the
other hand, Quantitative research focused on the measurement and the
analysis of variables and does not look into the processes (Denzin and Lincoln,
1994). It tests an existing theory rather than building a concept (Merriam, 1998)
known as deductive research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007).
This dissertation is designed within a qualitative study. Based on the aim
and objectives of the research that are looking into the processes of
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implementing BIM at conceptualisation not into measuring any variable, the
study will fit into the Qualitative Approach.
It should be noted that qualitative research is inductive and its result is
strongly descriptive. The researcher is the main instrument of collecting and
analysing data. Such study needs fieldwork while researcher should personally
get involved in the process and go to people (Merriam, 1998). In the design of
the study these major facts have been taken into consideration.
3-2- Literature review
Literature review in the research is essential and should be conducted to find

the position of research questions within the body of knowledge and later on,
the findings of the research should be compared with those existing knowledge.
Therefore, literature review is continuous (Kumar, 2005). Within a critical
literature review, the foundation of research can be provided through the
research background, key sources, theories and findings as well as the debates
and possible issues and problems (Gray, 2004).
The answers to the research objectives 1 and 2 are provided within the
literature review while creating theoretical ground for objectives 3 to 5 as well
described in Table 3.1.
3-3- Research Strategy and Techniques
There are several categorisations of research methods within reference books

and articles. A common agreement can hardly be found in the terminology of
research methods and its classification (Barrett et al., 2011). According to
Barrett et al. (2011) the strategy of the research is known as the general
approach that the research relies on. They introduce three research strategies:
1) "Experiment" which is suitable for measuring the effects of two variables on
each other. 2) "Survey" which is the standardised way of data collection from
groups of people. 3) "Case study" which deals with development of specific
knowledge by looking into a limited number of related cases. In each of these
strategies specific research techniques are used for data collection while typical
techniques are "Questionnaire", "Interviews", "Observation" and " Archival
analysis" (Barrett et al., 2011). Gray (2004) explains Research Techniques are
Page 23
the tools, sometimes knows as methods, used to collect information in order to
apply the research strategy (Gray, 2004).
However, Saunders (2007) introduces a different viewpoint for research
strategy classification within the "Research Onion" as illustrated in Figure 3.1
(Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007).
Figure 3.1: Research onion according to Saunders, Lewis and

Thornhill (2007)
In other word, the idea of differentiation between research strategy and

techniques of data collection are the same between Saunders and Barrett and
they have a common vision regarding the first three strategies (Experiment,
Survey and Case study). Meanwhile, Saunders adds four other strategies of
research (Action research, Grounded theory, Ethnography and Archival
research).
Additionally, Kumar (2005) describes two major approaches for data
collection illustrated in Figure 3.2. As he explains information needed for a
research sometimes already exists and the researcher should extract it but
sometimes this information should be collected directly, so he categorises the
data into "Secondary" and "Primary" data accordingly. For gathering
information, each has their own methods. Where the information is second-
Page 24
handed, all documents that are already available can be used such as
publications, reports, etc (Kumar, 2005).
Observation
Primary data Interviewing
Data Questionnaire
collection
Methods
Secondary
data Documents
Figure 3.2: Data collection methods according to Kumar (2005)
Denzin and Lincoln (1994) also describe the methods of data collection for
a qualitative study mainly within interviewing, observing, documents, visual
methods and personal experience methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994).
For selecting the appropriate research method in this study, three major
facts have been taken into consideration:
Firstly, because this study is looking into design process, some important
facts should be considered. Design is known as a process and activity while has
an end result as a product. In other word, we can see different products created
in same processes or reaching a result through several processes (Lawson,
2006). The outcome of a process is a design description (Gero, 1990). Also,
BIM is not a single thing or software and includes human interactions and
processes (Eastman et al., 2011). Hence, the chosen methodology of research
should cover both aspects looking into the product and process.
Secondly, the selection of research methods depends directly on the aim
of the study and questions being asked (Barrett et al., 2011). Thus, the study
has looked for the most appropriate methods that can fit into each objective.
Thirdly, the methods of research and collecting data should be feasible
(Kumar, 2005) in terms of time and available resources. As the research is
Page 25
designed for the MSc dissertation in almost three months, time constraints is
important. Besides, the access to the resources whether people or design
projects within the time limits has been studied carefully.
In addition, to secure an in-depth study and understanding of the research
questions, applying multiple methods is useful (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994;
Barrett et al., 2011) and is more desirable. Hence, considering all facts, the
selected research methods are described in Table 3.1.
Research Methods Obj-1 Obj-2 Obj-3 Obj-4 Obj-5 Obj-6
Literature review * * * * *
Case
* *
Secondary analysis
Case
sources:
study Cross-
Mixed Documents
case * * *
Methods analysis
Semi-
Primary
Interview structured * * *
sources
interview
Table 3.1: Research methods with regard to the research objectives
With regard to the objectives 3 and 4, the study needs to investigate the
theoretical benefits of BIM in the actual projects that have already implemented
Information Modelling in the concept design considering the technological
issues. Therefore, studying the appropriate projects would be the best possible
method. Besides, the comparative study across cases will depict some of the
challenges regarding the fifth objective too. Moreover, to find the questions
regarding the objectives 5 and 6, the research needs to look into the existing
challenges and point out possible solutions. Thus, the research conducts
interviews for gathering the primary data that will discuss technical barriers too.
Based on the fact that the research is being done in England that has already
started to look into BIM implementation in the public projects within a 5-year
adoption plan by 2016 (Fulcher, 2011), the practitioners who are aware of BIM
implementation and its obstacles, can be accessed and interviewed.
Page 26
In fact, within 4 possible research techniques (Barrett et al., 2011; Soy,
1997), this research will conduct "documentary analysis" and "Semi-structures
interview" because firstly, it will make the research more strong by combining
data collection approaches (Soy, 1997) and secondly, other techniques
(observation and questionnaire) are not suitable for the aim of this study.
3-3-1- Case study procedure
Case study is known as a method that provides the research with adding
strengths to what has already been done in previous experiences through
analysis of limited number of projects and because it is applicable in real world,
it is beneficial (Soy, 1997). It relies mainly on inductive reasoning in handling
multiple data sources (Merriam, 1998). The research needs the use of case
study when it is required to gain an in-depth understanding of a real issue and
this understanding fundamentally involves with contextual conditions (Yin,
2009). Referring to the third objective of research, this would be the best
strategy for the study as it will provide BIM benefits in the actual projects. The
technological consideration has been taken into account to support the forth
objective too.
Figure 3.3: Multiple-Case Study approach according to Yin (2009)
It is more desirable to study multiple cases because of its analytic benefits

and because it can produce stronger effect (Yin, 2009). So, in this dissertation
multiple-case studies have been targeted in which data needs to be collected
Page 27
and analysed from several cases (Merriam, 1998) and the researcher must
choose each case carefully (Yin, 2009). This will provide an appropriate base
for cross-case analysis (Soy, 1997). General approach towards multiple case
studies according to Yin (2009) is shown in Figure 3.3 from defining the cases
to concluding stage (Yin, 2009). For investigating objective 3 and 4, several
contributors are involved. As discussed in chapter 2, based on the fact that what
tools are being used, the modelling process and creating the concept would be
affected. Hence, the study needs to investigate multiple cases from
technological point of view.
Two major issues that should be mentioned are the approach to selecting
the cases and the methods used for data collection.
3-3-1-1- Selection of Cases
The purpose and logic of the research defines the cases to study (Merriam,
1998). According to Yin (2009) in a multiple-case study, each case should be
selected with careful consideration while appearing as multiple experiments with
either similar or contradicting result. In each of the cases, the research should
clearly present "how" and "why" they demonstrate a particular proposition (Yin,
2009) presented in next chapter. In order to find the best case, the criteria for
selection need to be established (Merriam, 1998). The number of cases
selected for the study should be sufficient too. It is mostly related to the theory
and the extent to which it is straightforward as well as the degree of certainty
needed (Yin, 2009). The amount of data needed to be gathered depends highly
on the research questions and a reasonable coverage of the research purpose
(Merriam, 1998). Indeed, the number of theoretical issues is based on the
researcher's common sense of "the importance of rival explanations" and the
study may need additional cases if the rivals are stronger (Yin, 2009).
Furthermore, BIM incorporates modelling tools for its creation (Sanguinetti,
2008) and BIM software programmes are equipped with specific features and
building objects that form the modelling process (Eastman et al., 2011).
Therefore, in the design process each of the platforms provides different
building systems (Rosenburg, 2007). Referring to the objective 4, in order to
find cases that can best satisfy the study (Soy, 1997) three cases are selected
Page 28
from technological point of view, two of which are selected from the projects
created with two most popular BIM software programmes (e.g. Autodesk Revit
and Digital Project) at conceptualisation and the third one is selected among the
projects that applied mixed platforms (Table 3.2).
3-3-1-2- Data collection technique
Interviewing, field observation and document analysis are three major

techniques of data collection in case study while in some studies only one
method is merged in the process of understanding the issue (Merriam, 1998).
Documents are explicit sources for collecting data including written reports,
formal studies, news articles and any piece appearing in the mass media (Yin,
2009). In this research, the cases information are collected through
documentations such as Articles, reports, whitepapers as well as online audio &
video sources as shown in Table 3.2. Documents can be helpful to uncover the
meanings and to establish reasoning for the research objectives but because
they have been produces independently, it should be located in accordance
with the research problems (Merriam, 1998) thus using documents should be
systematic and relevant (Yin, 2009) that this study carefully considers.
Data collection
# Criteria of selection
technique
Projects that used Targeted BIM tools:

Case 1 one of the popular
BIM tools (that are  Revit Documentation:
different in nature  Digital Articles,

Design projects
technologically) to project News,
that used BIM
Case 2 generate concept  Bentley Reports,
methodology at
design Video presentations
concept design
of designers online
phase
Project that used
Case 3 mixed tool for BIM mixed BIM platform
at concept design
Table 3.2: Summary of the criteria for selection of cases and data
collection technique
Page 29
3-3-2- Interview procedure
For the fifth and sixth objectives as well as completing the forth, this study used
interviews as the method of data collection and people who have been involved
in BIM implementation and have experiences and knowledge of how BIM is
transforming the design process, have been targeted.
These interviews are in a way of guided conversation rather than
structured queries (Yin, 2009). In fact, a research would need interviewing when
the observation of the fact on how other people interpret the issue are not
available to study (Merriam, 1998). Moreover, the interviewees can discuss the
issues being asked from their own perception while the interviewer should
conduct an effective interview within well-designed questions (Kajornboon,
2008). So, the main step is selecting relevant people for interview and then
designing the interview themes.
3-3-2-1- Interview Participants
Concept design stage is mainly led by Architects who are the creators of the
building's concept. It generally involves engineers, specifically structural
engineers to study if the building design is feasible within structural analysis
(SCRI, 2010). Therefore, these two groups of people should be considered as
participants of the interview. Besides, contribution of academic researchers with
comprehensive knowledge about how ideally BIM should perform would bring
additional perspective to the study. For that reason, three groups of people
shown in Figure 3.4 have been invited. These people are among Architects who
are the creators of concept design, Structural Engineers who cooperate in BIM
concept design process and Academic researchers with different perspective of
what BIM in concept design should be.
In order to find the most relevant people for the study, a research has
been conducted among people who have been already involved in BIM
adoption and the inquiry was made to several sources: First of all the potential
interviewees among academic staff have been recognised. Then, some
academics in BIM related research centres (e.g. Centre for Construction
Innovation) have been asked if they have any network with the practitioners.
Other helpful source was LinkedIn, which is a social networking website among
Page 30
business people. More importantly, there is a group within LinkedIn website for
BIM experts providing business-related discussions. Therefore, public profiles of
this professional group's members were studied in order to find people who
meet the criteria.
Target Groups
BIM professionals
Consultants/
Architects Strcuturel Engineers Academics
Figure 3.4: Target group for interview participants
18 professionals from several places across United Kingdom, United

States and European countries were contacted. Among them, based on the
time limit and schedule agreed, 5 people accepted to participate in the
interview. The information about the participants is summarised in Table 3.3.
Face-to-
Invited Agreed Telephone Structural Consultants/
Face Architects
People Participants Interview Engineers Academics
Interview
18 5 3 2 1 2 2
Table 3.3: Interview participants and approach
3-3-2-2- Interview format
Semi-structured interviews used in this research provide views and opinions

while a list of key themes and questions should be covered within an interview
guide but other questions may be added too (Kajornboon, 2008). It brings
flexibility in data collection and is useful for an in-depth study (Kumar, 2005).
Besides, the order of the questions can be changed based on the direction of
the discussions (Kajornboon, 2008).
Page 31
In this study, first a guide contains major themes and questions has been
designed based on the previous stage findings to address challenges of
implementing BIM at conceptualisation and required improvements. The
interview guide can be found in the appendices. The questions were edited
twice, discussed and approved by the dissertation supervisor. In this particular
kind of data collection the researcher have the opportunity to explain the
questions (Kumar, 2005) therefore, whenever was needed, the questions were
reworded and put in a way that can be understandable by interviewees.
Considering the research objectives, Questions have been designed in 3 major
categories (Figure 3.5).
Challenges of
implementing BIM
in concept design
Technological Required
issues, e.g. BIM developments
platforms
Interview
questions
categories
Figure 3.5: Three categories of questions and themes in the

Interview guide
For instance, the answer to the question: "In your experience, how object-
based design, integrated process and paying attention to the information flow
have affected conceptualisation?" would uncover some of the challenges of BIM
modelling. When the interviewee talks about his experience and opinion
regarding BIM technology, the question on "What do you think about
commercial BIM software programmes" will bring useful data on technical
challenges and "What development is needed" will show the required
developments.
The interview has been designed within a 30-minute discussion session so
that it can fit into the tight schedule of the professionals and prior to the
meetings primary information regarding the study has been sent presented in
the appendices.
Page 32
3-4- Approach to analysis
It is true that even during the data collection, the researcher has already started
to analyse it and such attitude towards the qualitative research is highly
recommended (Merriam, 1998).
It should be mentioned that there are problems in analysing the qualitative
data because they are not well formulated (Merriam, 1998) thus raw data needs
analysis of the content through a structured procedure. Firstly as illustrated in
Figure 3.6, it needs processing of data, basically starts from the stage of data
collection to the stage that data is ready for analysis, mainly in three major
steps (Kumar, 2005).
Verifying Information:
Raw Data Data Analysing
coded Research
Data Editing Coding Data
Data findings
Figure 3.6: Summary of data analysis procedure
According to Kumar (2005) in order to analyse qualitative data, a process

called "content analysis" needs to be undertaken within four steps (Kumar,
2005) where emergent themes are generated shown in Figure 3.7.
•identification of the main themes

1
•Assigning codes to main themes

2
•classification of data under the main themes

3
•integrating main themes to the report

4
Figure 3.7: Content analysis process according to Kumar (2005)
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Besides, another fact about data analysis in qualitative research is the
preference of researcher for a specific writing style (Kumar, 2005). Also,
presentation of the results should balance complexity of data with emergence of
main themes (Barrett et al., 2011).
In order to establish the quality of the findings, the research has
considered validity and reliability in each step (Kumar, 2005). The emphasis on
providing the answers to the objectives has influenced not only the collection of
data but the analysis of data.
3-5- Challenges of the study
In completing any research work there are some challenges involved that
should be identified and planned. In this study, the following challenges have
been identified and resolved.
 Research method: In using secondary data we need to be careful about

the problems (Kumar, 2005) and relevant, organised and contributed
information should be selected thus practical ideas should be found in the
sources (Hart, 2006). Therefore, two questions should be answered first about
whether the source has relevant information and whether the required data can
be gained in a practical way (Merriam, 1998). In addition, because documents
and online resources have not been gathered for this research purpose,
limitations and their fit with the context of research should be studied while
being accurate and unbiased (Merriam, 1998). Moreover, as this study is using
mixed methods of data collection it should be planned and executed as a
coherent methodology (Barrett et al., 2011).
 Interview: Alternative questions have been designed to keep the interview
on the right track. Besides, problems of access to practitioners have been
another issue. These people are generally busy with their ongoing projects thus
the invitation respond rate have been considered low and the interview was
kept as tight as possible.
 Case study: There are some examples of projects that have utilised BIM
methodology in their design process but there are currently very few projects
that have implemented BIM at the stage of concept design and generally the
focus of reports are on delivery stage. Besides, in multiple-case studies, there
Page 34
are some downsides because multiple cases might not well rationalised within
the research (Yin, 2009) and the result may be too lengthy (Merriam, 1998).
These issues have been resolved during the research.
 Time: Due to the fact that this study has been designed in the framework
of MSc dissertation, time constraint is another issue. Additionally, for conducting
interviews bank holidays (e.g. Easter break) were considered. Although the
invitations were sent electronically in advance, the possibility of the fact that
they may not be available within the timing of this study was anticipated, thus
alternatives were listed.
3-6- Ethical consideration
A research needs to be ethical and should adhere to the code of conduct.

Generally, ethical issues are concerning collecting information and seeking
consent and also in avoiding bias, using proper methodology, etc (Kumar,
2005). In this research additional major facts are considered and ethical
approval has been gained through School of the Built Environment policy
presented in the appendices.
 Avoiding plagiarism: Because several resources such as published and
unpublished articles, online sources, etc were used as the secondary data,
therefore the validity and reliability of the reports were assessed and also each
work was addresses to its credits (Soy, 1997; Gray, 2004).
 Interview ethics: The informed consent of the subjects should be
obtained by informing the interviewees about the study and the final result of the
research in advance (Gray, 2004) and also they have been asked if they are
willing to be mentioned by name within the study. If the respondents are not
willing to continue at any stage, the interview should be cancelled (Kajornboon,
2008) and the relevant information should be removed from the study. They
have been offered the opportunity to receive the result and conclusions of the
research. Besides, the interviewees have been informed that they would be
able to withdraw from this study at any time. The interviews were agreed to
contain audio-taping and electronic files stored in a secure computer. Also, in
interviews the timing, privacy of the participants and clear understanding of the
questions and required information have been considered.
Page 35
3-7- Summary of the research methodology
This chapter has looked into the research methodology by providing critical
review of the possible approaches. The Research Mode has been selected as
qualitative approach. Moreover, the significance of the process of literature
review has been discussed. By reviewing the methods, Case study and
Interview have been selected. For conducting case study, the research has
chosen to do a multiple-case analysis within 3 projects through documentation.
It has also selected to conduct interviews within semi-structured interviews by
designing a guide for covering the main themes, thus 3 groups of people among
professionals and academics have been invited. Next step which is the analysis
of the raw data, basically employed data editing, data coding, main themes
identification and categorisation. Besides, some of the major challenges in the
study have been figured out and have been resolved. Ethical issues also have
been considered and approved.
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CHAPTER 4: Research Findings and Analysis
4-0- Introduction
Based on the research methods chosen for the study, the results are discussed
in two main sections in this chapter. First section undertakes case studies and
presents the findings of each case and tries to find the answer to the questions
regarding the objectives 3 and 4 and partially 5. Second section, presents the
research findings through Interviews with professionals and seeks to reach the
research objectives 4, 5 and 6.
4-1- Findings from the Case studies

In order to find the answers to the questions regarding the 3rd and 4th objective
of the research, three case studies have been conducted. In these cases, the
research looks for actual benefits of BIM in the concept design stage within real
projects and also seeks to investigate the potentials that BIM tools and
technology provided for concept design. For selecting the cases, several
projects documentations have been investigated regarding the criteria of
selection. The first point that was depicted is that although the number of
projects used BIM methodology are becoming more and more, there are very
few projects that has used the idea of BIM at concept level and majority of
projects look into BIM adoption at the design delivery stages delivery. Three
projects selected to be studied while used different applications in the creation
of Building Information Modelling by using Autodesk Revit, Digital project and
mixed platforms. Study of the cases has made a ground for BIM technological
issues to be investigated in-depth.
4-1-1- Case 1: Masdar Headquarter building
Masdar Headquarter (Figure 4.1) claims to be world's first large-scale positive

energy building that took advantage of BIM. In other word, it produces more
energy than it consumes (Centreline, 2008; Minutillo, 2008). Situating near Abu
Dhabi, it is a part of a larger project Masdar City performing as a zero-carbon
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development in UAE as a showcase of technological advancement in
renewable energy (Autodesk, 2010a).
An integrated design team were the winner of the international competition
including Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Thornton Tomasetti structural
engineers and Environmental Systems Design MEP engineers (Autodesk,
2010a). This project is chosen for study because it used the idea of BIM and
integrated project delivery from the beginning of the design as an opportunity to
generate the concept of the building and also has used the variety of Autodesk
BIM tools. For that reason, it is an ideal case to be studied and the findings of
this study are summarized as below.
Figure 4.1: External view of Masdar Headquarter Building.

Copyrights: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
 Concept of the building: The building’s architectural feature is a set of 11

steel-and-glass-enclosed cones (Minutillo, 2008) supporting the massive rooftop
canopy designed to shade the building and to provide a platform for Photovoltaic
panels (Centreline, 2008). The designers were inspired by traditional Middle
Eastern wind towers for designing the cones as shown in Figure 4.2 and used
an intuitive approach to find the effect of lighting and ventilation at the
beginning. Then, the engineers started to use analysis tools and 3D platforms to
validate the airflow, heat transfer, etc with a much simple model of cones
(Minutillo, 2008).
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Figure 4.2: Concept for the cones. Copyrights: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
As shown in Figure 4.3 the cones help natural ventilation and cooling by
drawing warm air up to roof level, where it dissipates in the wind, provide
structural support for the roof (Autodesk, 2010a) and bring daylight deep inside
the 1-million-square-foot complex (Minutillo, 2008). Also from architectural point
of view, they form pleasant interior courtyards like an oasis (Figure 4.4). It is
believed that the cones are acting as interdisciplinary objects for architects and
engineers performing lots of features for all aspects (Autodesk, 2010a).
Figure 4.3: Ventilation of the building through cones. Copyrights: AS + GG
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The eight-story building shown in Figure 4.5 (Minutillo, 2008) includes
offices, retail spaces, private residences, shaded public gardens and access to
the city’s transportation systems (Autodesk, 2010a; Centreline, 2008).
Figure 4.4: Left: Interior views, Right: Cones

and ventilation of the building.
Copyrights: AS + GG
 Design collaborations: During the competition (which is the major part of

concept design) the three firms worked from offices in Chicago in an integrated
design process. Within a collaborative approach, design teams were able to
integrate architectural, structural, and building systems to increase the
efficiency and constructability of design by evaluating the design assumptions
taking advantage of the integration of BIM tools with analysis applications
(Autodesk, 2010a). From the very beginning, they knew that they need to bring
in the engineers at conceptual phase in order to meet Masdar city
development's goal to achieve a sustainable design (Minutillo, 2008) and to
develop the initial concept of the building derived from the wind tower. When all
team members were connected through an integrated system from the
beginning, the design had the opportunity to look beyond the aesthetics at
concept design stage and long before the design decisions were locked, BIM
helped the designers to evaluate different strategies. For instance, in the early
stages designers used the BIM model to study about the orientation of the
building, daylighting, etc to optimize the form of the building that eventually
helped to reduce the building's energy consumption (Autodesk, 2010a).
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 Early stage cost estimation: The design team describes that by using BIM
tools their conceptual cost estimation for the building has come up almost the
same as the general contractors brought for the final project (Autodesk, 2010a).
 Tools and technologies: Architects carried out building orientation and
shading studies by using Revit and Ecotect. Then, the engineers transported
the 3D model to eQUEST for building energy-use analysis to optimise the
mechanical and electrical systems. In addition, the designers used a third-party
analysis application, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), to simulate the air
flow and cooling effect (Minutillo, 2008). The team used BIM process primarily
as a tool for documentation, discovery, coordination, and conflict resolution.
(Autodesk, 2010a). In terms of geometry, the cones have a very complex
structure sitting on the top of a concrete structure and BIM within Revit structure
(Figure 4.6) has helped to figure out how these two structural systems can
combine (Autodesk, 2010b).
Figure 4.5: Sectional perspective of the building introducing the inner

spaces. Copyrights: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
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Figure 4.6: Cones and their complex structures.
Copyrights: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
 Early design feedbacks: BIM enabled the architects to rationalize the build-
ing’s complex geometries much faster than traditional 2D approach (Centreline,
2008; Autodesk, 2010a) to get design feedbacks and proceed to next level.
Also, early detection and resolution of conflicts have been provided through the
intelligent model and reduced mistakes and costs involved (Autodesk, 2010b).
4-1-2- Case 2: Basrah stadium
Basrah Sport city (Figure 4.7) in Iraq, is hosting 2015 Gulf Games which first
phase includes a 65,000 seat Olympic stadium, an 18,000 seat auxiliary
stadium, four practice pitches and athlete housing (Langan International, 2011).
The team consists of Threesixty Architecture as the major designer, Thornton
Tomasetti structural designers and Iraqi contractor, won an international design-
build competition for the project (Threesixty Architecture, 2009; Thornton
Tomasetti, 2012) CASE was also hired by 360 Architecture to provide geometry
definition, design rationalization and BIM support for the main stadium that in
the early design exercises developed a custom parametric model to control the
overall stadium geometry and design rationalization (CASE, 2011). The main
stadium (Figure 4.8) has been chosen to be studied in this research because
they took advantage of BIM modelling in CATIA (Digital Project) platform to
address many design and collaboration issues especially among architectural
and structural teams for the design of its complex geometry and for making the
Page 42
conceptual form rationalised for later stages of design and the actual
fabrication.
Figure 4.7: Basrah Sport City. Copyrights: 360 Architecture
Figure 4.8: Basrah main Stadium. Copyrights: 360 Architecture
Page 43
 Concept of the building: The design concept is specific to Iraq (Figure 4.9)
and its culture while reflects both Arab Architecture and regional icons creating
a bridge between past and modern era (Threesixty Architecture, 2012). The
facade resembles a small basket used for collecting dates from the plum trees
as shown in Figure 4.10.
Figure 4.9: Basrah stadium concept. Copyrights: 360 Architecture
Figure 4.10: Basket for collecting dates, a regional icon
Basrah Stadium is a multilevel structure with a cast-in-place concrete base

holding a steel structure for the roof. The stadium will be enveloped with a
curtain wall of multidirectional curved elements (Thornton Tomasetti, 2012).
Thornton Tomasetti engineers who are providing structural design and building
skin modelling described their approach to information modelling for the concept
design of this project in July 2011 meeting of NYC Revit Users Group provided
and supported by SOM and HOK (Vandezande, 2011) while Robert Otani and
Jonatan Schumacher directors of Advanced Computational Modelling group in
Thornton Tomasetti discussed how parametric modelling helped them to
achieve more optimum design as below.
 Design coordination: Based on three major ideas they have tried to

integrate parametric design into their everyday design approach: Firstly, to
Page 44
integrate structural engineering with architects, to be able to rationalise the
geometry in structural analysis model and solve the interoperability problems.
Secondly, to respond quickly to the architect's design in terms of required
changes and design feedbacks. Thirdly, as engineers and architects start to get
more into fabrication the BIM model has become very important to have a clean
tool to enable exchanging information back and forth from the model.
 Tools and technologies: The original sketch model was created by Rhino-
Grasshopper and the architect intent was to have five types of panels with
different height from top to the bottom as illustrated in Figure 4.11.
Figure 4.11: Stadium skin and five types of panels on each of the
two curvatures in End zone and Side zone.
Copyright: Thornton Tomasetti
But when it came to the engineering analysis, because of the two different
curvatures degree in stadium as shown in red and yellow (Figure 4.11), it would
be assumed that 10 different moulds need to be built for making the skin
panels, five moulds for each curvature areas and because each mould makes 4
months to be built it would make the overall fabrication almost three years just
for making the moulds that is not realistic. In this case, the concept would seem
Page 45
to need a major change or alternatively the design should be modified to reduce
the number of moulds (from 10 moulds to 5 moulds). They end up using Digital
Project (CATIA) because as they describe it has much more control on surface
curvature in order to study on each unit. They used Powercopy tool inside DP
which are basically prototypical components that have certain degree of
flexibility and activity so when the designer instantiate or populate them, they
adapt depending on the context and base curves (Figure 4.12). So, the panel
units have been made within some certain parameters and instantiated in the
skin and then the information of each panel was studied in the Excel sheet, the
problem Areas were detected and different aspects of design were coordinated
in terms of openings, aesthetics, etc finding an ideal and optimum shape within
one month process.
Figure 4.12: An example of using powercopy tool inside Digital Project
 Early stage cost estimation: Because the fabricator was already using DP
as well and because designers recorded the panel area on the excel sheet, they
were able to estimate the amount of fibreglass needed and the fabricator could
tell them how much it would cost from the early design stage.
 Accurate conceptual model: Rather than just having a sketch model with
some renderings, the intelligent model has provided the structural engineers
with actual analysis model and to proceed to the other stages of design they
already had a well-behaved model that can save time. As Figure 4.13, 4.14
Page 46
illustrate, because of the complex geometry, different angles of surface
connections and complicated brackets, it was important to make sure the
building can be assembled in x, y, z directions accurately. So, when all the
information is coming from one model from the beginning the designers were
pretty confident that the components will fit together on the site.
Figure 4.13: Panels made in Digital Project with information on

Excel sheet. Copyright: Thornton Tomasetti
Figure 4.14: Interior view and the skin panels. Copyright: Thornton Tomasetti
Page 47
4-1-3- Case 3: Lotte Super Tower
The Lotte Super Tower project in Seoul, Korea, is designed by Skidmore,

Owings & Merrill (SOM) which is a 1821ft-high 112-story tower. Its floor plan is
different at every level goes from being a square at the base to the circle on the
top (Figure 4.15). The designers used parametric modelling to create the diagrid
form of the building while facing challenges especially in designing the large
number of diagrid connections. They end up using specific technical solutions
not only for the 3D modelling and visualisation but also in using Visual Basic
scripts within software programmes (Khemlani, 2009; Brown and Besjak, 2009)
Figure 4.15: Lotte Super Tower. Copyrights: SOM

This project has been chosen to study because it fits into the third item of
the case selection criteria using several BIM platforms and also the design team
in this project had an innovative approach regarding information management
and modelling as they created "a master data model" by scripting in the form of
Page 48
programmed codes to make the information flow easier (Park and Holt, 2010)
and in a way, they translated BIM approach in to a new attitude rather than just
using available software packages.
Many designers associate BIM and also parametric modelling with
particular software programmes, but according to Katz (2007), an architect in
SOM, BIM is less related to the tools and is more to do with approaches of
design. As he describes, in this project AutoCAD which is not generally known
as a parametric platform became an environment for applying a BIM parametric
approach (Katz, 2007).
Figure 4.16: Building's form. Copyrights: SOM

 Concept of the building: The geometry of the tower is transforming from
square to circle in plan (Figure 4.16) and is conceptually addressing
architectural and structural ideas (Park and Holt, 2010). The geometric problem
of such transformation of shape in the building is resolved by using Diagrid, a
series of triangles that combine gravity and lateral support providing an
architectural enclosure made of straight planes and also accommodating the
various twists and turns in the overall structure (Volner, 2011)
Page 49
 Tools and Technology: For the building information modelling while the
designers used common tools as Bentley, Revit, Digital Project, Ecotect, etc,
the process was additionally enhanced by complimenting features which
designers customize themselves by using a simple application: AutoCAD (Katz,
2007) not with using AutoCAD specific functions but with using AutoLISP as it
provides easy handling lists of data while the design parameters were kept in a
separate configuration file that the software read in as part of its initialization
process thus different forms of outputs were generated for different needs (Park
and Holt, 2010). As shown in Figure 4.17, the lisp program generates one-
quarter of the structure, and uses symmetry to complete the models. In addition
to 3D representation, the building model was created as an unfolded model for
laser-cutting (Katz, 2007).
Figure 4.17: 3D model and unfolded model. Copyrights: SOM
 Coordination: Flexibility and coordination capability in this project was

provided by the master data model in the form of programmed code responding
to the constant changes faster than software platforms and allowed coordination
between architects and structural engineers at concept design. For instance,
Page 50
the optimal angle for the diagrid structure was determined mathematically and
translated into software code. This helped the design team to achieve an
efficient communication within accurate information. Both disciplines had
already agreed on the parameter logic and their relationships through codes
(Park and Holt, 2010) thus within a central model, designers were able to
control over the change and data (Brown and Besjak, 2009). This platform-
independent communication between the disciplines facilitated design
consultancy, and provided flexibility (Park and Holt, 2010).
Figure 4.18: Early stage solar analysis. Copyrights: SOM
 Early stage analysis and studies: The designers used parametric

modelling within AutoCAD to develop a tool for solar incidence angles analysis
(Figure 4.18) at concept design stage (Katz, 2007). Besides, one of the early
studies was an exercise to figure out the optimum angle of the diagrid members
while coordinated with architectural team because this was also a part of
building's expression. Structural team concluded the joint are best to be studied
in 3D model but initially were unsure how to do this efficiently as they are
Page 51
generally comfortable working with frames and 2D analysis. They realized they
should use the accurate 3D model and the real challenge was to find a tool to
create the geometry in 3D so they end up using Bentley (Brown and Besjak,
2009).
 Information flow challenge:
Platform-Free
Design Parameters Central Database Analysis platforms
in Visual Basic
Design platforms
Figure 4.19: Modelling workflow in Lotte super tower
4-1-4- Cross-case Analysis
Benefits of implementing BIM at the concept level in practice were studied in

three cases with regard to technological issues. By looking into each case,
emergent themes are presented in the Table 4.1.
Page 52
BIM
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Study
Use of
BIM in
  
concept Despite the advantages of coded master
design
model, some technical challenges were becoming apparent. Moreover, software
developing
Major team had limited experience in using Bentley and they
Coded wereModel
Master concern
+
Autodesk Revit Digital Project
platform
about Mixed
interoperability aspects to collaborate with architects. When thetools
structural
team turned to Bentley platform to explore the problem, the initial AutoCAD
 Assisting form finding
script werehanded
Assistingup
form  Assisting
programming conceptual However,
in Microstation. process because of the
finding process design rationalisation  Design optimisation
 Providing integrated
length of codes they soon realized  Design
this is optimisation
not a practical solution. In the Model
 Coded Master end an
analysis  Interdisciplinary design as central database
 Providing
engineer was assignedearlyto be responsible
stage evaluation for the programming tasks of the
 Interdisciplinary
analysis  Facilitating design design evaluation
single database
 Designwritten in Visual
optimisation Basic. Analyses were
collaboration done in separate
BIM  Facilitating design
 Interdisciplinary  Providing early stage collaboration
applications by exporting
Benefits design evaluation and importing 3D solid elements
cost estimation (Brown and Besjak,
 Providing early stage
2009). Theoverall
Facilitating
process  Providing
designand workflow early stage in Figure
is illustrated 4.19.
analysis and integrated
collaboration analysis studies
 Providing early stage  More control over  Integrated energy
cost estimation geometry analysis
 Assisting early  Accurate model for later  Assisting early design
design feedback stages through to feedback process
process fabrication
Use of Yes
Yes Yes
other Bentley, AutoLISP, etc
e.g. eQUEST, CFD for e.g. Grasshopper for initial
platforms and several analysis
engineering analysis form finding process
platforms
Table 4.1: Emergent Themes from Cases
By comparing cases, the advantages of BIM adoption at the early stages

of design will become apparent. These benefits can be categorised in two
groups. Firstly, common benefits that each of the cases has depicted such as
improving the collaboration in the design process. Secondly, based on what
platform is used, design process can specifically benefit from the technology for
instance, designers may have more control on geometry and the form finding
process may be assisted dramatically. These categorised themes are
summarised in Figure 4.20.
Page 53
Common benefits of BIM Possible benefits of BIM
in concept design in concept design
in the cases in the cases
•Assisting the progress of Design •Assisting form finding process

optimisation •More control over geometry
•Facilitating design collaboration •Accurate model for later stages
such as : Providing through to fabrication
Interdisciplinary design
evaluation, Assisting early design •Creating a Central database
feedback process, Assisting •Providing integrated analysis
conceptual design rationalisation)
•Providing early stage cost
estimation,
•Providing early stage analysis
Figure 4.20: Common and possible benefits of BIM in the study of cases
In addition, when comparing the cases, the technical challenges of

implementing BIM at this particular stage of design becomes clear and one
would realise that current software packages cannot address all technological
requirements of design and designers need to use alternative analysis and
design platforms to achieve their design goal. A fully integrated analysis was not
detected in any of the cases and as it is obvious in table 4.1, although designers
might focus on using a single platform at the early stage, they would need to
explore among other tools as well. This has brought a question in mind that
whether BIM process would benefit from an integrated process more by using a
single package or several packages. What is the efficient way of creating,
analysing and managing the conceptual information model in terms of using the
applications is one of the questions that the study tries to answer in the next
section.
Page 54
4-2- Findings from the Interviews
As discussed in Chapter 3, the research has conducted interviews among 3

groups of professionals: Architects, Structural Engineers and BIM Academic
researchers. Five individuals accepted to participate in the study and have
discussed their opinion and experiences on the interview questions. The data
from 3 of the five interview participants are discussed in this study as introduced
in Table 4.2.
Interviews Name Occupation & Specialty
1 Professor Arto Kiviniemi University Professor, Researcher
2 Mr. Martin Simpson Associate director of Arup,

Structural engineer
3 Mr. Benedict Wallbank Director in JRA, Architect
Table 4.2: Interview participants' information
Their ideas and experiences regarding the challenges of BIM at Concept

level, technological issues and the required development are discussed.
4-2-1- Interview 1: Professor Arto Kiviniemi
Professor Arto Kiviniemi is Head of design directorate and professor of Digital

Architectural Design at the University of Salford. He has an extensive research
background in the area of BIM and integrated design and management. In his
book section in "Distributed Intelligence" (2011) he mentions that generally the
major challenge in BIM adoption has been the old work processes that need to
be changed and the obstacle is not just technology as it has developed much
faster than business models (Kiviniemi, 2011). Now, with particular focus on the
concept level of design process with technological issues that have been
identified, his views would be very helpful to bring a new perspective to this
study. His opinion regarding the research questions are summarised and
categorised as below.
Page 55
 Skills Challenges: When BIM first starts to be adopted at concept stage
the designer would think and concentrate on tools they are using, so they may
spent a lot of time and energy on some of the things that are not related to
design. But when they learn all the modelling rules, the design will become an
immediate extension of thinking process and it will make conceptualisation
much easier by giving the opportunity to investigate more possibilities of design.
 Technical problems: One problem in the current tools is that the
philosophy of using the tools is based on documentation and finding a solution
rather than being a part of creative process. There are very few tools that have
created as the media for design and as parts of the thinking. In conceptual
design one should use the tools that are the best for the thinking process and
when designers feel comfortable with any kind of modelling whether it is
physical modelling or alike, they should use it because at this stage the tools
mostly help to clarify the thinking. Even communication with other team
members is different with later stages where the interactions are more
structured with clients, contractors, etc. Besides, there are a lot of strong tools
currently in the market and there are many designers who know how to make
an additional application with modification of the tools so that it can fit better into
the design attitude. The tools are quite good but they are not perfect. Current
tools are not there yet because many of them have been developed from a
different angle to generate documentation rather than the real creative design.
 Creativity and BIM: If you just have a certain set of building objects it
would be limiting your creativity. In some instances it might be justified this is
intentionally the way to have standardized components in the building for
manufacturing purposes, not necessarily for similar building components but for
having certain rules. But if a unique design is needed, more freedom should be
implemented. So, it hugely depends on the nature of the project. If you have the
tools which are handling objects but giving freedom inside the rules and
freedom of geometry, it will not limit creativity.
 Design feedbacks: Providing the possibility of implementing design
changes within a short time based on the feedback from architects and
engineers is an important factor and for that reason they should use the right
tools. It is not just trying to maximise the efficiency and minimise the time needs
for doing the job but using the time to find the best solutions. Thus, tools should
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support the change process rather than just to define a good and acceptable
solution.
 Potential solution: The answer to the technical challenges for handling the
use of several platforms is interoperability. That means designers should use
whatever tools they want at any stage of design but that of course requires
transferring information. They might start with more simple platforms for
sketching and then move to more serious tools and usually the designers might
not have the need to go back into the initial tools but the ideal situation would be
that they could go back and forth within an integrated process. Ideally designers
should not be bothered by thinking about what tools should be used. There
should not be one tool for all purposes.
 Required development: The important fact in BIM is that how tools can
support incremental information additions in a way that you can start with
simple information with not much detailed data and then the designer can go
step by step deeper in the production of information. At the moments, tools do
not fully support this and sometimes replacing information is easier than
modifying the existing one.
Second fact is related to the kind of available user interface. We are still
using mouse interacting with an instrument which is not inside the screen far
from where the design is taking place. There are few tools with limited
capabilities of such design, but it is an area that needs improvements.
Moreover, display resolutions are also still insufficient and have not been
improved at the same speed of processing power or hardware capabilities.
Even the best display cannot represent resolution of the architect's conventional
table of 1 meter by 1 meter so that you can look at the details at the same time
you are looking at the whole without zooming. For that reason architects are still
printing the design to look at the whole and details at the same time. So, the
screens are not supporting the design thinking process.
 Future of BIM implementation: Huge changes of the mindsets are taking
place. New generation does not have problems with utilising technology and are
all thinking in the space of digital manipulation. So, very creative thinking on
development of tools will happen towards an attitude that is not just imitating 2D
paper drawings but is really thoughtful. The level of abstraction at the concept
design stage and the level of representation of the real world object in the virtual
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environment should be very flexible and the designer should not think about the
details that are not necessary at this stage.
4-2-2- Interview 2: Mr. Martin Simpson
Mr. Martin Simpson is associate director of Arup and lead structural engineer at
ArupSport. He was Structural Engineer Leader on the renowned Beijing
Olympics Stadium known as "Bird's Nest" that employed parametric approach
and associative design for its complex geometry. He is a pioneer in BIM related
design with Arup (SCRI, 2010). He is actively involved in presentations and
discussions around BIM and base on his extensive background in practice, his
point of view has recognised to be of importance for this study.
According to SCRI (2010), he explained in his previous presentation at the
University of Salford that the need and desire for BIM was introduced in Arup
within the philosophy of ‘Total Architecture’ quite long ago, the process in which
"all relevant design decisions have been considered together and have been
integrated into a whole by a well organised team. However Arup did caveat this
‘Total Architecture’ as an ideal that is rarely fulfilled in practice" (SCRI, 2010).
The challenges related to the gap between the theory and applications have
been discussed with Martin Simpson as follows.
 Sharing accurate data: There are still very much separate models, and the
challenge is that different teams may be working at conceptual design using
different design tools but they are not necessarily sharing data. In other word,
Rhino or Sketch-Up model might be received from Architects but it has not been
put together to suit internal process with the idea of sharing data in mind. Also,
the appropriateness and accuracy of data is an important fact at conceptual
level for example when creating rough free form models, they might not work
together without knowing that which one is right.
 Insufficient information for design feedbacks within limited time: There is
not enough Interchange or relevant design information at early stage. It's not
because of a particular tool the design team is using but because how the
process is set up to enable enough information to be fed back to the process to
enable them to come up with the answer in a short time. For instance, the
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architect creates a shape and gives it to the engineer and the engineer puts it to
structural analysis and finds out that it does not work and it is too long a period
to get the feedback into the design. Also some information might not be
available at conceptual level and they only find that information later in the
design process.
 Creativity and BIM: BIM will guide the creativity rather than limit the
creativity. If engineering knowledge is built into the design tools it will really help
designers because they will be informed if the building can be built or not. It is
not enough to just create a virtual model as we are ultimately creating a real
building so if something cannot be physically done or needs to be altered like a
curvature that cannot fit into the structural analysis, it can be pushed and that
feedback will help Architects. It might limit them from producing certain forms
during the conceptualisation but it will speed up the whole process.
 Use of BIM technology: When a new project comes to the office the
process that we take on board is that we hold a BIM review and we will sit and
look at the advantages of tools to see if it is deliverable and then we choose the
right piece of software for delivering that project. If it is quite simple building with
lots of concrete into it we might go for Revit or if it is a steel building we might
go for Tekla, if it is quite complex shape or large scale project we might go for
digital project, so we will choose the software depending on the needs of that
project, we would not pick a piece of software and keep it for all projects. There
is no single software that can do absolutely everything that we need to do, we
need to be able to use the right piece of kit to do the job properly similar to the
example that you do not have a single screwdriver for everything in your tool
box as you need to have several screwdrivers and choose the right one for the
job.
 Technological coordination: What should happen at the start of the project
is that different team of the project should get together and define the way of
modelling and platform. For example, if they are using Rhino then it should be
defined each layer is for what information and it needs to be coordinated better.
That is what is missing rather than saying a particular piece of software must be
used because it is about information flow and the process of sharing
information needs to be improved.
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 Required development: Two things are needed. Firstly, the process of
information flow needs to be a lot more rigorous and to be defined between the
different team members in terms of who is going to do what particular bit and
how they are going to get that information to the rest of the team, what
information are they going to supply and how they are going to supply that.
Secondly, the exchange of information digitally needs to be enhanced so that
the right piece of information can be exchanged around the team with
minimising the amount of duplication. The solution should be some sort of
neutral collaboration platform that everybody can put information into it
regardless of what platform they are using and can share appropriate
information between packages in a particular way, rather than working on one
software package.
 Future of BIM implementation: BIM future is really positive. One of the
things that will start to happen is that design tools will change the boundaries of
current professions line. For example if we took engineering knowledge and
bound those into smart components and gave them to an architect to use, then
the structural engineer knowledge has actually bounded into a small component
that the architects are using in the design. Ultimately there will be an evolution
in terms of smart components with a lot of engineering knowledge embedded to
speed up the design process and this will also change the landscape of how we
work together as team.
4-2-3- Interview 3: Mr. Benedict Wallbank
Mr. Benedict Wallbank is RIBA chartered Architect and is director in JRA (John
Robertson Architects). He has pioneered JRA’s use of BIM and his BIMit
consultancy advises practices for implementing BIM.
He believes that BIM is not just technology as it deals with management,
process and workflow. His involvement in several design projects in London and
his knowledge of BIM together with his effort in encouraging other practices to
make a transition towards BIM, has made his opinion regarding the interview
questions worthwhile. His ideas are presented as follow.
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 Collaboration challenges: There has still been a period right at the
beginning of design where the architects work in isolation and not in conjunction
with others contributing in the model. Under traditional design work flow,
architects have pretty much work in isolation until the end of post-planning
stage, what known in the UK as stage B of RIBA where they create the design
and when it fully formed they go for the relevant permissions from the
governmental authorities and at that stage the information migration will start to
be fed in although architects would have spoken to engineers beforehand about
e.g. structural systems. Architects using a BIM process have brought a great
deal of involvements but there is still a challenge.
 Creativity and BIM: There is no reason at all that BIM should limit
creativity. In the Integrated Project Delivery system there will be more influence
from other parties about for instance what particular systems should be
considered for the job that might be seen as a limit but in any design process
the architect works within a set of constraints, that constraint might be the site
or the direction of sun, etc. When the architect is appointed by constraints, it will
help him to contribute to a new process to achieve a good design.
 Use of BIM technology: If a designer's particular method of operation at an
early stage suites a non-BIM platform or whatever (e.g. hand-sketching or
physical modelling, or even another form of modelling) then he should use that
but on the whole, from architectural point of view, working in BIM tools from the
beginning is more desirable to achieve a good design. It depends on the
designer's decision about using anything for conceptual design to achieve the
form but as soon as he is beginning to get to the real form then he needs to
work in a proper BIM environment. Interoperability and the ability to use
whatever software designers feel works best for them is an important issue that
needs improving interoperable standard and making IFC, RFD, etc work
correctly to give designers the freedom in choosing software.
 BIM applications: There are literally hundreds of different software
manufacturers providing different products although in certain market there are
certain software packages that are predominant. They all have advantages and
disadvantages at the moment and they all have areas that they should and will
improve. But there are not any huge areas where software cannot do things in
the way they used to be.
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 Required development: As the IT industry generally moves on a
tremendous speed, there are several software developers that need to maintain
competition, so to achieve success the designer should contribute effectively
within the design team with having an interoperable standard for the exchange
of information to make the design cost-effective.
 Future of BIM: At the moment all of the software put their effort more into
the delivery stages, there is quite a lot to do to ease that at the early stage. So
over time there would be more effort put in to make the early stages easier in
BIM environment for the designers to work with and clearly they need a lot of
improvements. There are increasingly other pieces of software out there for the
early stages for instance, in designing a hospital a tool can check the suitability
of spaces and their sizes for finding the relationships between the rooms that
might not be particularly for conceptual design but is helpful for the designer
when beginning to find spaces correctly. These tools already started to be
available to provide such opportunities in design and could be an improvement
area for BIM integration as well.
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4-2-4- Analysis: Emergent Themes from interviews
By analysing the findings from the interviews, Emergent themes are presented
in Table 4.3 to 4.5 according to three categories of issues that the research tries
to answer explained earlier in Figure 3.5. And finally the overall results from the
comparative study of three interviews summarised in Table 4.6.
# Emergent Themes
Challenges of implementing BIM in concept design

 Skills challenges: using BIM tools should become as a thinking
process by gaining skills
 Creativity: if a certain set of building objects is used it would be
limiting creativity but could be useful for some particular designs
with standardized components. But if the tools which are handling
objects give freedom to geometry, it will not limit creativity.
 Design feedbacks: the point is not just trying to minimise the time
needs for design but using the time to find the best solutions and to
support the change process
Technological issues
 BIM tools are not there yet because the philosophy of using the
tools is based on documentation rather than being a part of creative
process.
 In conceptual design any tools that are the best for the thinking
Interview
process should be used although it is now challenging.
1  There could and should not be one tool for all purposes.
Required development
 Designers should use whatever tools they want and the answer to
the technical challenges is interoperability.
 The ideal situation would be that designers can go back and forth
within an integrated process without thinking about tools
 The support for incremental information additions needs
development
 Improvement in the kind of user interface is needed.
 Display resolutions are insufficient and needs improvement to
support the design thinking process.
 Huge changes of the mindsets are taking place in realising digital
space.
 The level of abstraction at the concept design stage should be
very flexible.
Table 4.3: Categorised emergent themes from Interview 1
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# Emergent Themes

 Sharing accurate data: There are still very much separate models
without sharing the appropriate and accurate data properly.
 Creativity: BIM will guide the creativity rather than limit the
creativity by giving them more knowledge about the design. It
might limit them from producing certain forms during the
conceptualisation but it will speed up the whole process.
 Design feedbacks: There is not enough design information at
early stage and the process is not supporting design feedbacks to
be led to the answer in a short time.
 The tools should be used with regard to their suitability for
delivering the project.
 There is not and should not be single software to do everything
Interview similar to using several screwdrivers.
2  What is missing now is that technological coordination should
happen at the start of the project among team members thus the
process of sharing information needs to be improved.
 The exchange of information digitally needs to be enhanced for
exchanging information with minimising the amount of duplication.
 The solution should be some sort of neutral collaboration platform
that everybody can put information into it regardless of what
platform they are using
 In future design tools will change the boundaries of current
professions line through the evolution of smart components with a
lot of engineering knowledge embedded to them to speed up the
design process.
The landscape of how we work together as team will change.
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# Emergent Themes

 Collaboration challenges: Right at the beginning of design still
architects work in isolation and not in contribution with others.
 Creativity: There are more influences from other parties that might
be seen as a limit but like any other constraints, this will help
designers to contribute to a new process to achieve a good design.
 Designers should be free to use any method at the early stage but
as soon as they start to get to the real form then a proper BIM
environment is needed.
 Working in BIM tools from the beginning is more desirable to
achieve a good design
Interview
 Interoperability and the ability to use any software platforms is an
3 important issue that needs improvement.
 BIM applications have advantages and disadvantages at the
moment and they all have areas to be improved.
 Within the competitive environment of IT industry, having an
improved interoperable standard to make the design cost-effective
is the solution.
 At the moment all of the software put their effort more into the
delivery stages and there will be more effort to make the early
stages easier in BIM environment by integrating other available
technical advancements.
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Category Emergent Themes from Three Interviews
 Limited skills of designers in BIM applications at the beginning is a

challenges
 BIM might limit designers to some extent but eventually will guide the
creativity helping to achieve a good design rather than limiting it and
Challenges of sometimes such constraints are also useful for particular kind of
implementing production.
BIM  Collaboration challenges are:
in concept • The process of gaining proper design feedbacks in a short time.
design
• Sharing the appropriate and accurate data among designers.
• Still architects are working in isolation at the early stage in no
contribution with engineers.
 There is not and should not be single software to do everything and in

conceptual design any tools that are the best for the thinking process
should be used but as soon as the designers start to get the real
form, a proper BIM environment is needed.
 Working in BIM tools from the beginning is more desirable.
Technological  The process of sharing information needs to be improved within early
issues technological coordination among teams.
 BIM tools all have areas to be improved and are not advanced yet.
One reason is that the tools are based on documentation rather than
being a part of a creative process.
 The tools should be used with regard to their suitability for delivering
the project.
 Designers should use whatever tools they want so the exchange of

information digitally without duplicating data needs to be enhanced
by improving interoperability.
 The support for incremental information additions needs development
 Improvement in the kind of user interface is needed.
 Display resolutions are insufficient and needs improvement to support
the design thinking process.
 Huge changes of the mindsets are taking place in realising digital
space.
 The level of abstraction at the concept design stage should remain
flexible.
Required
 The ideal situation would be that designers can go back and forth
development
within an integrated process without thinking about tools. The
solution can be some sort of neutral collaboration platform for
sharing data regardless of the platforms are being used
 In future design tools will change the boundaries of current
professions line through the evolution of smart components with a lot
of engineering knowledge embedded to them to speed up the design
process.
 The landscape of how we work together as team will change.
 At the moment all of the software put their effort more into the delivery
stages while early stage needs to become easier in BIM environment
and integration of other available tools to BIM platforms can help.
Table 4.6: Summary of emergent themes from Interviews
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4-3- Fieldwork summary
Regarding the research objectives, results of three cases and three interviews
together with their data analysis have been presented in this chapter.
At first, the actual benefits of BIM in the concept design stage have been
discussed within three projects of Masdar Headquarter, Basrah stadium and
Lotte Super Tower and the potentials that BIM technology can provide for
concept design have been investigated in these cases. In each of the projects,
different BIM technology was used and therefore the study has depicted three
different approaches and depicted some of the technical challenges too.
Eventually the results from the case studies has been summarised in two major
categories as common and possible advantages of BIM in Figure 4.19.
Then, in interview section, it is described that the data have been collected from
three interviews with Professor Arto Kiviniemi from the University of Salford, Mr.
Martin Simpson from Arup and Mr. Benedict Wallbank from JRA who are
academic researcher, structural engineer and architect respectively. Emergent
themes driven from the analysis of research findings in interviews regarding the
challenges of BIM implementation at concept level, technological barriers,
potential solutions and future improvements have been presented in Table 4.6.
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CHAPTER 5: Discussions & Conclusion
5-0- Introduction
In this chapter, first of all by focusing on how each of the research objectives
was met, a summary of the research questions and findings is presented. Then,
the relationship of this study with the body of literature is discussed and
limitation of the research is also described. Lastly, recommendations for both
future development and further research works are presented and the research
is concluded.
5-1- Research Questions
This research studied the impact of BIM on concept design stage and in order to
bring out the answers, a number of objectives have been oriented:
1) To review how BIM is transforming design process

2) To review the requirements of concept design
3) To study the actual benefits of BIM in conceptualisation
4) To review BIM technology potentials and limitations
5) To identify challenges of BIM in conceptualisation
6) To recommend potential routes for improving BIM in concept design
5-2- Summary of the findings
In this study, Literature review addressed the answer to the first and second
objectives while supporting the objectives three to five as well. Then through
fieldworks including three case studies which investigate third and forth
objectives and three interviews, in which fourth, fifth and sixth objectives have
been answered, the research questions have been met.
5-1-1- Literature review
Findings from the literatures related to the first two objectives depict that BIM is
affecting how we formulate design solutions and Changes the design process in
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three stages: construction documents, engineering services and conceptual
design by providing earlier accurate visualisation, interrelated changes,
accurate drawings and cost estimation from 3D model, improving collaboration
and sustainable design. Besides, at concept design stage, sketching is a critical
activity in achieving a creative solution and 3D modelling is a common
expression of ideas. Architects most of the times review the options on
aesthetics specifically at this stage. Besides, some digital design methods such
as Generative approach have introduced new ways of design to create more
exotic and innovative shapes. When the concept is finalised, the architect and
the engineers start doing analysis looking into design possibilities to optimise
the design. But in conventional methods, early stage analyses are not properly
done because they are not fast and integrated to design.
Findings from the literature relates to objectives 3 to 5 regarding the actual
benefits of BIM in conceptualisation, BIM technology potentials and limitations
and existing Challenges will be further discussed in conjunction with the
fieldwork's findings.
5-1-2- Fieldwork
Findings from Case study and interview look into objectives 3 to 6. Actual
benefits of implementing BIM at the concept design stage through studies of
three cases have concluded Common benefits and possible benefits based on
the tools being used. With regard to BIM technology within studying the cases,
some of the technical issues have been depicted.
Furthermore, findings from interviews have added other technical issues
and categorises the existing challenges in more detail. Future direction and
required developments concluded from the interviews supports the findings for
the last objective that will be further discussed in recommendation.
5-3- Discussions
The findings of this study are discussed in 4 main topics related to objectives 3
to 6 tries to connect two main research sources where fieldwork supports and
completes the findings from literatures by adding actual experiences to the
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general knowledge while literature review results provide a conceptual
background for the research.
5-3-1- The relationship between Research findings and Literature
By comparing the findings from the literatures and fieldwork, four last categories
of research queries make a contribution to the existing knowledge. The most
important outcome of the research discussion is to understand how BIM can
help conceptualisation in practice, what technology brings in this regard, what
major challenges still exist and what improvements are required in order to
further recommend the potential solutions.
5-3-1-1- Actual Benefits of BIM in conceptualisation
Benefits of implementing BIM at concept design stage have been investigated

within literatures and cases. Table 5.1 compares the theoretical and actual
benefits by depicting the fact that every item considered in the literatures as
benefits have been identified in real projects.
Benefits of BIM for conceptualisation Benefits of BIM for conceptualisation

from literature review from case study
 Design optimisation  Design optimisation

 Design collaboration like:
 Better design coordination and
interdisciplinary design evaluation
communication within a database and
early design feedback
fast feedbacks
conceptual design rationalisation
 Environmental analysis  Early stage analysis
 Early Cost estimation  Early stage cost estimation
 Accurate 3D visualisation  Accurate model
 Assisting form finding process
 More control over geometry
 Creating a Central database
 Providing almost integrated process
Table 5.1: Comparing theoretical and actual benefits of BIM
Moreover, depending on what tools are being used and what specific
technology is employed, BIM can bring other benefits to conceptualisation
shown in Table 5.1.
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5-3-1-2- BIM Technology
When studying about the potentials and limitations that technology has brought,
the results from case studies and interview complete the conclusion in literature
review (Table 5.2).
BIM Technology potentials & limitations BIM Technology potentials & limitations
from literature review from case study and interview
 Based on what platform is used, design

 Some of the major BIM platforms are process can benefit differently
Autodesk Revit, Digital projects, Bentley  Current software packages cannot
systems, ArchiCAD that each provides address all needs thus other platforms
different potentials in terms of geometry should be used as well
and data components.  A fully integrated analysis was not
detected in any of the cases.
 BIM is process change not just software  It is more desirable to start design in BIM
while software only facilitates it. tools
 BIM includes parametric modelling within  Early technological coordination between
intelligent object-based environment teams can improve the process
 BIM tools are based on documentation
 Most of the major BIM tools support rather than being a part of a creative
model review and online mark-ups like process.
Navisworks but still cannot provide two-  The tools should be used based on their
way workflow and data exchange. suitability for delivering the project.
 In conceptual design any tools that suit
 Industry supported standards like IFC the design should be used and the
and XML provide interoperability among answer is interoperability but when form
applications is finalised, a proper BIM environment
would be needed.
Table 5.2: Comparing potentials and limitations of BIM technology in
literature and fieldwork
The important fact to be highlighted is that there have been a number of

software packages developed for Building Information Modelling purposes and
each brings special capabilities however, there is not a single package that can
answer to all technical requirements. It is noteworthy that in conceptualisation,
designers should be able to use any tools for achieving a creative design
solution and they do not need to stick to a single application but at the same
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time design integration in terms of technical coordination is needed to be
applied. All in all serious improvement is required for supporting BIM process
not just for documentation but for a creative integrated design process.
5-3-1-3- Challenges
In addition to the technical challenges discussed, literatures and fieldwork as

shown in Table 5.3 describe other barriers such as the need for fast feedback in
conceptualisation that still needs progressing in current BIM tools. On the other
hand although BIM might be seen as a constraint, it eventually supports a more
creative design. Through this comparison an important issue become apparent
that although BIM has provided the design with a number of benefits, the design
teams are still struggling in achieving the design solution and relevant analysis
in a fast fully integrated and responsive process which is due to either their
limited skills or the inappropriate data management within tools.
Challenges of BIM at conceptualisation Challenges of BIM at conceptualisation

from literature review from case study and interview
 Current BIM tools and processes cannot  Collaboration is still challenging in e.g.
support fast generation and evaluation of gaining fast proper design feedbacks,
alternatives needed in conceptualisation sharing the appropriate and accurate
because of their restricted parametric data and architects are still working in
object-based features in dealing with isolation at the early stage.
complex forms.
 A fully integrated analysis process has
 A fully supported workflow has not been not depicted in case studies
achieved yet.
 Designers' limited skills in BIM at the
beginning is an obstacle
 Model's data for conceptual energy
analysis is not completely appropriate  BIM might be a constraint but eventually
yet will guide the design creativity
Table 5.3: Comparing challenges of BIM in conceptualisation in
literature and fieldwork
In brief, the overall discussion so far in identification of existing situation of

conceptualisation within BIM can be summarised in Figure 5.1.
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Technology
Features of Actual Benefits of
potentials and Challenges
conceptualisation BIM
limitations
Each application Current tools are not

Sketching and Design
has different supporting fast
form finding optimisation
capabilities generation and
evaluation of
conceptual
any tools help alternatives
Aesthetic Improving
thinking process
review collaboration
should be used
Model’s data is not
Early stage appropriate for
Visualising Current tools are
analysis and concept level
functional not addressing all
cost
elements requirements
estimation
Collaboration is a
challenge in sharing
Simulation Accurate 3D Includes fast and accurate
and analysis model parametric data
modelling
Sometimes Limited skills may

Assisting form Support model
using brings challenges at
finding review but not
Generative the beginning
with 2-way data
approach for exchange
more exotic BIM might be a
forms Control on Interoperability constraint but
geometry standards support eventually help a
data exchange good design
but needs
improvements
Central data The workflow is not
base Early technical smooth and
coordination integrated yet
should happen
More among teams
integrated
process A fully integrated
analysis is not
there yet
Figure 5.1: Summary of the discussions in identifying existing situation
5-3-1-4- Required improvements
In order to find the answer to the last objective and recommend potential
solutions for improving conceptualisation in BIM process, it is needed to identify
what improvements are required. Table 5.4 describes the findings from
literature and research in this regard where the research findings supports and
complete the findings from the literature.
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Required improvements Required improvements
from literature review from interview
• A methodology is needed to facilitate • Technical coordination needs to be done

simulation cycle for investigating more among teams at early stages for
design alternatives in shorter time defining the methodology
• Interoperability and exchanging data
with incremental data updates needs • Interoperability needs to be enhanced.
improvements • Incremental data addition support needs
• development is needed for effective two- development
way data exchange among tools
• Further work is needed to improve
appropriate building data captured within
• Tools need to facilitate early BIM design
the model for conceptual energy
and integrate other applications that
analysis
support concept design
• BIM tools needs improvements in terms
of geometry and data components
• Collaboration and fast feedback process
needs improvements
• Improvement in the kind of user
interface is needed.
• Display resolutions needs improvement.
• Huge changes of the mindsets should
be and are taking place.
Table 5.4: Required improvements found in literature and fieldwork
5-3-2- The implication of the study
Results of this research which are divided in three important categories of

benefits, challenges and future development of BIM in concept design stage,
have organised some of the major facts that can be useful for the following
parties and purposes:
1- Design firms who want to make a transition towards BIM adoption with
specific vision of implementing it from the beginning of the design process
2- BIM Software developers who are working on different aspects of BIM tools
developments
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3- Researchers in the area of BIM and integrated design while this qualitative
research can be used as a base for a further quantitative study to evaluate
or test the role of each contributor.
4- Designers with an obsession with data management who want to find the
existing capabilities as well as challenges and try to bring out creative
solutions either in programming or defining design methodology with regard
to integrated conceptualisation.
5-4- Limitation of the study
The focus of this research is limited to the Concept Design Stage within the
design process and how BIM is transforming it based on the current challenges
of implementing Building Information Modelling specifically with regard to the
existing applications and current versions of tools. The study looks into the BIM
design process as well but the major emphasis is on its early stages.
The study looks for the ongoing debates and desires for developments to
find out future direction and required improvement at this particular period. Also,
it should be noted that the discussions on the risks involved in general context
of BIM regarding the data ownership, liability, etc are beyond the scope of this
study.
5-5- Recommendations
Having completed the research, main recommendations of the study both for
practice and research are summarised as below.
5-5-1- Potential routes for improvements
In order to address the last objective of the research, it needs to recommend

some of the potential routes for improvements of BIM in conceptualisation with
regard to the findings about required development.
Firstly, as discussed BIM technology still needs improvements with regard to

the following facts:
-Geometry creation and control
-Data components
Page 75
-Integration of several analyses
-Interoperability issues and incremental data addition based on the stage of
design.
-Mark-up tools
-Fast design feedback process
Therefore, an endeavour is needed in term of software programming. According
to Eastman, software developers are aware of their products weaknesses and
are working on the advancements of their products (Eastman et al., 2011). An
important fact depicted from this study based on the features and requirements
of concept design that is leading mostly by Architects, is that in the process of
technical improvements contribution and consultancy with Architects and also
engineers as associate designers would assist to address the actual
requirements based on real design process and stages.
Secondly, to overcome the existing barriers in collaboration among design
members, as found in the interviews, the solution for ideal integrated process
can be a neutral collaboration platform that everybody can put information into it
regardless of what platform they are using. In this regard, the advancement of
interoperability would be helpful.
Thirdly, Mindset of designers should and is changing in a more digitally 3D
based thinking process and the current professions needs a change as well.
Furthermore, as Mr. Kiviniemi describes, as well as software requirements,
other enhancements in more practical interface and improved display resolution
will help information modelling become more realistic in the phase of
conceptualisation to achieve more creative thinking process thus, incorporates
the awareness of hardware manufacturers on such design requirements. In
other words, although designers should get used to the products of the digital
age, technology should bring some realistic products as well that can address
human being's thinking process.
Besides, a methodology is needed to facilitate simulation cycle for
investigating more design alternatives in shorter time and designers need to
coordinate and collaborate right at the beginning of the design process for
clarifying their attitudes towards information modelling within a responsive
methodology.
Page 76
Lastly, as Mr. Simpson anticipated in near future "Smart components" will
bring an evolution in the integrated BIM to speed up the design process. These
components, as he describes, can have embedded engineering knowledge for
the use of. Further work is needed for defining the practical function of such
smart elements and the amount of data that needs to be attached to them and
seems to be a potential way for leading more integrated intelligent design.
5-5-2- Future Research
Findings of this qualitative study can be further put into a quantitative survey to
test each variables and their effect in the conceptualisation. Besides, further
study on the impact of generative design and algorithmic approaches on
conceptualisation can be helpful for finding potential creative design solutions in
BIM. Also, works on the feature of "Smart components" and their applicability in
practice can be considered as a potential for hypothesised research projects.
Further studies on the methodology needed for an integrated design started
from the beginning of the design process, would be helpful both for the practice
and research purposes. Another research opportunity is to conduct a study on
comparison between the firms with different scales and the projects deploying
integrated design in conceptualisation with different scales to point out the
relationships between the scale of the projects and BIM conceptualisation
benefits and challenges.
5-6- Conclusion
This study looks into the impact of BIM in concept design stage. It has basically
investigated the literatures on how BIM is transforming the general process of
design and by pointing out features of concept design stage, it shows what
specific requirements have not been met in conventional design process that
will shift conceptualisation toward adopting BIM. One major fact is that the need
for integrated fast analysis to look into design possibilities and to help design
decision-making process has not been fulfilled in traditional concept design.
Then, through a structured methodology the research has conducted three case
studies and analyses cross-case results to find out what theoretical benefits
Page 77
have been achieved in actual projects. For that reason, three projects that have
employed information modelling approaches at their early design stage (Masdar
Headquarter, Basrah Stadium, Lotte super Tower) have been studied. In each
of these projects, different technological solutions are applied and therefore, this
has brought an additional dimension to the study about the potentials and
limitations of current BIM tools revealing that for instance, depending on the fact
that which technology is being used benefits of information modelling for
conceptual design will vary while almost all items found in literature have been
among common benefits of BIM in conceptualisation within these projects.
Furthermore, although BIM has been implemented for bringing integration to
design, an integrated analysis process has not been fully achieved yet.
Furthermore, the study has conducted three interviews with one Architect,
one Structural engineer and one Academic researcher involved in the area of
BIM to study the technological issues and existing challenges of implementing
BIM at concept level that has concluded important facts such as collaboration
obstacles that still is a major issue at the early design stage with regard to the
need for fast feedback process. Also, interviews have uncovered some of the
required developments in this regard such as technical advancements both in
software and in hardware products as well as the need for interdisciplinary
technical coordination at the beginning of the projects. Through discussions,
some potential routes for overcoming existing barriers and for future
developments are recommended in this research such as the need for smart
components as well as software developing issues. Besides, future research
works are identified.
In brief, as this study shows, BIM is an answer to the inefficiencies of
conventional processes and has brought a number of benefits to the design
process making it more integrated and collaborative, however not all the areas
of concept design is supported by the idea of information modelling and
designers are still struggling to achieve a best conceptual design solution in a
short time. Technology enhancement can be very helpful in this regard but other
areas such as updated mindsets, a proper methodology for design and supports
for a creative thinking process in concept design are as important as having an
ideal collaborative technology in hand.
Page 78
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A ppendices
Appendix 1: Ethical approval Form
Appendix 2: Participants' information sheet
Appendix 3: Research participant consent form
Appendix 4: Interview Guide
Page 85
A ppendix 1
Ethical Approval Form
Page 86
Page 87
Page 88
Page 89
Page 90
A ppendix 2
Participants' information sheet
Page 91
Page 92
A ppendix 3
Research participant consent form
Page 93
Page 94
A ppendix 4
Interview Guide
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Page 96
Page 97

Building Information Modeling in Concept

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Building Information Modeling in Concept

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School of the Built Environment

B UILDING I NFORMATION M ODELLING

Student ID: @00296833

A Dissertation presented to the

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of

Digital Architectural Design

My supervisor, Dr. Tuba Kocaturk for her encouragement, support and

Research participants for their taking part and valuable discussions,

Rita Newton for her endless support

All my family members for their love and motivation

My friends for their help and good memories

Table 1.1: Summary of the research methods.............................................. 5

Table 3.1: Research methods with regard to the research objectives........... 26

Table 3.2: Summary of the criteria for selection of cases............................. 29

Table 3.3: Interview Participants and approach............................................ 31

Table 4.1: Emergent Themes from Cases.................................................... 53

Table 4.2: Interview participants' information................................................ 55

Table 4.3: Categorised emergent themes from interview 1........................... 63

Table 4.4: Categorised emergent themes from interview 2........................... 64

Table 4.5: Categorised emergent themes from interview 3........................... 65

Table 4.6: Summary of emergent themes from interviews............................ 66

Table 5.1: Comparing theoretical and actual benefits of BIM........................ 70

Table 5.2: Comparing potentials and limitations of

Table 5.3: Comparing challenges of

Table 5.4: Required improvements found in literature and fieldwork............ 74

Figure 2.1: Concept of BIM........................................................................... 8

Figure 2.2: Architectural services outline...................................................... 9

Figure 2.3: Comparing different distributions for design services................. 10

Figure 2.4: Example of integrated assessment for concept design review... 13

Figure 2.5: Concept design in Revit by CASE.............................................. 17

Figure 3.1: Research onion according to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill..... 24

Figure 3.2: Data collection methods according to Kumar............................. 25

Figure 3.3: Multiple-Case Study approach according to Yin......................... 27

Figure 3.4: Target group for interview participants....................................... 31

Figure 3.5: Three categories of questions and themes in interview guide.... 32

Figure 3.6: Summary of data analysis procedure......................................... 33

Figure 3.7: Content analysis according to Kumar......................................... 33

Figure 4.1: External view of Masdar Headquarter Building........................... 38

Figure 4.2: Concept for the cones................................................................. 39

Figure 4.3: Ventilation of the building through cones.................................... 39

Figure 4.5: Sectional perspective of the building........................................... 41

Figure 4.6: Cones and their complex structures........................................... 42

Figure 4.8: Basrah main Stadium................................................................. 43

Figure 4.9: Basrah stadium concept............................................................. 44

Figure 4.10: Basket for collecting dates, a regional icon.............................. 44

Figure 4.11: Stadium skin and five types of panels on each

Figure 4.12: An example of using powercopy tool inside Digital Project...... 46

Figure 4.13: Panels made in Digital Project with information on Excel........ 47

Figure 4.14: Interior view and the skin panels.............................................. 47

Figure 4.15: Lotte Super Tower.................................................................... 48

Figure 4.16: Building's form.......................................................................... 49

Figure 4.17: 3D model and unfolded model................................................. 50

Figure 4.18: Early stage solar analysis........................................................ 51

Figure 4.19: Modelling workflow in Lotte super tower................................... 52

Figure 5.1: Summary of the discussions in identifying existing situation....... 73

BIM= Building Information Modelling

AEC= Architectural Engineering Construction

FM= Facility Management

NIST= US National Institute of Standards and Technology

GSA= General Services Administration

MEP= Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health

CAD= Computer Aided Design

IFC= Industry Foundation Classes