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Building Information Modeling for Timber Buildings-A Review

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 38th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2021)

Building Information Modeling for Timber Buildings- A

Review
Y.T. Chang1a, T.Y. Li2a, S.H. Hsieh3a

a
Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
E-mail: ytchang@caece.net, r09521625@ntu.edu.tw, shhsieh@ntu.edu.tw

Abstract on a project [3]. The building industry has studied the

Timber has long been used in the human building benefits of BIM for the past decade [4]. Yet, how this
industry. With recent groundbreaking technologies and technology has benefited the timber building industry is
urgent calls for a lower carbon built environment, timber rarely reviewed and discussed.
construction has become more industrial and popular
globally. Nevertheless, it still faces many design-related
difficulties and project management challenges. Building 2 Literature review and analysis
Information Modeling (BIM), regarded as a renovative Relevant literature is collected by using keywords
technology and paradigm that enables better decision- including “building information modeling (BIM)” and
making and project delivery process, seems ideal for “timber/ wood buildings” for article titles, abstracts, and
resolving current challenges in the timber building keywords via Scopus in mid-May 2021. 57 papers fitted
industry. However, how BIM is adopted in the industry the searching criteria, and 19 of them were excluded due
is limited explored and discussed. This study aims to find to their languages (non-English), types (book chapter), or
the critical research focuses, BIM uses, current scope (not related to BIM or building) or repeating.
limitations, and future potentials of BIM for timber
building via a series of literature reviews and analyses. 2.1 General profile
The results can provide readers with state-of-the-art
knowledge of the current BIM application and Based on the collected literature, BIM has drawn
development for the timber building industry and attention from the timber building industry since this
directions for future research. technology has emerged around 2010. Yet this topic has
Keywords started to gain more attention only after 2016 and has
Building Information Modeling, Timber Buildings, grown steadily in recent years. European affiliations have
Industrial Construction, Lean Concept contributed to this research topic the most, accounting for
84% of the total collected publications, while the Asian
and American ones for 8%, respectively. Therefore, how
1 Introduction BIM can benefit the timber construction industry in
Timber is a common building material that has been different regions should be investigated and compared in
used for different building components and layers across the future.
the globe since ancient human history. With some latest
technologies, timber buildings have overcome their well- 2.2 Research Focus
known defects and gained much popularity [1]. However,
although the timber building industry has been developed
for centuries, many challenges occur, including design-
related difficulties, poor coordination among the project
parties, lack of experience, etc. [2]. These are even more
critical as industrialization becomes an unstoppable trend.
Today’s advancing information and communication
industry has driven the building industry to transform to
be more effective and efficient. One of the most powerful
information technologies adopted in the industry is
building information modeling (BIM), which encourages Figure 1. The main focus of the reviewed literature
significant changes in the workflow and project delivery
processes and integration of the roles of all stakeholders

1
 38th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2021)
Three main research focuses are identified: using
BIM for optimal design, innovative process, and
reservation & retrofit (as shown in Figure 1). The first
focus has been studied the most (accounting for 42% of
total literature collection), which refers to BIM for
parametric [5][6] and structural design [7][8][9] of
timber buildings along with their acoustic [10][11] and
sustainable [12][13] performance simulation, cost
estimation [13], and LCA [14][15]. In addition, code
checking and compliance [16][17][18][19] is also a key
strength of BIM for better timber building design. This
focus indicates that timber building design is challenged
with various aspects, including modularity, sustainability,
and higher building standards.
The second focus is BIM for the innovative process
of timber building projects (about 37% of total papers),
i.e., using BIM to integrate the lean concept into the
project delivery process [20][21][22][23] to create
collaboration platform [24][25] and to assist industrial
and prefabricate construction process [26][27]. Also, as
industrial timber construction is becoming the primary
trend, how BIM can promote a more integrated and
leaner process is a critical research topic.
The third focus is BIM for reservation and retrofit of
existing timber buildings (accounting for 21% in total),
referring to using scanning and BIM technology to create
a data repository of historical timber buildings for future
work and reference [28][29][30][31] and using BIM and
CNC technology to retrofit existing timber buildings with
prefabricated elements [32][33]. The latter topic is
expected to gain more attention since the need to retrofit
existing buildings for higher energy efficiency is
excellent, and prefabricated timber elements are seen as
an environmentally friendly material and time-saving
construction technique to be adopted.
2.3 BIM uses
The BIM use framework proposed by Pennsylvania
State University [4] is used to label the collected papers
and is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. BIM uses mentioned in collected papers
2
Echoing the research focuses identified in the
previous section, design-related BIM uses are mentioned
the most in the papers, notably the power of reviewing
design models, authoring design, and analyzing
structural, engineering, and energy performance of
timber buildings. Nevertheless, how the created BIM
design models can be used in later stages remains
challenging [26]. And how BIM can store essential
information for multiple building performance analyses
of timber buildings is to be studied more [24][25][29][34].
The timber building industry also knows the strength
of production and construction-related BIM uses, e.g.,
authoring construction site logistics models and
fabricating timber products. These uses are critical for
industrial timber construction, which should be studied
more for training and educational purposes [34].
Capturing existing conditions is a BIM use related to
the whole project lifecycle, which is also highlighted in
the collected literature. Combined with rapidly
developing scanning technology, the potency of this BIM
use is expected to enhance continually.
3 Limitations and potentials of BIM for
timber buildings
Based upon literature review and analysis previously,
three key challenges of BIM for timber buildings and
potential research directions are identified and presented
as follows.
(1) A calling for integrated analyses
It is hard to make optimal design decisions when the
simulation results in different systems are scattered.
Therefore, the need for integrated design analysis for
timber building is highlighted [8][18][35]. Nevertheless,
only a few articles currently tried to address this matter
via establishing BIM platforms to evaluate numerous
design factors at once [24][25]. How BIM can assist in
achieving integrated analysis, including construction
hazard, project lifecycle, etc., for better decision making
for timber buildings still require much investigation [36].
(2) Building up more timber building-related
BIM data/ database
BIM is powerful in storing information from multiple
systems throughout the project lifecycle. However,
valuable data are usually recollected from scratch for new
projects, which often leads to the loss of empirical inputs
and considerable rework. For instance, Buhamdan et al.
state that HAVS (Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome) or other
hazard variables could be attached to BIM objects [19]. This
concept can apply to other domains, e.g., acoustic
simulation and structural performance, to fasten the
evaluation process. Additionally, a BIM data bank
 38th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2021)
containing reference profiles of past projects can
contribute to cost security [17] and is essential for cost
estimates. Once these databases are established, design
standards or BIM guidelines for timber buildings can
emerge, which is a critical move toward an industrialized
construction industry.
(3) Higher efficiency in data transformation and
transfer
How to transform information in a BIM database into
other applications is an important issue. For example, Mol
et al. pointed out exploration of the geometry variation
and conservation state directly without assessing the
associated cloud of points in the database [30]. Another
suggestion is to identify materials and construction
techniques in a point cloud model [28]. Building
middleware to facilitate information transferring between
software is also needed. [26] Efficient data transfer from
design to manufacture stage is key to fabricated
construction. BIM can be seen as a workflow to manage
data during the whole process rather than just software.
4 Conclusion
This study presents an overview of past research on
BIM for timber buildings through a series of literature
reviews and analyses, including its research focuses,
BIM uses, current limitations, and future potentials. The
three main research focuses are (1) BIM for optimal
design, (2) innovative process, and (3) reservation and
retrofit of timber buildings. Moreover, three critical
potentials of BIM application for timber building are
identified: (1) the need of establishing platforms for
integrated design analysis, (2) the need for databases for
more efficient timber building design and evaluation
process, and (3) higher efficiency in data transformation
and transfer across project phases to establish a leaner
timber construction industry. The outcomes of this paper
can provide readers start-of-the-art knowledge on current
BIM application and development for timber buildings
and directions for future research.
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