Editorial

Abstract

Traditionally, and for as long as one can remember, the construction industry had been using symbols on paper (drawings and specifications) to communicate the design intent for client approval, bidding, procurement, fabrication, construction and installation. Such an approach can be rendered abstract when the project environment has no native intelligence and, as a result, human interpretations (reading) and manipulation (quantities take-offs) are required to provide meaning and value to such symbols. In moving towards a common platform to avoid some of these pitfalls, building information modelling (BIM) is therefore 'one of the most visible aspects of a deep and fundamental change that is rapidly transforming the global construction industry' (McGraw Hill Construction, 2010: p. 1).