Sustainable construction project life-cycle management based on building information modeling

Abstract

Initial construction costs are overly concerned in traditional construction projects and the economic, social and environmental impacts are neglected during their whole life cycle. The application of Life Cycle Management (LCM) is fundamental in pursuing sustainability and improvements in the construction industry. Based on the current situation of LCM and Building Information Modeling (BIM), this paper proposes a theoretical model of BIM-based information integrated platform for sustainable construction projects. Process models for LCM and the design phase implementing BIM-based information integrated platform are built using IDEF0 modeling method. Then, the whole process of using BIM-based information integrated platform in sustainable construction projects is analyzed through its application in a real-life construction project in Shanghai. This paper analyzes the function and application methods of BIM to promote sustainability in each phase. Meanwhile, some important best practices are analyzed and discussed, which are significant to future projects. The results of applying BIM-based LCM method are evaluated through one-to-one expert evaluations interviews. The findings show that applying BIM-based information integrated platform to the full building life cycle is vital to reduce environmental loads and improve sustainability. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.