Legal implications of adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM)

• Author: Constanta Nicoleta Bodea - Augustin Purnus
• Position: Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania - Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Romania
• Pages: 63-72

Legal implications of adopting

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Professor Constanţa-Nicoleta BODEA

1

Associate professor Augustin PURNUŞ

2

Abstract

Building Information Mo deling (BIM) is an innovative approach to design and

construct buildings, which has changed the practices within the construction industry.

Different categories of stakeholders, such as architects, construction companies,

professional associations, academia and even the policymakers, who have defined national

policies and strategy documents to facilitate the BIM adoption, have been interested to

understand BIM and its imp lications for the business environment. The legal implications

of adopting BIM in construction p rojects represent one of the most recently discussed

issues, which is s till not fully understood and not followed b y concrete risk mitigation

actions. The paper intends to underline some of the legal implications of adopting BIM,

mainly in relation to the procurement and contract strategies. The paper concludes that it

is expected that BIM will bring more transparency in the construction project

implementation and will enable a more co mprehensive audit trail leading to fewer legal

disputes.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling (BIM), contract, procurement, stan dards.

JEL Classification: K23, K25

1. Introduction

In our days, the construction industry considers the technological

innovations as a mean for rapid advancements in production and sustainable

development. According to the Navigant Construction Forum (2016)

3

, the

construction industry shows a growing interest for 3D printing technologies,

Augmented Reality (AR), 4D Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual

Design and Construction (VDC). For construction industry, the digital future

includes: higher definition surveying and geolocation, next generation 5D building

information modeling, digital collaboration and mobility, the internet of things and

advanced analytics, drones, geospatial technologies, radio frequency identification

technologies, reality capture technologies and robotics. It is considered that

implementing this kind of technologies, the different categories of stockholders

1

Constanţa-Nicoleta Bodea – Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, bodea@ase.ro.

2

Augustin Purnuş – Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Romania,

purnus@utcb.ro.

3

Navigant (2016), Trends in constru ction technology – the potential impact on project management

and construction claims a research perspective issued by the Navigant Construction Forum™,

Navigant Consulting, Inc.