Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been extensively studied and applied within the AEC sector, particularly in design and construction. In recent years, Facility Management (FM) processes are becoming more digitalised, thus requiring effective BIM-FM integration. BIM adoption in many countries, such as the UK, Italy and Brazil, has been publicly driven. Generally, adoption was targeted at design and construction implementation, with little effort in framing public action for FM implementation. The lack of an integrated approach for BIM-FM implementation resulted in numerous bespoken implementation approaches that mimic the private sector and hinder knowledge exchange. Therefore, there is a need for assessing and amalgamating knowledge about BIM-FM for public organisations. This research aims to leverage knowledge about BIM-FM in the public domain by analysing and classifying articles published between 2010–2021. The research was carried out through a systematic review and comparative thematic analysis investigating the use of BIM for different public buildings (e.g., schools and hospitals) and the implementation for FM purposes. Research results outline prevalent trends and areas of research from three perspectives: people, process and technology. Results show an increasing number of publications about BIM-FM. However, the divide between BIM-FM for public and private organisations is unequal. BIM-FM research for public organisations is still limited and lacks standardisation. This state-of-the-art review makes an incremental contribution to knowledge by identifying progress, gaps and new industry directions on the subject matter.

Reactive maintenance (RM) is a core service of the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase, the most prolonged and costly within the building lifecycle. RM is characterised by inefficient asset information and communication management, impacting critical FM problems and users’ experience. Building information modelling (BIM) and Internet of things (IoT) has enabled the development of digital twins, moving facilities management (FM) from a reactive approach towards a predictive one. Although previous studies have investigated the application of such technologies to FM, there is a lack of understanding on procedural issues related to its implementation in FM and RM. This research aimed to characterise strategies and decisions involved in prototyping a BIM and IoT-based smart-lighting maintenance system and identify its potential impacts on universities’ maintenance processes. The adopted research strategy and data collection methods involved prototyping, questionnaires, and interviews. The results show a high level of complexity in converging maintenance needs and technological abilities for FM and the importance of procedures and standards at organisational and industry levels. Moreover, it evidenced that the automation of functions and the centralisation of information enabled by BIM and IoT can optimise service provision, generate environmental and efficiency gains, and improve users’ safety and satisfaction.

The digital transformation of operation and maintenance (O&M) activities has been guiding the facilities management sector towards a strategic role focused on the performance of businesses and sustainable use of natural resources over assets’ lifecycles. Despite the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as building information modelling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT), demonstrating potential for improving such practices, evidence related to its implementation process from an FM professional’s perspective is still much needed to unlock billions of USD trapped in inefficient and fragmented processes. This research seeks such evidence by characterising current and potential applications of BIM and IoT-based solutions for FM, specifically on maintenance services. This exploratory research is based on a multiple case study where three universities’ FM sectors were investigated. Data collection and analysis included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and inductive content analysis. By considering technology as a scaffold to enhance human activities, the investigation provided a deep understanding of technological, procedural, and policy issues in implementing BIM and IoT-based solutions in FM activities and their related benefits and limitations. Clarifying the necessary resources for such implementation could support FM sectors and organizations in justifying human and financial investments and planning the gradual digital transformation of services.

Advancing digitalisation and sustainability is a worldwide priority for the construction sector. With intertwined agendas, digitalisation enables the achievement of sustainable outcomes. That is the case of EU initiatives exploring building information modelling (BIM) as a facilitator to circular economy (CE). Thus, standardising BIM implementation through the ISO 19650 information requirements represents a stepping stone towards CE and achieving better sustainable outcomes. Concerning standardisation, a unified digitalisation vision is under development for the European public sector as part of the European Green Deal. However, the EU has already identified that the proposed digitalisation approach had limited effect on extensively achieving sustainable outcomes. Among the issues is the high complexity that hinders small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) construction organisations from contributing. This problem is exacerbated by the limited amount of published scientific research evidence explaining how SMEs incorporate resource-hungry digital processes into their resource-limited business models. Therefore, to understand better the digitalisation for sustainability success cases within European SMEs, this paper presents the results of a state-of-the-art literature review of academic articles, followed by a state-of-evidence review of grey literature. The focus of the review is Dutch small architectural practices (SAPs). The results highlight the importance of project information requirements for SMEs and the multifaceted digitalisation challenges experienced by SAPs and building design SMEs. This paper also suggests future research areas focusing on innovation realisation.