This paper reports a 6-year experience teaching building information modeling (BIM) methodology in the undergraduate/graduate architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) program at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. This work is part of the long-term goal of developing a new BIM AEC-based curriculum track for engineering and architecture students at this university. The paper also reports the results of a survey on the student’s perception on how this knowledge has affected their way of working with other disciplines and how it has influenced their professional lives. The adopted approach involved theoretical lectures, computer laboratory practice, student oral presentations, and the complete project of an enterprise. The lectures delivered by specialists with practical experience in the subject exposed the students to BIM concepts. In the laboratory, students were trained in the software tools that enables BIM activity. To develop the project, multidisciplinary teams of students were formed and each team was challenged to emulate the change in process that BIM implies. The task was to develop the complete project of an enterprise considering all different specialties involved in its design, detailing, and planning. More specifically, these specialties consisted of architecture, structural engineering, mechanical and electrical systems, and BIM management. The teams made oral presentations to the client (the professor) and consultants roughly on a weekly basis. In each year, the students´ performance was evaluated in several ways. In particular, a 360° evaluation tool was used, which was crucial to provide feedback to each team member during the exercise. The culmination of this experience is the elaboration of this article that aims to describe the challenges and the successes of the adopted approach.

There has been an increasingly global tendency in the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) paradigm in Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) projects. At the same time, Structural Optimization (SO) has received a lot of attention in the construction industry to reduce material and to enhance structural performance. However, the lack of communication between structural engineer and architect is a well-known problem discussed in the literature. This can lead to inefficient projects, thus increasing cost and time. The purpose of this work, thus, is to understand how SO can be inserted in a BIM project, specifically analysing the information exchanges between architects and structural engineers, to mitigate the problem related to lack of communication. The investigation included a systematic literature review to comprehend the current scientific scenario in these areas. It identified that there is still a research gap related to the adoption of SO to facilitate the communication between architects and structural engineers in a BIM environment. To help answer this question, an Information Delivery Manual (IDM) structure was developed which maps the information flow to connect architects and engineers through SO in a BIM environment, aiming to optimize the information exchanges. By applying the methodology to three experiments of increasing complexity, the proposed framework proved to improve the collaboration issue beyond other project benefits, such as reduction of material consumption, improvement of sustainability indexes, and structural performance. Thus, the main finding of this study is that the connection between BIM and SO can improve the collaboration between these two players in the early design stages and, thus, it can potentially lead to a more efficient design process. More studies are still necessary to solve technological barriers related to software interoperability.

Purpose: In developing countries, such as Brazil, the construction sector is consistently focused on the construction of new buildings, and there is no dissemination of the preservation, restoration and maintenance of historic buildings. Idle buildings, due to the use and lack of maintenance, present pathological manifestations, such as moisture problems that compromise specially their thermal and energy performance. With this in mind, the purpose of this work is to create a digital model using terrestrial photogrammetry and suggest retrofit interventions based on computer simulation to improve the thermal and energy performance of a historical building. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed methodology combined terrestrial photogrammetry using common smartphones and commercial software for historical buildings with building information modeling (historic building information modeling (HBIM)) and building energy modeling (BEM). The approach follows five steps: planning, site visit, data processing, data modeling and results. Also, as a case study, the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the Fluminense Federal University, built in 1888, was chosen to validate the approach. Findings: A digital map of pathological manifestations in the HBIM model was developed, and interventions considering the application of expanded polystyrene in the envelope to reduce energy consumption were outlined. From the synergy between HBIM and BEM, it was concluded that the information modeled using photogrammetry was fundamental to create the energy model, and simulations were needed to optimize the possible solutions in terms of energy consumption. Originality/value: Firstly, the work proposes a reasonable methodology to be applied in development countries without sophisticated technologies, but with acceptable precision for the study purpose. Secondly, the presented study shows that the use of HBIM for energy modeling proved to be useful to simulate possible solutions that optimize the thermal and energy performance.

This study evaluates and validates how BIM functionalities can foster the consideration of lean construction and sustainability principles in building design. To this end, a plugin was developed and implemented in a BIM-enabled visualization environment. This system aims to help a user decide the best design between alternatives, while considering the user’s perspective on what generates value in the project. To illustrate and validate the usability and importance of the system, the design of a warehouse with specific requirements was considered. Four design alternatives were modeled considering different types of superstructures, building envelopes, and materials. The system imported an external database and calculated the general costs, CO₂ emissions, and thermal comfort indicators for each model. It also incorporated user-defined weights for each indicator and graphically displayed the results indicating the best options through a multiple attribute decision method. From the obtained results, it was concluded that it is possible to integrate BIM and lean principles to support sustainable development in the construction industry. Through an experiment with warehouse alternatives, the proposed approach revealed that the best project could save nearly 50% of CO₂ emissions when compared to the worst project and that the second-best project had the best performance in terms of thermal heat flow (1.80 Megawatts). The results also indicate that the system can be a great asset in supporting the decision-making process of selecting the best design alternative and understanding the impact of design changes on cost and on the environment.

Crises globais, como pandemias e guerras, evidenciam como os projetos de construção são afetados por eventos inesperados, normalmente ignorados pelas equipes de planejamento. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo é revisar a literatura para entender como as incertezas são consideradas nos métodos de planejamento de obra e quais são as próximas etapas para enfrentar novas crises. Assim, os autores mapearam as variáveis tradicionais que são incluídas como incertezas nos métodos de planejamento, como tempo e custo do projeto, bem como as variáveis incomuns que não são normalmente incluídas como incertezas nos métodos, como questões de segurança e sustentabilidade. O estado da arte dos métodos de planejamento com incertezas envolveu uma leitura minuciosa de 103 artigos de periódicos encontrados por meio de uma revisão sistemática adaptada da literatura, que incluiu, além dos processos tradicionais, um estudo cienciométrico e uma análise de bola de neve. Como resultado, descobriu-se que as principais incertezas consideradas estão relacionadas a tempo, custo e recursos. Além disso, foi possível observar que não existe uma única técnica consolidada para incorporar incertezas nos métodos de planejamento, mas sim uma combinação de diferentes técnicas, desde as mais tradicionais com análise analítica até as mais contemporâneas com algoritmos de inteligência artificial.

The housing deficit in developing countries is a common challenge, primarily impacting low-income populations. This paper investigated interinstitutional workflows using Building Information Modelling (BIM) as a social technology to improve the efficiency of design and construction stages in social housing projects. Following a systematic literature review, process maps were developed and applied in a case study within a Brazilian urban community, located in a coastal city with a demographic density of 3602 inhabitants per square kilometre, involving a collaboration framework between a university and municipal authorities. Based on the party’s collaboration and precise cost estimation, the results indicate that this BIM-enabled collaboration supports the governmental decision-making process and leads to more effective resource management and optimised design costs, mainly during the design and construction phases. Therefore, this study concludes that digital modelling workflows are a powerful strategy for developing social housing projects because they facilitate the inclusion of families in the design and decision-making processes. Expanding this approach through integration with geospatial and public agency data is a promising area for future research, using such models in risk assessment policies and city urban planning.