BIM Application and Adoption in the UK Housing Sector

The importance of housing construction and its environmental impact have been argued in the past decades; the increase in housing refurbishment will have significant implications in the UK economy as the residential sector contributes almost a third of total UK construction output and more than 87% of 27.6 million housing stock will still be standing by 2050. Whole house refurbishment seems to be challenging due to the highly fragmented nature of construction practice, which makes the integration of diverse information throughout the project life-cycle difficult. Although Building Information Modelling is becoming increasingly important in the housing sector in order to enhance the practicality of housing construction and management, the current uptake of BIM in housing is very low and there are three main barriers to adopting BIM: business, technical and human problems. This chapter reviews the current BIM application and its adoption in housing and investigates an applicable decision support tool to enhance the practicality of housing information modelling in a way that a traditional life cycle assessment (LCA) or life cycle cost (LCC) does not. The potential way to integrate both LCA and LCC is suggested in order to measure the environmental and economic impacts of UK affordable housing to seek zero carbon homes. The case study demonstrates that what information is required and how data can be developed from stakeholders’ requirement in housing construction and management.

Keywords: Building information modelling, Housing construction, Housing refurbishment, Life cycle assessment, Life cycle cost.