Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney and partners from industry will use the new Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, designed by Canadian architect Frank Ghery, as a case study on the use of advanced building information modelling (BIM) technologies in Australia.

 

The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, due to begin construction next year, will be the first project in Australia to use CATIA Digital Project, an advanced BIM tool, across all the project's design disciplines.

 

Lead researcher Dr Julie Jupp said the team will investigate how architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organisations adjust and adapt to the diffusion of BIM technologies.

 

She said that one of the main purposes was to identify the technology adoption processes, organisational transformations and changes to organisational interactions brought about by CATIA DP.

 

This would help to plug a significant knowledge gap both nationally and internationally concerning how AEC organisations adjust and adapt to the diffusion of BIM technologies, whereas previous research concentrated on the 'what' and the 'why' of BIM.

 

"Commentators have noted that the Australian AEC sector often lags behind other countries in technology adoption. Furthermore, it is marred by tradition and intense fragmentation, and has relied on a process driven by two-dimensional paper-based design documentation – a process that flies in the face of creativity and collaboration," said Dr Jupp.

 

"This quite unique study will shed light on factors facilitating and inhibiting technology adoption processes relative to a rapidly changing Australian AEC sector."

 

The research team intends to develop assessment methods and guidelines specific to the AEC sector to enable other firms to better manage organisational transition and changes induced by the adoption of BIM across technological, organisational and environmental characteristics.

 

"We're also gaining insight into a construction project of national significance with world renowned AEC firms," said Dr Jupp.

 

The research: Building Information Modelling: Investigating Technology Adoption, Organisational Transformation and Change in Professional Practice will be conducted in collaboration with four industry partners: Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke, Arup, AECOM and UTS Program Management Office.

 

The UTS Design, Architecture and Building research team members include: Dr Julie Jupp (Lead Investigator), Professor Desley Luscombe (Dean), Professor Anil Sawhney, Associate Professor Shankar Sankaran and Associate Professor Perry Forsythe (Head of the School of the Built Environment).

 

The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building is part of the UTS City Campus Master Plan, a $1 billion redevelopment that will redefine UTS and Sydney's southern CBD.