The origin of BIM

Data silos have long been present in the construction industry. Just think of the various cost databases, CAD files, Excel sheets, and Gantt charts, or the data from IoT systems. However, these data were previously less accessible, and their processing required a tremendous amount of error-prone, manual work, making it difficult to meet the external prerequisites for BIM (Building Information Modeling).

The digitalization of the construction
industry was necessary

The Impact of Digitalization on the Construction Industry

Everything has changed in the last 20 years.

Technology has rapidly advanced: the exponential growth of computing capacity, the rise of mobile devices, and broadband internet have made it possible to integrate, share, analyze, and use fragmented databases and knowledge for various purposes.

At the same time, new societal demands have emerged, such as the need for more active environmental protection, greater transparency, and a better quality of life.

These forces, from both the market and government sides, have put pressure on industry players. Various regulations (e.g., ESG) have begun to force digitalization and the spread of BIM, overcoming the construction industry’s internal resistance to change.

It was about time – according to McKinsey’s digitalization index, the construction industry was one of the most under-digitalized sectors 10 years ago, ranking second to last, just ahead of agriculture (2015).

These trends also impacted the business environment, lowering the entry threshold significantly. Technological solutions have become more affordable, and sophisticated BIM-related expertise is spreading among designers, contractors, operators, and clients.

The first BIM projects were implemented, and the immense efficiency-enhancing effects of conscious data usage became evident. Robotics, boosted by the rise of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, created new business-driven expectations for the practical application of classified, well-regulated methodologies.

As a result, the seemingly higher short-term costs of BIM adoption have become more manageable, and at a macro level, the obstacles to using building information data throughout the entire lifecycle, and to data-driven decision-making, have been removed.

This is where we stand today – but where did the BIM methodology come from?

A Brief History of BIM

The concept of BIM can be traced back to Charles M. Eastman, who introduced it at a theoretical and conceptual level as early as the 1970s. However, it has only spread widely in the last 20 years.

Charles M. Eastman,
creator of the concept of BIM

One reason for this delay is that the first software tools developed for building modeling (GLIDE, RUCAPS, Sonata, Reflex, and the Gable 4D series) emerged in the 1980s, but their use and the required hardware were still very expensive at the time.

Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD, introduced in 1987, was the first to overcome this barrier. It was the first CAD software capable of running on a home computer, and unlike AutoCAD’s solution at the time, it could store additional metadata in the model, beyond 2D and 3D geometry.

From Virtual Building to BIM

The term “building model” first appeared in the mid-1980s, and “Building Information Model” in professional texts in 1992. However, it took another 10 years for the term “Building Information Modeling” to become widespread. There was no unified concept for the digital exchange of information either: “Virtual Building” or “Single Building Model” (Graphisoft), “Integrated Project Models” (Bentley Systems), and the now most widespread “Building Information Modeling” (Autodesk, Vectorworks) competed with each other.

In 2003, the above market players decided to promote and standardize the term “Building Information Modeling” as we know it today.

Interoperability and BIM Standards

As BIM evolved, software developers began to develop their own data structures and file formats, but the data and files were not compatible with each other due to the lack of a standard. This hindered the spread of BIM, causing billions of dollars in damage to the US economy. To create interoperability, industry players agreed to develop open standards, making BIM data shareable between different software applications.

One of the early BIM standards was the CIMSteel Integration Standard (CIS/2), which facilitated the data exchange for structural steel projects during design and construction.

This was followed by the buildingSMART (ISO-recognized) file format, IFC (Industry Foundation Class), which remains a key standard today.

COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange), developed by the U.S. Navy’s Corps of Engineers, is also used to facilitate operation, maintenance, and asset management. It plays a key role in recording and managing equipment lists, product information, warranties, spare parts lists, and maintenance schedules.

In 2019, ISO published the first two parts of ISO 19650, which functions as the framework for BIM. This standard was translated into Hungarian in 2021, immediately replacing the commonly used term “building information modeling” with “construction information modeling.”

The parts of the MSZ EN ISO 19650 standard series are: