Studio Education for Integrated Practice Using Building Information Modeling

This research study posits that an altered educational approach to design studio canproduce future professionals who apply Building Information Modeling (BIM) in thecontext of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) to execute designs faster and producedesigns that have demonstrably higher performance. The combination of newtechnologies and social/contractual constructs represents an alternative to the establishedorder for how to design and how to teach designers. BIM emerges as the key technologyfor facilitating IPD by providing consistent, computable and interoperable informationessential to all AEC teams. The increasing trend of BIM adoption is an opportunity forthe profession to dramatically change its processes and may potentially impact patternsof responsibility and the paradigms of design.This study showcases a repeatable framework and a theoretical model for the integratedstudio using BIM and provides answers to the pedagogical questions raised by BIM,integration, and performance-based design. Using a formative and exploratory action research design, the study proposes a comprehensive pedagogical framework using theestablished theories of design studio education, building integration, and BIM. Theframework was refined and triangulated in a set of focus group studies that includeacademics, design firms and AEC industry representatives, as well as students.Instrumental case studies implementing the pedagogical framework were conducted ascourses in a graduate architecture program. Students' design processes and collaborationschemes were observed using systematic methods that included a broad range of data inconformance with a multi-method research approach.Content analysis of the data provides qualitative evidence for the effectiveness andencountered challenges of BIM methods that is related to proposed studio framework.These findings are corroborated by descriptive statistics and numerical data from thesurveys, simulations, reports, and BIM models.Findings of the study illustrate that a carefully designed set of course exercises thatincorporate BIM can enhance design processes, increase the depth and the number ofalternatives studied, catalyze an interoperable and integrated educational environment,and expand the scope of design learning. Case studies presented here suggest commonpatterns of collaboration between designers and consultants during the integrated designprocess using shared BIM models. The findings from the study are synthesized in twotheoretical models for the BIM enabled integrated studio and collaborative processes.