Participatory Design Through BIM

Abstract

Today, the projects characterize by collaboration between multidisciplinary parties and are highly dependent on the communication between them. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the use of the computer-generated model to simulate the planning, design, construction, and operation of a facility; a technology that allows users to create a visual simulation of a project with a digital prototype of a building prior to construction. The computational model of BIM forms an environment that serving the various disciplines of the design process to work together. The concept of BIM aims to minimize concerns arising from the time, cost and quality of the changes in the design, and implementation of construction projects in the architecture, engineering and construction sector. Within the framework of this objective, all information in the project process should manage correctly to increase collaboration. Participatory design, known in architecture since the 70s, is also used in the urban design and landscape design as a way of more appropriate environments for users. One of the major characteristics of participatory design is that users are actively involved in the design and construction process. The most problematic part of the participatory design is the difficulty of understanding abstract planning data by users. By incorporating the user through the design process through BIM, the users can more involve in the design decision process to achieve better satisfaction. The identification of user-specific attributes can facilitate, and the creation of spatial comfort conditions can accelerate with participatory design through BIM. Because of this relationship, while the spatial comfort and quality of life of increases, it is possible to save cost in the design process. This study aims to investigate the participatory design by using BIM concept and how to increase the quality of life through BIM during the design and usage process. For this purpose, user participation and BIM relationship examined through examples from the world. This paper describes a BIM framework which enables designers to involve users by using information technology. It demonstrates that participatory design approach combined with BIM can make a significant contribution towards an increase in performance in building and in the quality of life.