REPUBLIC OF BENIN

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MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
**********
UNIVERSITY OF ABOMEY-CALAVI (UAC)
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POLYTECHNIC OF ABOMEY-CALAVI (EPAC)
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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
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CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
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Matter: English

TEXT: Building Information Modelling, Why, What,How

Carried out by : Supervisor :

CISSE MAMA Adama Mr. OLORY Bienvenu
KIATTI Moïse
TONONCOIN Cyrs

COLLEGE YEAR : 2021-2022

 REPUBLIC OF BENIN
**********
MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
**********
UNIVERSITY OF ABOMEY-CALAVI (UAC)
**********
POLYTECHNIC OF ABOMEY-CALAVI (EPAC)
**********
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
**********
CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
**********

Matter: English

TEXT: Building Information Modelling, Why, What,How

Carried out by : Supervisor :

CISSE MAMA Adama Mr. OLORY Bienvenu
KIATTI Moïse
TONONCOIN Cyrs

COLLEGE YEAR : 2021-2022

TEXT: BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING, Why, What, How

WHY:
In the last decade, digitalization has transformed a wide range of industrial sector resulting in the
tremendous increase in productivity, product quality and product variety. In the Architecture
Engineering Construction (AEC) industry, digital tools are increasingly adopted for designing,
constructing and operating buildings and infrastructure assets. However, the continuous use of
digital information along the entire process chain falls significantly behind other industry
domains.
WHAT:
A building Information model is a comprehensive digital representation of a built facility with
great information depth. It typically includes the three-dimensional geometry of the building
components at a defined level of detail. In addition, it also comprises nonphysical objects, such
as spaces and zones, hierarchical project structures, or schedules. Objects are typically associated
with a well-defined set of semantic information, such as the component type, materials, technical
properties, or costs, as well as the relationships between the components and other physical or
logical entities. The term Building Information Modelling (BIM) consequently describes both the
process of creating such digital building models as well as the process of maintaining, using and
exchanging them throughout the entire lifetime of the built facility.
The US National Building Information Modelling Standard defines BIM as follows:
« Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional
characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a
facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from
earliest conception to demolition. A basic premise of BIM is collaboration by different
stakeholders at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify
information in the BIM to support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder. »
HOW:
The shift from conventional drawing-based workflows to model-based ones requires significant
changes in the both internal company as well as cross-company processes. To avoid unduly
unsettling the basic functioning of established workflows, a stepwise transition is recommended.
Accordingly, different technological levels of BIM implementation are distinguished. The
simplest differentiation is expressed by the terms ‘‘BIG BIM’’ and ‘‘LITTLE BIM’’. Here, little
BIM describes the application of a specific BIM software by an individual stakeholder to realize
a discipline-specific design task.
Typically, software is used to create a building model and derive the drawings which are then fed
into the conventional process. The building model is not used across different software packages
and is not handed over to other stakeholder. This BIM implementation is, therefore, an insular
solution within one design discipline, with all external communications taking place using
drawings. Although, implementing ‘‘LITTLE BIM’’ can offer efficiency gains, the big potential
of comprehensively using digital building information remains untapped.
By contrast, BIG BIM involves consistently model-based communications between all
stakeholders and across the entire lifecycle of a facility. For neologies such as model servers,
databases or project platforms are employed in comprehensive manner.

3
KEY WORDS

Stakeholders: are all the parties with an interest in your project. The list is long and consists of
contributor’s such as your client, (sub) contractors, designers, the local and national authorities,
residents and business owners around the site, politicians and government officials etc…

Workflows: construction workflow is simply the coordination of construction projects by

making sure that all information, data, tasks and documents flow efficiently between the teams
and its members.

Databases: in construction is the process of storing huge amounts of data on a server so that it
can be managed on a computer.

Infrastructure assets: includes streets, roads, sewer lines, waterlines, bridges, sidewalks, curbs
and gutters, traffic signalise, traffics signs, street trees, landscaped medians, storms drains etc…

BIM: BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING

COMMENT

Building information modelling is based on the idea of the continuous use of digital building
models throughout the entire lifecycle of a built facility, starting from the early conceptual
design and detailed design phases, to the construction phase, and the long phase of operation.
BIM significantly improves information flow between stakeholders involved at all stages,
resulting in an increase in efficiency by reducing the laborious and error-prone manual re-
entering of information that dominates conventional paper-based workflows.
Thanks to its many advantages, BIM is already practiced in many construction projects
throughout the entire world.