Review of cost estimation practices for building projects using BIM

Abstract

Cost management remains one of the key challenges in architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) projects. Building information modeling (BIM) has gained popularity amongst AEC industry professionals due to its better visualization and clash detection abilities. The present study therefore attempts to review the cost estimation practices for building projects using BIM. The objective of the present study is to find answers to the research questions viz., 1) What are the various methodologies adopted for estimating building cost using BIM? and 2) Is BIM popular tool amongst cost management professionals? The literature review is divided into four parts. The first part of the literature review deals with general observations addressing issues and challenges of using BIM for cost estimation. The second part of the literature review covers different types of models and framework developed by researchers for estimating cost of building projects using BIM. The third part of the review investigates the key observations by various associated stakeholders on the usage of BIM for estimating building cost. The interpretation through various case studies is discussed in the last part of the literature review.

Keywords: Cost estimation; Cost management; BIM