Building Information Modelling Implementation in the Design Stage of Chinese Prefabrication Construction

Prefabrication construction has gained popularity in the construction industry during the last few years. Due to the complexity of prefabrication design, building information modelling (BIM) is adopted in the design stage to improve efficiency and accuracy. Many previous studies have examined the adoption of BIM in the design stage and explored the current practice of BIM adoption in prefabrication construction, however fewer first-hand investigations are made on assessing the adoption of BIM. This study aims to identify the opportunities and challenges of utilizing BIM technology in the design stage of prefabrication construction from the perspective of designers. A semi-structured interview was conducted for qualitative data collection and the data are analysed by thematic analysis. A total of eight designers from Chinese prefabrication construction projects were interviewed. The research identified 8 opportunities and 15 challenges of BIM adoption in prefabrication construction. The top four challenges are: (1) inaccurate prefabrication production drawings generated by BIM software, (2) late adoption of BIM in the design stage, (3) lack of communication platform for different designers, and (4) lack of sharing the updated design model among designers, manufacturers, and onsite engineers. These findings provide directions for improving BIM adoption in the design of prefabrication construction.