How to Use BIM for Sustainable Architectural Design

If you're a building designer, there are many ways to integrate Building Information Modeling (BIM) into your sustainable architectural designs. This is a great way to get your hands on some of the latest, greatest digital tools and technologies. BIM can actually improve your design processes.

Aside from helping you save money and time, incorporating BIM into your design process can help you achieve your sustainability goals. From optimizing water use to reducing waste, BIM is a great tool for achieving these types of objectives.

BIM is also useful in addressing transdisciplinary problems. For example, designers can use BIM to better understand the effect of dynamic environmental factors on a building's performance. By mapping this information on a digital model, architects can then make more informed decisions about their designs. It can even allow architects to optimize their resource usage.

BIM can help to reduce waste, which is a major concern when constructing a building. Having an accurate digital model allows engineers to size their systems properly. The model can then be used in simulation programs to predict how much energy a building will use in the future. Similarly, simulation programs can predict how much natural ventilation and CO2 emissions will be needed. Similarly, BIM can provide architects with a clearer understanding of how a building will perform in extreme conditions.

While 3D BIM Modeling can improve efficiency during the construction phase, it can also assist in sustainable operations throughout the lifecycle of a building. Sustainable maintenance is key to ensuring that a building remains environmentally sound for the next generation. Another advantage is that architects can use BIM to design structures that are resilient and can adapt to changing conditions. Using a building information model can also make it easy for architects to share pertinent information with other professionals.

One assignment in my graduate-level class required me to demonstrate the benefits of BIM by writing about how BIM was applied in a particular context. I chose to apply BIM to a design problem that my students could identify and solve. Students remodeled a building and used a simulation program to see how it would respond to loads in a variety of orientations. They wrote up a workshop demonstrating their findings.

My instructor's goal was to show students how BIM could be used to support their Sustainable Architecture Design projects. He did this by introducing them to various analysis tools that are available through BIM and explaining that a BIM model can be the basis of a more advanced model.

One assignment in my graduate-level class had students select one topic from a previous assignment. They were asked to write about the BIM model in conjunction with a simulation program. Similarly, they were tasked with designing a building that would be a good example of the BIM-based model.

This was a simple exercise, but the results showed that students did not necessarily know what was considered the best of the best in the BIM field. Instead, they primarily focused on other issues.