Integrated project delivery and building information modeling assessment for sustainable renovation of heritage buildings

Abstract

Renovation of heritage buildings has become a revivification pathway to promote sustainability as well as to protect the heritage buildings' significance and values. The complexity of sustainable renovation of heritage buildings requires the adoption of more sophisticated technologies and project management models to deal with the contradiction between sustainable design and heritage values preservation, as well as enhancing process productivity and final performance. This research aims to assess and evaluate the application of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) strategies and tools through Building Information Modelling (BIM) to enhance the sustainability aspects and efficiency of renovating heritages via better collaboration and integration. That is a vital key to the successful delivery of building projects. The research adopts a mixed methodology, Qualitative Comparative Analysis triangulating the collected data. An intensive review of related literature is carried out, besides data collection and analysis of four real-world heritage cases (in different contexts). The research study enables a comprehensive and systematic exploration of the potential use of IPD and BIM, within the development of an analytical framework consisting of a set of defined variables including 50 criteria, classified into 15 categories, and grouped into five thematic strands (people, process, policy, technology, and product). The focus is to determine the shared collaborative practices across the projects and the level to which the teams are able to implement the IPD and BIM tools and processes effectively. The findings presented considerable advantages of IPD and BIM collaborative strategies application over different thematic strands and contract types. It was revealed that IPD and BIM application allows reaching sustainability goals together with preserving the heritage buildings' values via holistic decision-making frameworks, ensuring on-time and budget project delivery. The collaborative environment admits the stimulation of integrated intervention design from the earliest stage, within multiple participants. BIM enables design teams to provide faster complex analyses and rapid assessment of energy simulations through BIM coordination with energy models, to produce a full virtual construction model. The contribution of this thesis is relevant to heritage preservation research and practitioners (especially in the Algerian context), who can use the resultant to better understanding and navigating the IPD through BIM and its potential shift in these projects with multiple stakeholders (e.g. designers, engineers, contractors, etc.). Moreover, it provides decision support for professionals and the government to choose the suitable delivery method (contract and legal terms) and best practices for carrying out similar projects to achieve high-performance buildings as the outcome of renovation of heritage buildings in broader and holistic perspectives.