Windows to collaborative uses of BIM: Emerging breakpoints of coordination in BIM-mediated building design

The purpose of this on-going study is to identify recurrent breakpoints of coordination and their solutions in the design phase of a construction project. The specific focus is on the social forms of collaboration and its change during the adoption of new building information modeling (BIM) tools. The adoption of new tools may cause breakpoints in the design collaboration that hinder and complicate the design and construction processes. The methodology of the study is based on cultural-historical activity theory in which the role of tools is considered important in an activity. The research questions of the study are: (1) what are the breakpoints of collaboration, and (2) how are the identified breakpoints solved in the design collaboration? The research questions are studied in the data of a case study of designing three schools and a day-care center. The findings of the study report disturbances in the completion of the design tasks, gaps in the information exchange, and ambiguity in the division of labor between designers. The analysis of a design meeting and a special meeting uncover the possibilities of solving the breakpoints in the design phase of a construction project. The solutions of breakpoints require different kind of meetings in terms of the quality of collaboration. Besides coordination cooperation and communication are needed. During cooperation the subjects can solve problems deriving from dis-coordination of different parts of the designs. Communication type of collaboration refers to transformation of current design activity through solving the breakpoints emerging in it.