BIM-BASED USER PRE-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION METHOD FOR FACILITATING THE DESIGNER-CLIENT COMMUNICATION IN DESIGN STAGE

misbe2011 Tracking Number 128

This paper introduces a BIM based user pre-occupancy evaluation method (UPOEM), which is applied in architectural design stage for the aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the communication between designers and clients. There are constant interaction between the clients’ requirements and designers’ solutions during the early design stage. However, there are some problems emerged during the designer-client communication process, such as inexperienced clients have difficulty in understanding 2D drawings; there is a lack of an efficient method to remind the design brief and help the clients to review the design; as well as the time constraint on the communication. The building information model (BIM) or BIM tools have provided a better platform to demonstrate both of the graphical and non-graphical information of the design. However the BIM tools paid less attention on facilitating clients to understand how their activities are accommodated in the building model, or helping them to express their requirements and feedback on the design. Therefore, this proposed method simulates the end users’ activities in the future built environment based on building information models, so as to improve the clients’ understanding on the design; a clients requirements and feedback interface is also designed to help clients express requirements and review the design. A framework of applying the UPOEM in conventional designers-users communication meetings is proposed in this paper.