Building’s fourth annual BIM survey suggests uptake of building information modelling is stagnating. Last year’s excitement over the government’s Level 2 mandate – requiring fully collaborative 3D BIM on all centrally procured public projects – appears to have faded, as the challenges of digitisation become more apparent.

Since April 2016, central government departments have required all projects they procure to be compliant with BIM Level 2, a set of standards that include collaboration and digital sharing of documentation. Last year’s BIM survey, which took place six months after the deadline, showed a sharp rise in respondents saying they were using BIM, from 66% in 2015 to 73% in 2016. However, one year on, that number has slipped back to 70%, with 40% of respondents saying they consider the benefits of using BIM “overhyped” (up from 35% last year) and 12% saying they do not commonly derive any benefits from using BIM (up from 10% in 2016). And despite last year’s government mandate, the proportion of people using BIM to Level 2 fell from 44% to 43%, with several respondents saying the definition of BIM Level 2 was vague.

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