BIM as Infrastructure in a Finnish HVAC Actor Network: Enabling Adoption, Reuse, and Recombination over a Building Life Cycle and between Projects

Abstract

This paper investigates how sociotechnical actions such as adoption, reuse, and recombination of designs and processes enable the users of building information modeling (BIM) tools to not only achieve productivity improvements in particular activities, but to build system capability that enables new ways of working. The evolution of BIM as digital infrastructure is studied in a network of companies developing and using BIM tools for new ways of working in the Finnish HVAC industry. The research methodology is a deductive case study testing a theoretical framework derived from the literature. The main finding is that BIM has emerged as digital infrastructure in design and construction, while development has stalled in use and operations. The explanation for the successful outcome in design and construction is found in the evidence of three sociotechnical actions of adoption, reuse, and recombination activating self-reinforcing positive developments in design and construction. The stalled development in use and operations is explained by a lack of adoption and reuse, which in turn inhibits the tool and process development required for increasing adoption. Servitization by extending project duration and aligning the business of actors to life cycle performance, standardization of interfaces and processes, and open architectures are identified as actions to activate digital infrastructure evolution for the later life cycle stages of a building. The originality and value of the paper is to demonstrate how the theoretical framework of sociotechnical action explains the emergence of BIM as digital infrastructure and how findings can be applied to identify specific management interventions to enable more successful outcomes.