- Title
- Modification of standardised construction contracts for the adoption of Building Information Modelling: analysing the case of the NSW government GC21 construction contract
- Creator
- Manderson, Aaron
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Masters Research - Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) within the Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has triggered reconsideration of the procurement process for constructed assets. Although the benefits of its use - collaboration, productivity gains and improvements to information quality - are well understood by the BIM community adoption rates within the AEC sector remain low. Various ideas have been advanced to explain this, ranging from high implementation costs, low returns-on-investment, sector-wide risk aversion and low innovation uptake, through to the legal implications of implementation within current contractual frameworks. This research addresses the last of these by first identifying, and then mapping BIM-related legal and contractual concerns against a widely used standard form of construction contract to determine what changes are required to facilitate BIM integration within the construction procurement process. An analysis of the relevant literature discussing the legal implications of BIM and Information Communication Technology (ICT) implementation identifies 10 significant thematic areas and describes them in detail. These then become the theoretical framework underpinning a Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of the GC21 standardised Australian construction contract. The key findings of the analysis are: a) that the GC21 contract embodies a traditional approach to design and construction that inhibits true collaboration amongst the project stakeholders; b) that by adopting a traditional approach the designer assumes further risk when undertaking and completing the design using BIM without due consideration for the additional efforts or exposure to litigation; c) that the contract does not assign any contractual status to the Building Information Model, and; d) that the contract cannot recognise this model as a contract document. In the case of the GC21 contract, this necessitates the submission of standard hardcopy drawings, specifications and proprietary Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) files, irrespective of the adoption, and subsequent accuracy/functionality, of a BIM system of work. The significance of this research is threefold: firstly, it maps the range of legal concerns as expressed by various industry stakeholders; secondly, it develops them as a tool to analyse existing contracts and propose changes, and; finally, it provides a reliable platform for further research – particularly the assessment of other standard conditions of contract.
- Subject
- Building Information Modelling; standardised construction contracts; qualitative content analysis; legal barriers; AEC
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1296569
- Identifier
- uon:19280
- Rights
- Copyright 2015 Aaron Manderson
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Abstract | 244 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |