Building Knowledge Information Modelling: Towards A Conceptual Framework for Managing Construction Claim Knowledge

Knowledge can be shared among the project team members and reused in the next or other projects to improve the time, cost and quality performance. As most of the knowledge created in a project is residing in the head of the individual project team members, the details are very often gradually forgotten, not being shared with other non-project team members and eventually lost. In addition, knowledge learned may also exist in two- and higher dimensions, such as drawings, video clips, and n-D models, making its capture and sharing challenging due to the interoperability and format compatibility issues. As such, in order to better leverage the knowledge learned from the projects a more effective approach for managing the knowledge is required. Related to this, Building Information Modelling (BIM) presents a flexible n-D model through which additional information, such as time, cost and even knowledge, can be incorporated into the model as additional dimensions. The Cloud- and Web-based BIM systems also facilitate any-time and any-place access to the BIM files via the Web, thus may help enable convenient access and sharing of the knowledge captured. This paper presents the conceptual framework of a Building Knowledge Information Modelling (BKIM) system, whereby mechanisms for managing construction knowledge will be designed and integrated with a Cloud-based BIM system. The framework presented focuses only the management of knowledge about claims at this stage, as the proof of concept.