Automated compliance checking using building information models

Building designs in the UK are currently checked manually against a frequently changing and increasingly complex set of building regulations. This is a major task for both designers and enforcers, often leading to ambiguity, inconsistency in assessments and delays in the overall construction process. Technical developments in Building Information Modelling (BIM) offer the potential for a new generation of software tools that can automate the checking of compliance with building codes, thus improving the efficiency of building design and procurement. To attain these efficiencies designers must change their working practices and move away from the definition of a building in multiple and disparate documents to a single coherent building model from which the documentation is generated. Theoretically, this building model could contain sufficient information to respond to interrogation at the level of building code compliance, though in practice only a percentage of the required information is normally present. This paper reviews previous research into automated code compliance, identifies the key issues for future development and examines the causes of information paucity for compliance checking in the current generation of BIM tools.