Contributions of BIM technology for teaching-learning of architectural design with emphasis on technical-constructive aspects

Abstract

This article is result of a Master’s thesis focused on the exploration of the use of a Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology as a pedagogical instrument for teaching-learning of specific disciplines of an undergraduate Architecture course. The research investigation environment took place in the context of an Architectural Design Studio part of the 4^th semester (2^nd year) of an undergraduate Architecture course, which aims the development of the project of a landscaping hotel design integrating environmental, conceptual, programmatic, formal and technical-constructive aspects guided by the use of the woodframe technology. When employing a methodology common to Design Science Research, the research elaborated and tested artifacts developed to integrate the “Technical-constructive” stage, part of the didactic model of the discipline named here of “BIM Strategy”. The proposed artifacts refers to an in-class exercise composed by a BIM woodframe reference model, a template in ArchiCAD and a guidance-text. To evaluate the application of this strategy structured questionnaires were used, which results will be presented in the form of potentials and limitations/conditionings. The mainly finding of the research was that besides allowing the exploration of the technical-constructive aspects by the students, the insertion of the artifacts in the context of the “BIM Strategy” allowed a greater integration and understanding of the tectonic aspects in the context of the architectural design teaching. About the future works presented, it is expected that the contributions of the research will be extended for the promotion of an integration with the constructive techniques disciplines.