“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.” Stewart Brand.

There is a global trend to working in BIM, that has been developing for about 20 years, but has really come into it’s own in the last 5 years. BIM software products are now offered by all the major design software suppliers like Autodesk, Microstation, Graphisoft, etc.  The latest market survey, McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket 2009 Report ( "The Business Value of BIM: Getting Building Information Modelling (BIM) to the Bottom Line"),  profiles the adoption of BIM in North America, showing that at least 50% of industry are now using BIM tools, a 75% increase since their last survey in 2007, with the biggest increase being amongst owners and contractors (300-400%). Many of the larger design/build contractors, client and government bodies in the US are now demanding that BIM be used on new projects.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is where BIM technology is going, where the same building information model is used by all the project stakeholders for designing, analysing, constructing and even post-construction facilities management. The benefits of fully coordinated collaboration on projects using BIM is already being recognised by more astute clients and contractors, who are now driving the global agenda for Integrated Project Delivery. While the prospect of easily resolving co-ordination issues between the disciplines is very exciting, it is also blurring the lines of responsibility, and architects and designers need to be at the leading edge of this development or risk having our role seriously diminished in future project procurement routes.