BIM and IFC: Awareness and Self-assessed knowledge from the perspective of Cambodian university students
Riccardo Corrado, Meta Soy, Vichera Heang
Abstract
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is gaining momentum and is spreading in the construction industries around the world. For what concerns the ASEAN region, BIM is still not well spread, and this is even more distinct in Cambodia. For supporting the integration of BIM in the Cambodian construction sector, a fundamental contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country that is aiming to be an active player in the digital transformation of the region, education is the first step. Accounting for the current absence of research works in the Cambodian context of BIM-related education, this paper represents the first investigation of the spread of BIM and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) concepts, measured from the perspective of Cambodian university students, aiming to obtain useful insights for future recommendations on BIM adoption and implementation in the tertiary education architectural curriculum. Following the results, currently, BIM and IFC are not well spread in Cambodia and many students enrolled in an architectural-related major are not aware or knowledgeable about them, even though they seem to perceive their importance. Following these findings, a suggestion can be offered to Cambodian universities in posing more attention to BIM and IFC, fostering their inclusion in the architectural curriculum and implementing BIM-related activities in the learning design process, aiming to foster the effective implementation of BIM in the Cambodian construction sector.