Creativity with Building Information Modelling tools

Whilst the application of BIM continues to be acknowledged and prevailing, design practitioners and academics find themselves in a paradox with an on-going discussion on the impact of BIM tools on design creativity and innovation. Literature suggests that BIM tools can hinder design creativity due to: parametric limitations; interoperability; and the demand for detailed information at preliminary design stages. However, other literature shows that BIM tools increase design creativity, and at some point provide limitless opportunities to be creative. The aim of this paper is to identify and verify the impact of BIM tools on design creativity. It is important for architectural students and practioners to be aware of the impact of BIM tools on the design. A literature review was used to identify the benefits and constraints of BIM tools on design creativity; a questionnaire survey was used to verify its impact. The questionnaire survey was conducted with the top 100 UK architectural firms (group one) and CNBR Yahoo Group (group two). It was found that BIM tools do not affect design creativity and innovation in the opinion of the respondents. This paper enlightens the status-quo of BIM tools on creativity and innovation, but will focus on the impact of BIM tools on architectural design creativity in the early design phase more closely. This research would be important to both academics and architectural designers using BIM in their various applications.