Hi, this is HowBIM.
Before a trip to the US, I spent a short time in Korea. I started BIM in Singapore, worked in Australia for more than six years, and had a chance to talk with many people in Korea before moving on. What I heard was more shocking than I expected.
"I thought BIM would have settled in after ten years…"
Ten years ago, when I left Korea, I thought this:
"Within ten years, BIM will be the standard in construction."
The Korea I came back to was not what I expected. BIM still has not taken root across the industry, and the gap from what I had seen overseas was large.
In Australia especially, BIM is managed as a digital asset of the building, based on the international standard ISO 19650. It is not just a design tool. It has become the base that connects to the next wave of technology, such as digital twins and AI-driven operations.
In Korea, even the policy foundation was still thin.
Why has BIM not settled in Korea?
There are many overlapping reasons: systems, people, technology, budget. The point I felt most strongly was transparency.
Once work becomes digital, information becomes visible. Design, construction, materials, process, and cost can all be traced, and the old ways of working become harder. For a long time, the Korean construction industry has had to make a profit from low bids. Inefficient methods were often unavoidable. In that setting, going digital collides with the existing system.
Digital construction is not optional
AI, digital twins, smart cities… Buildings and cities will be connected and driven by data. BIM is the starting point. If BIM itself is not in place, the technologies that follow will fall behind too. This is not only a construction problem. It affects the competitiveness of the whole related industry.
That is why I thought:
"Someone has to keep talking about this, and keep trying to change it."
Whether through YouTube or teaching, I want to help change the culture of construction as it is now. I don't know what I can do right away, but I at least want to get people looking at this and talking about it.
Think about this with me
If you work in the field, do you feel the same thing? Or do you treat it as something that cannot be changed?
Leave a comment. Small voices, gathered together, might one day make a large change.
#BIM, #HOWBIM, #digital construction, #smart construction, #digital twin, #AI construction, #ISO19650, #Korea construction, #Australia construction