Our pioneering 7D BIM research, which integrates whole life cost and carbon estimation with BIM, has won Building magazine's Digital Construction Award.

7D BIM addresses the disconnect between the application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes and the accurate assessment of whole-life cost (WLC) and carbon of buildings through their lifecycle.

Over 30 years the cost of operating a building can be four times the cost of designing and constructing it, with around 80% of the operation, maintenance, and replacement costs being influenced in the first 20% of the design process.

We have just completed a two-year research project in partnership with the Mackintosh School of Architecture and eight partners from across the construction industry which has culminated in the creation of the first prototype 7D BIM model in the world with the aim of addressing this costly imbalance.

7D BIM integrates advanced BIM (Building Information Modelling) with cloud-based whole life cost and carbon databases to allows those in the architecture, engineering and construction industries to more accurately predict whole life cost and carbon, enabling us to understand the long-term environmental carbon impact and running costs of our buildings.

Read more on our dedicated 7D BIM page.

Our approach

Our team has been behind pioneering research in architecture for 25 years • Research + foresight