BIM is good if the project site is to be operated by the owner after completion.  If the job is large and complex it is better to hand over than an operation manual.  It suits hospitals, university facilities and large office buildings.

For a project like high rise residential, there will be little interest in BIM from the developer because it adds to the cost and time of documenting the project for construction and , once it is sold on, the developer does not benefit because the developer is not maintaining it.  Buyers as individuals (or as strata managers) do not see the benefit of such a cost at this time, although in the future it may become more prevalent if high end developments demonstrate benefit and the notion trickles down into general practice.

What is IDP?

Stephen : IPD meaning - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_project_delivery

Tayo: it is popular to say that BIM saves money due to reduced reworks, better cost control and analysis posibilities during conceptual stage, because predictions becames less uncertain.

Impact of those benefits should be related to complexity of the project. Maybe it could be influenced of risks for human related errors in design and construction processes. 

It is realy interesting topic.

Is there are scientific (not software developers created) material about that?

One great author are https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Love2

He has published interesting articles about cost related to reworks and missing the deadlines.

Hi TAyo,

Ive started my research towards a very similar discipline as yours very recently.There are a lot of interesting insights i came across. Although in the case of BIm and IPD for large construction projects, it might not be as effective as it would be for other projects. Like Stephen mentioned, not many large scale construction projects would be interested in investing the time and money required to go through BIM and IPD . Amidst all of this, one major question is to what extent does BIM contribute in the procurement process of the same? Ive posted a question regarding this to know more about it.

Any insights on this would be great.

Hi Shithi,

in my limited professional experience, none of it direct, of BIM, it is most likely to be involved in procurement for large government or commercial projects, in which the up front cost of this construction can be factored into a long life investment.  

Examples of the former would be the new children's hospital which is part of the state government run Queen Elizabeth 2 complex; whereas of the latter, you d mostly find them in high rise office buildings with major corporate tenants anywhere; brookfield place comes to mind here but that might have used REVIT instead of BIM.

I know of no high-rise residential developers here interested in running a project with BIM.

have been interested in doing BIM for fine residential, as there is so much detail involved, and the owners are likely to have the means to pay for it as well as the opportunity to benefit from it if they continue to live in the house for a while.

PS:  a 2nd edition of Charles Eastman's pioneering work in BIM has just come out. at which you may wish to have a look:

http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470541377.html

Thank you all for your response and contribution. @ stephen thanks for the link.

By the way, BIM leverage IPD.  Are there synergies between BIM and IPD?