Contractual and legal issues for building information modeling in Turkey

Abstract

BIM is being used with increased frequency by Turkish contractors on building and infrastructure projects in Turkey. Although there is agreement among Project stakeholders that BIM is a valuable tool in the achievement of project goals and the management of projects, a full fledged implementation of BIM is not yet achieved due to several issues. The present paper shall attempt to identify a range of contractual and legal issues concerning the implementation of BIM in Turkey. The contractual and legal issues that present barries to the full implementation of BIM may be categorized under the following headings: the legal framework, liability and responsibility, confidentiality and traditional approaches to damages. The legal framework in Turkey lends more support to a fragmented structure within the construction industry, delineating the rights and responsibilities of the parties clearly. Current intellectual property law may not be adequate with the enhanced use of BIM in a contract. Furthermore traditional approaches to contractual liability and responsibility favour clear cut allocations of risk between the designers, contractors, subcontractors and owners. BIM allows the sharing of information between the project parties and authorisation of access to otherwise confidential data. The present tendency of the parties is to protect commercial information and to preserve commercial competitiveness. Finally the traditional approach to contractual damages is another factor stifling the widespread use of BIM in construction projects.