As with other professions and industries related to the creation of built environments, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is having a transformative impact on the practice of interior design.

BIM can bring a bevy of benefits to the interior designer during the actual design process itself. Chief amongst them is BIM’s role as tool for facilitating the creation of design models with increased speed and convenience, and enhancing the ability to visualise such designs in three dimensions.

Like other software design paradigms, BIM software makes it far easier for interior designers to produce 3D models of pre-existing interior or exterior structures upon which to base their subsequent design work.

A central feature of BIM applications is also the ability to coordinate and maintain the consistency of 3D models under development, instantly and automatically adjusting document information, irrespective of the number or scale of the changes made by interior designers during the work process.

The provision of copious libraries of features and components by BIM software applications is another major benefit for interior designers, giving them instantaneous access to a vast variety of pre-made parts to abet their creative efforts.

In addition to the benefits conferred by BIM with respect to the actual design work itself, the software’s ability to store and manage non-graphic data within document components also expedites other practical aspects of the interior design process.

The embedding of non-graphic data within the individual components of digital designs enables interior designers to perform quantity calculations in relation to surface areas and material amounts with complete accuracy and ease.

This in turn permits more precise cost estimates and enables designers to avoid the wastage of materials that results from ordering excessive amounts.

Another pivotal advantage of BIM for interior designers is one which is shared in common with the various other professions and sectors involved in the creation of built environments.

This is the ability of BIM software to better coordinate the work and scheduling of a project’s disparate stakeholders and participants, enabling them to maintain consistency throughout what are often highly complex and unwieldy undertakings.

Interior designers can be immediately apprised of the potential impacts of changes to the architectural, construction or engineering features of a project upon their own work via the development of a joint BIM design shared between all project-stakeholders.