Most construction projects are large and costly. Collaborative working involves two or more stakeholders sharing their efforts and resources to complete the project more effectively and efficiently.Collaborative, integrative and multi-disciplinary teams can tackle the complex issues involved in creating a viable built environment. This tends to be looked at from three interrelated perspectives: the technological, organizational, and social; and of these the key issue is to improve productivity and enable innovation through the empowerment and motivation of people.This book provides insights for researchers and practitioners in the building and construction industry as well as graduate students, written by an international group of leading scholars and professionals into the potential use, development and limitations of current collaborative technologies and practices. Material is grouped into the themes of advanced technologies for collaborative working, virtual prototyping in design and construction, building information modelling, managing the collaborative processes, and human issues in collaborative working.

Introduction: collaborative construction information management - evolution and revolution 1 Collaboration: a technology or human interface problem? 2 Potential obstacles to using BIM in architectural design 3 Collaboration using BIM: results of Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation projects 4 Process modelling for planning, managing and control of collaborative design 5 Combining 3D models and simulations to meet the design challenges of the twenty-first century 6 Digital design collaboration: from BIM to BKM -enhancing human creativity 7 Towards a multi-agent approach for knowledge-based virtual construction 8 Update on the Swire Properties Hong Kong One Island East Tower BIM success story 9 IKEA pattern and revolution of the construction industry 10 Improving information delivery 11 Applying process rigour to the use of BIM in building design teams: a review of three technologies 12 Building information modelling in material take-off in a Hong Kong project 13 A data-centric, process-orientated model for effective collaborative working 14 Supporting collective knowledge creation in digitally mediated collaborative environments 15 The use of 3D computer visualisation methods in value management briefing and design studies: the case for rapid prototyping and the impact on industry structure 16 Accelerating collaboration: soft system imperatives for mobilising hard system developments 17 The construction game 18 A group support system for collaborative working in a value management workshop environment