Cooperlink traveled to Paris last week for BIM World 2025. Laure Bouvier, our marketing and content specialist, attended no fewer than 8 conferences to take the pulse of the sector.We are not offering here a synthesis of what was heard, but rather a snapshot of BIM adoption, ten years after its initial deployment.

BIM refers to the modeling of a built asset. It takes the form of a BIM model, a 3D mock-up enriched with a wealth of information. BIM is also a process of designing and structuring project data that aims to improve collaboration between stakeholders and ultimately improve project quality.

The ultimate goal is to use BIM from design through to building operation.
Clients hope for a design phase in which each engineering firm models its own elements, and clash detections identify issues between disciplines before construction begins.
Operators, for their part, dream of a 3D as-built / DOE file linked to equipment maintenance software.

So, 10 years later — have we achieved the goal?

Digital Twins

Some public authorities didn’t wait for BIM to understand the value of digitizing their assets. Some have chosen to scan their territory or existing assets to create 3D replicas. Technological advances have enabled the addition of photo mappings to texture these 3D models.

Geneva, for instance, introduced a digital cadastre as early as the 1970s. Today, the city has 1,300 datasets used to plan urban development and assess the impact of permit applications on the existing environment. The urban planning department uses the 3D model to verify how permit submissions fill the authorized construction volume.

The city of Strasbourg now has a geomatics department with no fewer than 33 staff members. It updates its 3D model data every 4 years and has partnered with local electricity and gas providers to fund database updates.

The Grand Est Region (France) has placed BIM at the heart of managing and renovating its real estate assets.
The Region has roughly digitized its buildings in 3D, supplemented with numerous sensors on equipment such as boilers and meters. Use cases include early detection of technical malfunctions and remote maintenance interventions, water leak detection, rapid quantification of window frame surfaces, and scheduling of necessary replacements.

It has also developed a BIM charter that is mandatory for its contracts — now in version 17, which highlights the topic’s importance.

Monaco is likely the most impressive example. The principality has digitized its entire territory — 1,500 buildings modeled with their context. Designers can access the 3D model of the territory to refine their project integration.
In exchange, architects must provide the 3D model of buildings submitted for planning approval.
The territory model is thus enriched and updated over time.

BIM as seen by architects

While the event mainly focused on digital solutions, one conference stood out:“Architectural firms’ vision: feedback and new challenges”. In the design phase, BIM has mainly taken root with architects, who usually coordinate various disciplines (structural engineering, utilities, landscaping, MEP, etc.).As a result, large firms have created new BIM departments, bringing new roles like BIM Coordinator, BIM Modeler, BIM Manager...

Architecture firms such as Patriarche Augmented Architecture, Brunerie Pragma, AIA Life Designer, and PCA-Stream have exposed with clarity a shared approach and similar methodologies.

Structuring data

While firms differentiate between “voluntary BIM” and “mandatory BIM” projects — which more or less dictate how to structure data — BIM is integrated right from the project’s start, with input data processing and information management.The program — whether in Excel or brief sheets — and the list of deliverables are first handled by the BIM team, which defines the framework for document production before design begins.

Representing the data

One major challenge within an architectural firm is ensuring consistent representation.
The idea is, of course, to avoid every team member reinventing the wheel with each project and wasting time better spent on design. But it’s also about developing a recognizable representation style.

In 2D, the goal was to impose a common drafting style, standardize layouts, and define layer usage.
With BIM, representation mainly concerns the object library.

Each office’s BIM team develops a shared reference library, sometimes called a catalogue, library, or showroom, categorized by discipline.
This reference is updated regularly based on feedback from various projects.

This BIM object library has become such a valuable asset that the question of sharing it during competitions arises — even though BIM Managers have spent countless hours fine-tuning it.

Human factor in BIM implementation

Listening to the four speakers, it’s clear that BIM departments serve as support hubs within firms. They acknowledge that BIM is an added constraint for architects and seek to make its adoption and use easier. Training is at the heart of their strategy — initially to ensure that new hires have the baseline knowledge to work according to the firm’s standards. But more than a one-time onboarding step, BIM training is a continuous concern for agencies.
They often implement recurring knowledge-sharing or feedback sessions to ensure teams continuously improve.

What about the link between design and building lifecycle?

After attending eight conferences and visiting several stands, one thing is clear: BIM is valuable. However, the world of designers and the world of building operators still don’t seem to have fully connected. Each develops their model for their own needs, but the building lifecycle is not yet covered by shared data and tools.

At Cooperlink, we believe the construction phase is the missing link between design and operation. It is the stage where intentions meet on-site reality.

That’s why we are currently developing a bridge between BIM design and execution within our Construction Hub. The goal: allow site teams to easily enrich the digital model during construction with as-built data. Each model object can then be linked to technical sheets, documentation, or maintenance plans.

The result? A reliable and fully usable as-built / DOE BIM model — accessible to all project stakeholders, all the way through to operation.

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Want to know more? Contact one of our experts for a discussion.

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