An Ontological Study on the State of the Turkish Construction Industry and its Implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Due to the inconvenience of old and traditional ways of work in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, Building Information Modeling (BIM) was introduced and is considered as one of the most beneficial and successful developments in the industry since it provides accurate virtual models for digital construction as well as it is best known for reducing mistakes and errors by improving the coordination between various design areas. BIM technology is progressively being implemented in many countries, however there is contrast in the usage and awareness among these countries in which some of them appear to utilize and be aware of such technology more than others. In the case of a country like Turkey, it falls behind other countries like Finland and Canada when it comes to advanced implementation of BIM in construction. For this reason, an ontological study on the state of the Turkish construction industry and its BIM implementation is carried out to investigate the work processes in the industry and to see how frequently BIM is implemented. A quantitative research methodology is adopted in this study to acquire statistical information about the work processes in the Turkish construction industry and its BIM implementation. At the end of this study, BIM implementation in Turkey is found to be limited as it is rarely used by the Turkish construction industry. Moreover, an ontological framework for BIM implementation in Turkey is created which can be used to aid Turkish construction companies in adopting and implementing BIM in a more effective way. Keywords: BIM, Ontological framework, Turkey, Turkish construction industry.