A possible tool for the territory regeneration Organization and digitalization of the building process through BIM

The digitalization of processes in the rather backward construction sector is a fundamental and strategic step forwards that can no longer be postponed. Inasmuch, there is no doubt that it will bring about a full-scale revolution affecting every player in the building process: clients, builders, professionals, property managers and users, the credit system, the insurance system, etc. However, the broadness and impact of this cultural leap, this change of paradigm, cannot spread among building process stakeholders in a rapid, complete and uniform way. This difficulty seems already to emerge from the initial complicated attempts in the public works sphere where the process of change, which ought to be generated starting from full awareness by Contracting Stations, is only now taking its first steps. The recent ratification of the so-called “BIM Decree” (as envisaged in Article 23 paragraph 13 of the Tender Procurement Code/Legislative Decree No. 50/2016) however, at least confirms the mandatory launch of this approach in coming years for Public Works. The BIM may come forward as an “influential epi-phenomenon of digitization” (A. Ciribini). The way forward towards digitization should therefore embrace organization as an essential element for effective application in processes involving the construction sector, where digitization really should play an increasingly decisive role. Such awareness would also allow designers or small design organizations to approach specific individual aspects, that could be tackled by applying innovative logics, thereby helping to promote necessary widespread distribution of experiences dealt with in a more modern manner. In conclusion, the Italian route towards to digitalization may well start from the organized juxtaposition of individual experiences, thereby stimulating the transition into the future from the particular to the general. The task, therefore, is to identify feasible operational practices rather than improbable and abstract complex theoretical models (as already mentioned, not readily applicable in the Italian context) that are probably premature at the present time. Such operational practices will naturally have to be clearly defined and refer to a broad scenario where university research and the world of standardization are reliable landmarks. This research describes and analyzes some of these practices, which seem to confirm the practicability of this pragmatic approach that, as already mentioned, is perhaps unique in the particular Italian scenario and based on incremental organization and digitalisation of the process or, as suggested, specific parts of it.