Recently many clients including governmental agencies have begun or are considering moving, away from the traditional public bid for Architects and General Contractors. The trend towards design-build contracts is show in the graph below [not yet posted]. Cost and time the primary reasons for doing away with the traditional design-bid-build system, but in the not too distant future it will not be a choice.
With the advent of BIM, the traditional relationship between design professional and contractor will necessarily blur to the point where perhaps there little will be left of the architect-contractor relationship as exists today. Already, the primary software systems used as an integral part of BIM require the design professional to be intimately familiar with how a building is put together, as the building has to be built in virtual reality.
This new paradigm requires close and continuous collaboration among all the participants, including not just the design professionals but the owner, contractor and subcontractors as well, from the early stages of design through construction. The holistic approach made possible and necessary by BIM will render obsolete the need not only of traditional construction administration documents but the traditional design-bid-build method. Ultimately, rolls of plans will disappear as well, at least in the sense with which we are familiar.
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