Karen Tanfield

Thesis

The Digitisation of Repairs and Maintenance in Medium-Rise and High-Rise Strata-titled Apartment Developments

This thesis explores the potential use of the building information model (BIM) by apartment owners and administrative strata managers during the operations or ‘in-use’ stage of residential owners corporations in Victoria, Australia. The motivation for this research came from an acknowledgement of the role that strata-titled apartment owners, collectively referred to as an owners corporation (Victoria) and who operate through a volunteer committee of these owners (Committee of Management), play in the management of repairs and maintenance in increasingly complex residential developments. While most owners corporation Committees of Management are assisted by specialist managers known as owners corporation managers or strata managers, the traditional role of these managers is administrative (Antoniades, 2013). Strata management industry bodies, such as the SCA (Strata Community Australia) and others (Shergold Weir) have recognised the significant issues facing apartment owners and strata managers and many are looking for solutions. However, the solutions proposed to date are paper based (building manuals) or limited to conventional (siloed) data production and use. This at a time when those in the construction industry (architects, engineers, and contractors) are increasingly using sophisticated three-dimensional software known as building information modelling (BIM) to design, document and cost these developments for construction (Perera et al., 2021).  The result of this digital process is a centralised, data-rich, three-dimensional model (BIM). While the use of BIM during the operations stage of government, public and commercial buildings with single owners and teams of employees has been explored and developed by researchers since 2000 (Yu et al., 2000),  the use of BIM by strata-titled apartment owners and managers of owners corporations has not previously been investigated.  This research includes the development of a conceptual framework for owners corporations.

Research groups

• Geomatics
• CSDILA

Supervisors

• Dr Davood Shojaei (lead)
• A/Prof Christopher Heywood
• Prof Meenakshi Arora (chair)

Qualifications