Construction industrialization and IT integration: How tall wood buildings can show the right path towards Construction 4.0

Abstract

The construction industry has been considered as refractory to information technologies. However, new technological approaches, such as the Building Information Modeling (BIM), are becoming increasingly adopted and are promising better collaboration, better flow optimization and greater integration of the supply chain. These changes are preparing the industry for the advent of "Construction 4.0", a more federating concept than BIM. This article explores the concept and shows how tall wood buildings could show the right path and lead the way for the rest of the industry. The research shows that while tall wood construction actually presents the potential to fit the construction 4.0 requirements, current practices are far from being uniform from one project to another. It also illustrates the need for a close collaboration between practitioners and researchers in order to overcome the current challenges.