The different industrial revolutions have been characterized by major advances in the history of humanity, profoundly shaping modern society. The transport sector has undergone several upheavals and enabled rapid and cheap transport of goods and people over long distances.  Each different mode of transport, train, car, boat, plane, rocket has undergone a great evolution changing lifestyles in the four corners of the world. The same goes for the communications sector, from the telegraph to the telephone and the smartphone. The greatest changes have been generated by the advent of digital technologies and will experience exponential growth with the arrival of Artificial Intelligence. However, we observe that the construction sector, particularly housing, has experienced relatively modest progress and has been little impacted given the power of the industrial revolutions, probably due to its secular nature.

The underlying idea behind the creation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is to bring the construction sector to also experience the great advances and profound changes, authorized by the industrial revolutions, by improving productivity through better collaboration between all stakeholders, a reduction in costs, an optimization of the sustainability of projects.  BIM is thus a working method integrating, for greater precision and efficiency, different processes such as advanced modeling, visualization and simulation, real-time collaboration, interoperability, analysis and optimization, management of the life cycle. Several levels of BIM development have been defined and different specific digital applications support BIM development such as modeling software, project management, analysis and simulation, visualization, facilities management, quantification and estimation. Finally, the internationally recognized standards and directives ISO 19650 and IFC (Industry Foundations Classes) govern BIM and reassure construction companies, government organizations and states wishing to embark on the implementation of BIM.

As with all industrial revolutions, Africa is faced with a major new challenge: BIM and still lags behind. However, certain countries stand out for having resolutely committed to the adoption of BIM, namely South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, and Africans can be proud of the emblematic 'Discovery Headquarters in Sandton South Africa' and 'Maputo-Katembe Bridge in Mozambique' entirely built with BIM;  Cameroon, for its part, is getting started with BIM with the ‘PAD Headquarters in Yaoundé’ project.

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The edifying Conference given on June 12, 2024 at ESSACA by Dr.Henry Abanda, BIM Expert, Mr. Jehu Enyengue BIM Manager and Mr.Fabrice Ohandja Civil Engineer, ESSACA teacher, allowed the ESSACA communityto better understand what  is BIM and learn about the first two levels of BIM. This was an opportunity for the Executive Director, Mr. Jean-JacquesKotto, to consider the upcoming opening of a BIM teaching module at ESSACA.

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