The HBIM Maturity Model: Accrediting Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) Development

HBIM is the application of BIM, a digital information management process, to cultural heritage (CH) assets. Despite the numerous potential benefits posed by the adoption of HBIM, the current practice is limited by a lack of consideration of the end user and a lack of guidance regarding the application of HBIM. To address this, the article presents the HBIM Maturity Model, the culmination of a multi-year research project developing user-centric guidelines for HBIM via consultation with the international heritage community. The article details the development of the HBIM Maturity Model, a scalable, level-based approach for developing and assessing HBIM systems. Subsequently, 122 case studies are evaluated using previously defined HBIM system requirements and the HBIM Maturity Model to assess to what extent the current HBIM application meets the needs of the heritage community. The evaluation concludes that, despite the technological ability to achieve the requirements of the heritage community, the majority of HBIM case studies fail to report outputs deemed most critical by the heritage community, namely, those related to structured information management. This should be considered a key barrier to HBIM adoption.