ABSTRACT
Digital construction is an intentionally broad heading for an integrated approach to the new technologies that are beginning to infiltrate building and civil engineering in order to make building safer and more productive. This chapter provides an overview of the processes that are being developed that will aid, but also transform, construction methods and boost productivity by: promoting the significance of digital construction. The chapter describes the numerous challenges facing the construction industry in modernising its backward approach to delivering projects by replacing it with more efficient and highly productive digital technologies. Manchester Town Hall was a pilot heritage building project that required sympathetic modernisation for twenty-first century business. A building information modelling environment comprises computer-aided design tools to provide a better understanding of design and construction sequences through a virtual representation of the built asset so that the construction team, owners and operators can take part in detecting and resolving conflicts.
