Abstract: With the growing application of the building information model (BIM) in the buildings’ life-cycle, the building projects are characterized with growing complexity and explosively increasing data size. It has become a great challenge for the construction industry as to how to efficiently support the applications of BIM. It has been widely acknowledged in academic and industry circles that with a short life, cloud computing and big data technology can cope with numerous challenges in applications of BIM. This paper reviews existing studies and applications of cloud technology-based BIM (i.e. Cloud-BIM), approaching its applications at three layers: the data layer, the service layer and the application layer. Then the paper discusses and explains the present studies and practices of the three layers, pointing out the progress and obstacles in different layers. Finally, the current research limitations and prospects of future research trends are summarized in the conclusion section, shedding new light on potential researches and applications.

Key words:  BIM, cloud computing, BIM architecture