Abstract: The BIM forward design has become widely recognized due to its advantages of
simplifying the modelling process and reducing costs of labor and information exchange. As the BIM
technology has been increasingly popularized in the architecture industry in China for many years, the
current BIM consulting model cannot satisfy the highly demanding application. Many challenges
still remain when the BIM forward design was applied in the practical projects. This study performed
a critical survey based on the practical experience from many projects and the literature investigation,
so as to summarize the existing questions as follows: ① the lack of adaptive standards; ② domestic
constraints; ③ underdeveloped related technical and industrial chains. Based on the analysis of the
mentioned questions, several conclusions can be drawn such as: The drawing-oriented application is a
transitional strategy. The effective solutions for developing the BIM forward design should be based
on the adaptive standard. The domestic BIM software and cloud platforms should be developed, and
the integration of design and construction management should be reinforced. Not only is the strong
support of technical required, but the innovation of management mode is needed to guarantee the
application and development of BIM.

Key words: building information modeling, integrated project delivery, forward design, review, project management