BIM-enabled material reuse: Needs and barriers from a Swiss–Liechtenstein perspective

Building Information Modelling (BIM) can support a circular economy in the construction sector, but practical barriers hinder its application for material reuse. To address this, this study explores the challenges within the Swiss-Liechtenstein context, investigating the essential platform features through semi-structured interviews with eleven professionals operating at the intersection of digitalisation and circularity; these included architects, regulatory authorities, BIM/sustainability experts, and material bank managers. Accordingly, the study asks: 1) Which methods and allocations of responsibility can substantively increase practitioners’ commitment to implementing material reuse within the Swiss-Liechtenstein context? And 2) What features and characteristics must new digital platforms provide to support circular construction effectively? A prototype BIM-enabled Digital Material Bank (BIM-DMB) served to elicit practical requirements. Findings indicate an effective platform requires an ecosystem of connected services (logistics, finance, repair) beyond data alone. The study offers a practical counterpoint to the academic trend for dense data: interviews revealed practitioners find lean, imperfect data sufficient for reuse, aligning with model authors’ resistance to the high effort of extensive data input. It concludes that for broad adoption, platforms must be lean, automated, and decoupled from rigid data requirements to enable reuse at scale.