When a contractor rebuilds a design model from scratch, the duplicate effort may reveal more than a software problem. Malachy Mathews said contractors rebuild because they need information organized for phasing, programming, off-site work, and site decisions. They may also discover claim positions while resolving coordination gaps left in the handoff.
The model may be shared, but its intended user and use were never truly shared.
Design the information for the next person
Malachy Mathews described a model as a visual database. Once a team sees it that way, the strategy changes. The question is no longer only what the designer needs to produce. It includes who will contribute later, what they need to extract, and how the information will support their part of the work.
That does not require every person to use the whole model. It requires the team to define the information another person may rely on and the rights they have to use it.
Shared authorship conflicts with a blame-first contract
Malachy Mathews described contracts that were set up for litigation and recalled a construction lawyer asking who she could blame when several disciplines worked on the same design. His response captured the structural change: “You know, the BIM table is a round table.”
At a round table, responsibility does not disappear. It becomes more important to define how decisions are made, how risk is reviewed, and what happens when the group disagrees. Malachy argued that legal advice belongs in that conversation early enough to help the collaborative avoid a dispute, not only assign blame after one develops.
Technology can support trust without creating it
Malachy Mathews used the phrase scaffold of trust for a system where participants could see evidence, reach consensus, and connect rewards to shared behavior. Blockchain entered the 2019 conversation as a possible record for those value exchanges.
He also limited the claim. Smart contracts were a utility, not the complete answer. A technical record could preserve an agreed transaction, but people still had to define the agreement, the consensus process, and the reward.
A different structure needs a deliberate test
Malachy Mathews said legacy management and procurement practices were deeply embedded. He proposed a lead project supported by an owner willing to test a different structure. That was a forward-looking idea, not a completed project result.
Use the next model handoff or approval path to expose the agreement behind it. Write down the next user, the information they need, the person who can approve it, and the contract term that governs its use. If trust depends on an assumption, make that assumption visible before selecting a technology to record it.
Trust becomes practical when people can see what was agreed, understand how they may use the information, and know how responsibility will be handled when the shared record is challenged.
