International Journal of BIM and Engineering Science IJBES 2571-1075 10.54216/IJBES https://www.americaspg.com/journals/show/845 2021 2021 Engineering and Construction Management dept., Faculty of Civil Engineering, Al Baath University, Syria Mohamed H. Shaban School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Ashraf Elhendawi The crucial need for innovative sophisticated, and complex Architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry projects with in-depth details makes traditional methods inappropriate for the completion of projects with desired efficiency, performance and productivity. Therefore, AEC projects in Syria suffered from myriad issues such as Behind the Schedule, over budget, inferior quality, low productivity, without sustainability and more. However, Building information Modelling (BIM) proves its capability to solve these issues. The aim of this study is to identify the obstacles and the critical influencing factors for applying BIM in Syria in the AEC industry. Extensive investigation for literature review and structured online questionnaire designed to achieve the study’s aim. SPSS and Excel were used to analyze the results. This study classified the obstacles related to three category: 1) Planning, Design and Auditing systems, 2) BIM System, 3) Management, Financial and Legal factors. In spite of, the government and clients play the vital role to mandate BIM, the mixed approach (top-down and bottom-up) is recommended to expedite BIM implementation. This study provides a novel contribution by identifying the main obstacles and developing new strategies for applying BIM in AEC and reconstruction which enhance projects quality, performance and efficiency. 2018 2018 42 64 10.54216/IJBES.010103 https://www.americaspg.com/articleinfo/22/show/845