BIM has a substantial impact on the execution of construction projects and leads to sustainable performance improvements [14]. It opens up a completely new way of working, connecting both the participants and the data across the entire building lifecycle. The increasing use of BIM has already significantly improved both the collaboration and the technical execution of construction projects. However, BIM is still mainly used during the design phase. The construction process is characterized by limited use of end-to-end digital tools and processes [1]. Although the next-generation BIM, such as 5D BIM, has long been recognized as one of the groundbreaking trends for the global construction industry [15], its practical implementation remains rare [16; 17; 18]. Five-dimensional BIM is the next level after 4D (scheduling) and includes additional information for model-based cost planning, tendering, and execution. This topic has received much attention in research, and concepts for efficient implementation have been developed [16; 18; 19]. The need for comprehensive and accurate data, greater collaboration, and the lack of 5D BIM protocols remain open questions regarding the benefits of 5D BIM [16; 18]. These issues can be resolved much faster if there are adequate incentives and a better value proposition for all stakeholders. The lack of customer demand and missing use cases are still the biggest barriers to the widespread adoption of BIM [14]. The advantages of blockchain-based smart contracts, such as faster payments and traceability features, have the potential to create these incentives and accelerate digitization. Blockchain, especially in combination with BIM, can act as a generator of data-driven business models and as a facilitator of collaboration in construction [2; 7]. Notwithstanding the great scientific interest in this area, there is widespread skepticism about the usability, acceptance, and readiness of the AEC industry for adoption of blockchain solutions [2; 3; 20]. Regarding this matter, this contribution focuses on the question of how BIM can be combined with blockchain-based smart contracts to reach a practicable and enforceable solution for automated payment between clients and contractors. The proposed framework takes the current working methods, software tools, and contract structures, as well as the existing standards, into account and is designed as a low-threshold system so that SMEs can use it without major technical effort. After a brief introduction to the basic concepts, the paper outlines the latest research on blockchain and smart contracts in the AEC industry and then discusses the known implementation challenges. To ensure proper information exchange, the approach at hand uses the ISO-standardized Information Container for linked Document Delivery (ICDD) for cross-domain-linked nD models (3D models enhanced with costs and payment-relevant data). Therefore, an overview of the literature on the use of standardized linked building models referencing the multi-model approach and the ICDD is also given. The main part of this paper describes the so-called BIMcontracts framework, the container-based data exchange, and the workflow of managing digital contracts. It points out the industry-specific requirements for the blockchain and data storage and explains which technical and software architectural decisions were made. The general idea is to establish an ecosystem with formalized interfaces for further extension that can be used to support multiple construction-related use cases. This is done by providing a prototype that shows how blockchain technology can be combined with existing systems and be put to use in a legally valid context.