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Building information modeling (BIM) in the AECO industry is a fact. Users have overcome the initial learning curve and perceive a new potential for using BIM, such as rule checking and automatic design validation, which it is possible through dissemination and use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). This paper assesses the main properties that must be inserted in BIM models of airport design projects so that they can be evaluated using code checking. In this sense, the properties of the information standards will be analyzed and which IFC entities should be linked to those standards. The method is based on design science research. This consists of two macro-stages: construction and evaluation of the artifact. The stage of construction, discussed in this paper, consists of the theoretical foundation and construction of the artifact, which is a method to evaluate airport design using code checking. For evaluation, it is necessary not only to create consistent rules that can be implemented in BIM evaluation software but also to create BIM models that are consistent during the assessment. This research shows the importance of creating a standardization process in the modeling of information during the development of airport designs in software authored by BIM, considering the export to an integrated IFC model. In view of the inexistence of manuals dealing with this subject in Brazil, it is possible to observe the potential that this approach has and may, shortly, benefit all teams of airport designs and analysts.

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings is an important evaluation method for the environmental quality of a building and its impact on climate and environment. However, the efforts required are very high and cost-intensive. Whole-building LCAs are therefore usually only used as theoretical evidence after completion of a certified building. The potential for full environmental optimization in early project phases is therefore not used in practice. New digital planning methods such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) offer the possibility of integrating and linking much of the information required for a whole-building LCA when creating a digital building model, which should be incorporated by all participants in the planning right from the start. Technical, organizational and contractual prerequisites must be (further) developed so that a whole-building LCA can be applied earlier and more easily with the aid of the BIM method. Within the framework of this work, primarily issues and their technical improvements of the official German LCA database OKOBAUDAT and German green building certification systems BNB/DGNB are presented. Based on the open BIM standard of the IFC data model, current fundamentals will be examined to adapt OKOBAUDAT aiming to simplify BIM integrated calculation of whole-building LCAs. In this context, concrete recommendations for action to extend the IFC data model and OKOBAUDAT will be discussed.

Over the last few decades, the architecture, engineering, construction and operation (AECO) sector did not follow the technological evolution observed in other sectors. Although there have been technological innovations, which include BIM and the Protocol for Standardization of Technical Construction Information (ProNIC—Portuguese abbreviation), they are not implemented, resulting in a lack of quality in the sector. This paper aims to present the development of a methodology for linking, in a semantic way, BIM objects with the construction works and technical regulations associated with them, generated and standardized by ProNIC. The work developed comprises: (i) elaboration of models, both in the BIM environment and in the ProNIC platform; of the two case studies, one related to architecture design specification and other related to fire network design specifications; (ii) characterization of interoperability and study of an information exchange mechanism between systems that is effective in exchanging data formats supported by BIM and ProNIC, namely the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), a universal format for representation of construction products and exchange of data between systems; and (iii) proposal, description and analysis of the viability of the interoperability methodology between BIM and ProNIC. Finally, the main conclusions of the research developed are presented.

Energy efficiency is an important aspect in building design nowadays. During the design phase, energy simulation and analysis can enhance the overall building energy efficiency at a lower cost and less delay to the project schedule. Currently, energy analysis is performed digitally in energy simulation software applications which require users to draw a virtual model and define the parameters in the application platform before running the simulations. As building information modeling (BIM) technology becomes increasingly adopted in the architecture, engineering and construction/facility management (AEC/FM) industry, BIM models are often used in construction projects. However, these BIM models are not compatible with the existing energy simulation applications, and the required model conversion often results in information loss and distortion. One reason is that the current BIM data schemas, such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), do not fully support data for energy simulation and analysis. This paper presents a data model to extend BIM schemas for supporting energy simulation and analysis. The data model was developed by studying the four most widely used energy simulation software, namely eQUEST and EnergyPlus. The proposed data model was then used to extend the latest IFC4 schema. Based on the results, a mapping between the extended IFC4 schema and gbXML was also developed to allow information exchange between BIM and energy simulation software. An example scenario is presented to illustrate the potential of the extended IFC4 schema for supporting energy analysis directly.

Bridges are designed to last for more than 50 years and consume up to 50% of their life cycle costs during their operation phase. Several inspections and maintenance actions take place within this period, during which bridge and damage information is collected, digitized and exchanged between different actors. Currently, the inspection and maintenance practice relies on paper based data collection and exchange, which is time consuming and error prone. A way of storing and exchanging damage data in a digital format would lower the costs for inspection and maintenance as well as support future needs, i.e. immediate simulations, automated maintenance planning and mixed reality supported inspections and maintenance. For this purpose, the paper presents and tests concepts for modeling damage information by the means of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) without extending or changing the existing IFC Schema. First, multiple use cases and related requirements for damage information are defined. This information is used to develop multiple concepts to model damage information by using existing IFC entities. The implementation and tests of the concepts will show that the IFC provide several meaningful ways to model damage information. However, existing IFC software does not fully support the concepts of IFC, particularly when visualizing specific entities.

One of the applications of BIM is for cost estimating in construction projects. However, the usual practices regarding the integration between cost and product models with BIM have been limited to the quantity takeoff of physical production measures from a digital model. The cost estimates of the building and its components usually happen outside the BIM model, through the same cost estimate method that has been traditionally used in the construction industry. Production costs are estimated based on previously known consumption rates of resources and theirs acquisition costs, which are commonly stored in external databases using “ad hoc” representation schemas, without any further information exchange with the BIM model. Nonetheless, the most recent version of the ISO 16739 standard (the Industry Foundation Classes, addendum 2, IFC4-add2) has included a number of new classes and properties aimed to extend BIM scope much beyond the product model. However, up to the moment, no specific schema using these new classes has been proposed in order to incorporate cost model information into the BIM model. This study was aimed to investigate the possibility of representing process-based cost information using IFC 4 objects. The research method approach used was case study. Some use cases of processes cost models were selected from real cost modeling cases, and generalize to design a process-based cost modeling schema in IFC. The resulting schema was then instantiated in a prototype, used to validate the logic and output of the representation against manual calculations. The representation of process-based cost modeling proved to be capable of successfully merging the cost modeling schema within a BIM model. It opens the possibility of close integration between product and cost models with BIM technology, as well as the storage and dissemination of cost models and their related information using open and interoperable representation.

The Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) and Facility Management (FM) industry is under pressure to move towards technological innovations as well as sustainability. New technologies are of great importance to sustainable design and construction processes by providing the means to act efficiently. Building Information Modeling (BIM) as the state-of-the-art technology in the industry provides a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics and information resources of a facility by forming a reliable basis to manage the processes and decisions during its entire life cycle. Despite the opportunities and potential advantages of BIM in sustainability for certification and decision-making, there are still challenges of integrated and collaborated systems. This paper addresses a more flexible and dynamic object-oriented approach for successful sustainable project deliveries. The aim is to provide a guideline through the development of an automated solution based on industry foundation classes (IFC) and a multi-agent system (MAS). The proposed approach comprises of three main phases, which are (1) development of sustainability assessment database and library, and extension of the criteria concerning the sustainability assessment methods into BIM software via property sets, (2) generation of the BIM model and its conversion to ifcXML and XML file formats and (3) evaluation of the data and presentation of the potential alternatives by extracting the related data from the converted file. It will support effective decision-making throughout the complete building life cycle by offering the possible criteria selection according to the user-provided project properties and certification level target.

Various automated code compliance checking (ACC) systems have been developed and used to check the compliance of building information models (BIMs) with building codes, to reduce the time, cost, and errors of the code compliance checking process. All these systems require some form of code-BIM matching – matching of the concept representations in the codes to those in the BIMs – which is a difficult task. Traditionally, semantic matching was conducted in a highly-manual manner. To address this problem, more recently, a limited number of efforts have proposed fully automated semantic matching methods, which mostly rely on matching annotations and/or rules developed by domain experts. Despite their relatively good performance, these methods are by nature difficult to generalize or scale up (e.g., the matching rules need to be updated, modified, or extended when switching from one type of code to another). There is, thus, a need for semantic matching approaches that are more generalizable and scalable. To address this need, this paper proposes a new, machine learning-based approach to automatically match the building-code concepts and relations to their equivalent concepts and relations in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The proposed approach consists of five primary tasks: (1) prepare and process the training and testing data; (2) automatically identify the domain word embeddings by learning from a large corpus of building-code text and generate the final semantic representations by combining the domain and general word embeddings; (3) match the building-code concepts to the IFC elements; (4) match the building-code relations to the IFC relations; and (5) evaluate the performance of the proposed approach using accuracy. The proposed approach was implemented and tested on a number of chapters from the 2009 International Building Code (IBC) and the Champaign 2015 IBC Amendments. The preliminary results show that the proposed approach achieved an accuracy of 77% for matching building-code concepts to IFC elements, and 78% for matching building-code relations to IFC relations, indicating promising semantic matching performance.

The definition of shared dictionaries able to facilitate communication in the construction sector has been an open issue long since. The advent of ICT highlighted the existing issues imposing new challenges to allow the communication between systems. Nowadays, the digital transformation in the construction sector is led by Building Information Modelling. Several efforts have been spent both in research and industry developing open standards like the industry foundation classes and related ontologies to empower interoperability. However, this paper highlights the obstacles limiting use and exchange of information at the state of the art.

Building Information Modelling is a well-known acronym in the construction industry. BIM process is more than modelling buildings, and it provides the opportunity to drive efficiency and effectiveness to the information management of build projects. Accordingly, Building Information Models (BIMs), typically known as semantic three-dimensional parametric models, are fast becoming the comprehensive information source in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), and Facility Management (FM). The use of BIM in existing buildings has been hampered by the challenges and limitations surrounding the available technologies. The most popular and commonly used approach for generating models is to manually generate 3D artefacts utilizing point measurements extracted from range-based technologies (typically 3D laser scanning). In the recent past, several studies have been carried out to make the retro t BIM development process as effective and efficient as possible by developing different methods for mapping 3D models using Point Cloud Data (PCD) as the main source of information. However, an appropriate fully generated parametric model is still some way away. In this paper, we review the-state-of-the-art to address the research gap and challenges involved in generating parametric models before outlining the proposal of our approach. In this research, we employ Semantic Web technologies to capture parametric models. Elements are first recognized in PCD, and corresponding geometric information extracted from PCD are then tagged with Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs). Tags are then linked with the generated Resource Description Framework (RDF) data for each element. The core and challenging part of this research is the standardization process where RDF as a serialization is translated to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a data model. The generated IFC format is then utilized to capture corresponding models. The primary results are very promising and should be of interest to the modelling of all kinds of building components, particularly historical building information modelling (HBIM).

Design review is the process of evaluating a design against its requirements to verify the performance of the design and identify issues before construction takes place. The cited methods for automating the design review process are either based on proprietary, domain-specific or hard-coded rule-based representations, which may be successful in their particular implementations, but they have the drawbacks of being costly to sustain, inflexible to change, lack generalized framework of rules and regulations modeling that can adapt to various engineering design realms, and thus don’t support an open neutral standard. They are often referred to as ‘Black Box’ approaches. This study proposes a new comprehensive framework that minimizes the shortcomings of the cited methods. Building regulations for example, are legal documents written and authorized by people to be interpreted and applied by professionals. They are barely precise as formal logic. Engineers can read those documents and translate them into scientific notations and software applications. They can extract any information they need, reason about it, and apply it at various levels of precision. How these extraction and application are carried out is a critical component of automating design review process. The primary project goal is to address this issue by focusing on the development of a Generalized Adaptive Framework (GAF) for an open standard [based on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)] that enables automating the design review processes to attain design efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The objectives of this paper include: (a) the conceptual and theoretical development of a framework that is adaptive to the target domain and supports an open standard for transforming the written design regulations and rules into a computable model, and (b) defining the different modules needed for the automation of the design review process.

Building Information Modeling (BIM), opens a new paradigm in architecture education. An analysis of the tools (including those related to Graphic Expression), of educational resources and of the appropriate educational environment is carried out to be able to develop collaborative teaching dynamics around a Model developed by several disciplines. Following the teaching experience developed in BIM, and considering research on the subject in other countries, it is considered essential to insist on the dynamics of network collaboration through servers or synchronization platforms. It is recommended to know how to interact using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) files with different software based on the geometric model. It is interesting to use different software for calculation, graphical detection of collisions, visualization of the constructive sequence, 3D scanning, rendering, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality. The use of this last tool will make it possible to guarantee the coherence of the architectural projects before they are completed. As new resources, they are proposed: The exchange web platforms, forums and chat of doubts between students and teachers, and video tutorials as a self-learning resource at your own pace, among others.

When using Building Information Modeling (BIM), it is expected to increase interorganizational collaboration in the construction industry. To reach this goal, it is necessary to use open standards for model exchange such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The non-profit organization buildingSMART defines this standard. IFC provides object types and attributes, which describe properties of objects. The IFC standard do not address possible values for attributes; but beside coordinated names for object types and attributes, coordinated values for attributes are required. This is necessary for the evaluation of digital models for different purposes. Several approaches in the fields of ontology and classification systems address this issue. However, at present time there is no clear distinction between prerequisites that modeled objects have to fulfill and products, which satisfy these requirements. Suppliers or construction companies at the interface between planning and construction propose products for the modelled requirements of the planning process. This paper describes an approach that bases on a dictionary, which provides standardized object types, attributes and values. A project database and a database with products, called supplier database, use this dictionary as a basis. Resulting from the modeling phase, the project database is ultimately mapped with the supplier database to propose products that fulfill the requirements. The approach presented in this paper can be regarded as a next step in using a standard that already exists: the buildingSMART Data Dictionary.

This chapter addresses BIM in the context of energy demand calculation and building performance simulation. The focus is on different methods to identify the energy demand as well as on building services engineering, including references to the respective standards and calculation bases. We will present data exchange formats that can be used to exchange and to model the energy-related specifications of buildings and its systems and installations – and we will discuss the necessary requirements and definitions regarding the aspects of geometry, zoning, as well as semantics. The chapter also briefly discusses the current state of software-support for HVAC engineering calculations and dimensioning. Furthermore, we focus on the process chain for the use of BIM in the scope of energy demand calculation and simulation, including a brief discussion of the corresponding Model View Definitions of the Industry Foundation Classes. The chapter closes with an outlook on current research and development projects.

Building design and surrounding environment are influencing each other. Environment is usually described by a Geographic Information System (GIS), while buildings are often designed with Building Information Modeling (BIM) software. Despite some differences on technology and standards, GIS and BIM deal with geometrical data and attributes. Possible links between GIS and BIM using the City Geographic Markup Language (CityGML) and the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as standard exchange formats have been studied [1, 2, 3, 4].

Semantic-rich 3D parametric models, like Building Information Models (BIMs) are becoming the main information source during the entire lifespan of an asset. The use of BIM in existing buildings has been hampered by the challenges surrounding the limitations of existing technologies for developing retrofit models. Some progress has been recently made in generating non-parametric models from the Point Cloud Data (PCD). However, a proper fully developed parametric model is still some way away. In this paper, challenges are addressed by reviewing the state-of-the-art before presenting our approach. The aim of our approach is to apply the Semantic Web Technologies for generating parametric models using PCD as primary data. The Semantic Web as a set of standards and technologies is used for providing an appropriate framework for storing, sharing, and reusing the semantics of information on the web. Building elements are recognized in PCD, and the concept of Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a Semantic Web technology and a standard model for interchanging the data on the web is then used to markup detected elements. The RDF data is then standardized to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as an open standard building data model to generate the parametric model of the asset utilizing BIM software that supports IFC. Some parts of this ongoing research are performed manually, and the future work is to implement the process automatically. Primary results are quite promising and should be of interest to the modeling of all kinds of assets, in particular, Historical Building Information Modelling (HBIM).

The nascent journey of the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry toward a fully collaborative BIM (Building Information Modelling) maturity has resulted in the development of siloed standards. Whilst some countries lead the charge in BIM maturity level adoption, other countries are pressed to develop their own policies to minimise stagnation. This results in the unintended fragmentation of the AEC industry globally, and further enlarging the international collaboration rift within multinational firms. This article analyses key BIM standards and policies adopted in the UK based on a published 3C Meta-Standard framework. The disparity between the standards towards the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) specification goals are highlighted to recommend adjustments where necessary. A 34% gap was found, particularly in the topic areas of object connectivity and the multiple disciplinary information capture. This study forms one of three key research elements in the pursuit of developing a dynamic and autonomous BIM platform, capable of delivering parameters between stakeholders involved in complex BIM projects.

Information exchange among project stakeholders as part of structural life-cycle management has been gaining increasing interest in civil engineering. An integral part of structural life-cycle management is the operation and maintenance phase of structures, which is frequently associated with structural health monitoring (SHM). SHM has emerged as a novel methodology enabling the assessment of structural conditions by extracting information from structural response data and environmental data collected by sensors attached to structures. Representing a paradigm for exchanging information among stakeholders for structural life-cycle management, conventional building information, such as geometry, material and cost, is structured in so-called “building information models”. These models are defined within building information modeling (BIM) standards, such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). Furthermore, in recent research efforts, IFC-compliant descriptions of “monitoring-related information”, i.e. information on SHM systems, have been reported. However, semantic descriptions of algorithms employed for SHM (“SHM-related algorithms”) have not yet received adequate research attention. This paper introduces a semantic description approach for modeling and integrating SHM-related algorithms into IFC-based building information models. Specifically, this study focuses on algorithms embedded into wireless sensor nodes for automatically processing SHM data on board. The semantic description approach is validated by describing a wireless SHM system installed on a laboratory test structure designed and implemented with an embedded algorithm (fast Fourier transform). The expected outcome of this study is essentially an extension to the current IFC schema enabling the description of SHM-related algorithms in conjunction with SHM systems and structures to be monitored.

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model, developed by buildingSMART, is an important data standard for the exchange of data between BIM process partners. For reliable and consistent data exchange in practice, the IFC import and export functionality of BIM software must function correctly and reliably. Assessment and certification by an independent party offers a way to ensure a consistently high standard of data exchange. To this end, buildingSMART developed and implemented a certification procedure. This chapter discusses the aims of certification, the different expectations of certification, the procedure and its relevance for BIM in general. To conclude, the chapter looks at possible further BIM certificates (modeling quality of BIM data, BIM knowledge, BIM processes) that go beyond assessing just the data exchange interfaces of BIM software packages.

A building information model (BIM) can be defined as the digital representation of a building that contains semantic information about the building elements. The keyword BIM also defines an information management process based on the collaborative use of semantically rich 3D digital building models in all stages of the project’s and building’s lifecycle. A BIM is defined by its object model schema. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is the most popular BIM standard (and schema) currently. This chapter starts by providing definitions of BIM and the general characteristics of IFC models, elaborates on sharing/exchanging of BIMs and model views, and concludes by discussing the role of BIMs in enterprises.

There is an increasing interest in developing ontological versions of engineering standards. In general, this amounts to restating a given standard in some ontological language like OWL. We observe that without an ontological analysis of the standard, the conversion neither improves the clarity of the standard nor facilitates its coherent application. In this chapter we begin to study the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), a standard providing an open vendor-independent file format and data model for data interoperability and exchange for Architecture/Engineering/Construction and Facility Management. We first look at IFC and at an existing OWL version of IFC; then, we highlight the implicit assumptions and we apply ontological analysis to discuss how to best grasp the type/occurrence distinction in IFC. The goal is to show what has been done in IFC and the contribution of ontological analysis to help increasing the correct understanding of a standard. With this approach, we reach a deeper understanding, which can guide the translation from the original language to OWL with increased conceptual clarity while ensuring both logical coherence and ontological soundness.

Part 2: Organisational Semiotics and Applications; International audience; Cost estimation is a dynamic and knowledge intensive process. Current practice of construction cost estimation is a process with fragmented knowledge. In order to have an integrated process, semantic should be modelled in respect to pragmatic. The investigation of BIM-based cost estimation confirmed that IFC can provide construction project semantics but incapable of relating domain semantics and pragmatics. In order to overcome this gap, we adopt organizational semiotics to fully reveal semantic units of cost estimation from a process perspective. Pilot study confirms feasibility of this approach. Future research will be a case study to collect all the instances for semantic units. Then semantic consistency and pragmatic implementation should be realized by the applications. This research highlights the importance of alignment between semantic (domain ontology) and pragmatic (meaning in use), it contributes also to identify a new approach of knowledge engineering for construction professional services under BIM environment.

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) object model as a standard data model which has a quite large scope is proposed as a standard approach (ISO-PAS 16730 IFC2x platform specification) to identify the specifications and enables interoperability between the AEC (Architecture Engineering and Construction) applications. Currently the majority of AEC software and system developers use IFC APIs (Application Protocols) that are capable of importing and exporting IFC/STEP files, however the IFC based applications in the energy efficiency domain has not yet well articulated. Current BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems) focus on energy performance rating of buildings is at best sporadic often consisting of an ad hoc combination of off-the-shelf building energy management systems. This ad hoc combination presents many difficulties as the BEMS is consist of a number of components utilizing various information exchange protocols that have to be integrated within the M&T software packages. However, even though various solutions have been proposed in the last years, a general approach based on an acknowledged standard is still missing. In this paper, a new integration methodology is presented, which comply with the data schema of the IFC standard. It allows for coherent integration of different information, helping to achieve the interoperability of the involved tools and services in collaborative working environments. The essence of the developed interoperability approach is in the consistent definition of partial IFC models for energy efficient building operations which have been tested in a demonstration test bed in Hannover—Germany.