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The project BIM4EEB aims also to develop digital tools to support the design, procurement, installation, post-renovation operation, user feedback and profiling of building automation systems for HVAC. This helps supporting decision making, interaction with tenants and owners during the design, construction, and post-renovation operation phases. The development of the tools will be underpinned by a sound methodological approach. Work will include considerations of interoperability with Smart City technology of automation systems for HVAC. Specific objectives will be related to the development of the following software tools: A software component supporting the automatic generation of the layout for control systems emphasising on user preferences and including constraint checking of BAC-topologies against selected building codes. Data and information stored in BIM models are used to generate the initial recommendations and constraints and to deliver the final installation instructions. A software component allowing the seamless specification and evaluation of user comfort and systems performance. The underpinning information model will merge data sources from BIM (dimensional data) and BAC (factual data). An energy-refurbishment assessment tool, for bridging the gap between commercial simulators and the BIM management system. A user-profiling component allowing to compare expectations of tenants and owners regarding comfort and systems’ performance against monitored parameters. The results of this software component can be used in the pre- and post-renovation phases to update the content of BIM systems and thus to improve their accuracy and to reduce efforts for data acquisition and verification.

Three building case studies were chosen with the purpose of demonstrating the BIM4EEB BIM-based toolkit. The selected buildings are both social houses and residential apartments respecting the needs of vulnerable inhabitants. To increase the representativeness of the test case the buildings are located in three different locations with different climatic conditions, specifically Italy, Poland, Finland. For all the case studies analysed, BIM models were created with different levels of detail (LOD), which, thanks to the interaction with the BIMMS, make it possible to create a common environment for the representation and use of the data collected and subsequently shared between the different tools. Among the three demonstration sites, the Italian site is undergoing building envelope renovation interventions such as the realization of the thermal insulation with ETICS technologies and the replacement of external windows. In order to test the different tools, a demonstration procedure has been defined for them, constituted mainly by workshop activities and quantitative and qualitative evaluations. To assess the level of accomplishment with respect to stated objectives and project success a validation methodology based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was delineated. Precisely, two categories of KPIs have been identified: “mandatory” and “secondary” addressing project objectives and in connection with the literature review and project use cases and tools. To calculate the KPIs standard baselines were estimated, such as are currently in an ongoing process to assess the traditional process that can be compared with the actual value associated with the BIM-based process. The chapter will present the methods and the first intermediate results of a demonstration process that is currently not yet completed and will later see a further application of the tools in dedicated demo sites. Environmental monitoring sensors were installed in selected apartments in Polish and Italian demo site, while were installed in common spaces for the Finnish building. Specific sensors set up have been analysed and chosen to fulfil the different needs related to the specific project outcomes. Inhabitants’ availability, technical condition and flat exposition were criteria followed for the choice of apartments. Sensors allowed to improve the occupancy monitoring and to have a historical record of environmental values such as temperature, humidity and light strictly connected to users’ preferences. The mobile application about renovation activities performed and residents’ indoor home conditions—BIM4Occupants—has been installed by the users and specific workshops with inhabitants were carried out for registration purposes. The BIM Management System is currently collecting sensors’ data stream and data stream between tools such as BIM4Occupants and BIMPlanner. Project monitoring and better communication among users were tested in a different workshop by applying the BIMPlanner tool in the plans and progress site operations. The functionalities of the refurbishment scenario simulation tool—BIMeaser—were tested in qualitative and quantitative design workshops respectively with the construction professionals using the two pilot sites in Italy and in Finland and with the aim of assessing the achieved time savings of using this tool compared to the manual data input process of the scenario simulation.

Digital tools for fast-track renovation operations developed in the project aim to shorten the duration of renovation and disturbance to the occupants with BIM-enabled methods and tools in operations management at site and with prefabrication to speed up the installation tasks. The chapter presents an ensemble of tools, concepts and use cases. First, two tools are described that are used to support construction production management and user communication. Then a concept how product data could be used as part of the tools and further how the product data and the tools could support in achieving the overall BIM4EEB objectives in the use cases of prefabricated exhaust air heat pump and prefabricated thermal insulation. Target of the work was to improve the state-of-the-art planning and monitoring. A new tool was created that combines the BIM model and typical work breakdown structure (WBS) based project scheduling into location breakdown structure (LBS) based user-interface. Continuously updated LBS provide valuable information to stakeholders with web-service and mobile applications. The 24/7 situational awareness of the renovation activities status provides unprecedented transparency of the project progress. Hence, the system allows scheduling the site activities with shorter lead times to shorten the total construction duration while it is possible to immediately take control of possible deviations in implementation. The reliable progress data is available also to the clients and occupants with right timed guidance and safety instructions. The other aim in the work was to utilise BIM for increasing the share of prefabrication in renovation projects. The BIM-based design allows to manage the compatibility and tolerances between design disciplines and adapting those with mapped geometry of the building will enable the prefabrication and preassembling of structural and system components also in renovation. Two best practice examples were developed and described showing how to utilise prefabrication in real renovation scenarios.

The purpose of Linked Data and ontologies is to achieve semantic interoperability across different systems and agents. As a concrete implementation, Digital Construction Ontologies (DiCon) are meant to provide efficient information sharing and utilization between the tools in the BIM4EEB toolkit. This section explains the motivations, design principles, and organization of DiCon ontologies.

When a renovation process takes place, different stakeholders are responsible of several activities and their interaction occurs at different stages of the building process. Therefore, a deep analysis of possible activities for different stakeholders in each different stage of the life cycle helps outlining how to optimize their interaction, thanks to the use of BIM-based tools that can smooth collaboration and data gathering. As it is commonly agreed that information losses, data lacks or redundancies are one of the main causes of time delay and cost increase, a flowchart representing the building process in case of renovation has been developed and then used to design a BIM management system (BIMMS) to allow every stakeholder along the life cycle of a building (and built asset) finding required information and share existing or new datasets in a straightforward and conflict-free manner. A particular attention has been paid in individualising differences between the public and private sectors, to be successfully applied to the renovation process in both the sectors.