Building Information Research Articles

Mixed Reality-Based Inspection Method for Underground Water Supply Network with Multi-Source Information Integration

Regular on-site inspection is crucial for promptly detecting faults in water supply networks (WSNs) and auxiliary facilities, significantly reducing leakage risks. However, the fragmentation of information and the separation between virtual and physical networks pose challenges, increasing the cognitive load on inspectors. Furthermore, due to the lack of real-time computation in current research, the effectiveness in detecting anomalies, such as leaks, is limited, hindering its ability to provide immediate and direct-decision support for inspectors. To address these issues, this research proposes a mixed reality (MR) inspection method that integrates multi-source information, combining building information modeling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), monitoring data, and numerical simulation technologies. This approach aims to achieve in situ visualization and real-time computational capabilities. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through case studies, with user feedback confirming its feasibility. The results indicate improvements in inspection task performance, work efficiency, and standardization compared to traditional mobile terminal-based methods.

Evaluation of Instructor Capability: Perspective from Building Information Modeling Competition Students in Mainland China

Building information modelling (BIM) technology, which has experienced rapid development, has become the focus of digital education learning in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) related disciplines. However, BIM education is still confronted with the disconnection between theoretical education and engineering practice. In mainland China, BIM competitions are an important digital platform for higher education practice teaching. As the organizer and leader of student participants, BIM instructors, especially their BIM capability, have an important impact on digital education. Previous research on BIM capability did not involve the field of BIM education, and the existing BIM capability framework is not entirely applicable to evaluating the BIM capability of instructors. Semi-structured interviews based on grounded theory (GT) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to construct a five-dimensional model containing 23 capability indicators. The research findings highlighted the multi-dimensional nature of BIM capability for instructors and indicated that personnel capability was the most important for instructors, while process capability was considered the most dispensable. This is significantly different from the emphasis on technical and process capability in BIM capability research in the traditional AEC industry. It was also found that students from different levels of universities and different educational backgrounds had different demands for the BIM capability of instructors. The results of this study will help universities select excellent instructors, improve the quality of BIM education in universities, and cultivate more outstanding BIM talents for the development of BIM in the AEC industry, thereby promoting the digital practice of BIM education in universities.

Simulating urban evolution by H-GIS and H-BIM: a temporal and spatial study of Pingjiang map

AbstractHistorical maps provide insights into the morphology, cultural, and political shifts of ancient societies. Pingjiang Map is one of the earliest comprehensive ancient Chinese maps, depicting the heritage water city of Suzhou. This study takes it as the subject to examine the temporal and spatial reconstructions of Suzhou city after its devastation in the Song-Jin wars during the twelfth–thirteenth centuries. It uses historical geographical information system (H-GIS) and historical building information management (H-BIM) to simulate Suzhou city in the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) and the city’s subsequent modernization to the present. By comparing and contrasting Pingjiang Map, the Song dynasty Suzhou, and the current city in the configuration of clusters such as urban wall, canal, street, government and citadel, temple, and residential ward, we establish evolutionary links between Pingjiang Map and the city, providing insights to the mechanism underlying urban transformation. Through H-BIM, we conducted a temporal and spatial analysis of the twelfth–thirteenth centuries’ citadel of Suzhou, simulating the construction sequence of palatial artefacts. Our research argues that Pingjiang Map stele forged an imperial vision, serving both for documentation and planning. It encoded building information for the central government to manage post-war reconstruction. The research establishes the workflow of ‘SQS’—spatialization, quantitative analysis, and simulation—to investigate the evolution of imperial cities and their cartography.

Improving the decision-making for sustainable demolition waste management by combining a BIM-based life cycle sustainability assessment framework and hybrid MCDA approach.

Increasing efforts have been devoted to promoting sustainable demolition waste management (DWM) from a life cycle-thinking perspective. To this end, facilitating sustainability-oriented decision-making for DWM planning requires a sustainability assessment framework for assessing multifaceted criteria. This study develops a building information modelling (BIM)-based DWM sustainability assessment approach to facilitate the life cycle assessment (LCA) and decision-making by coupling the enriched Industry Foundation Classes model with hybrid multi-criteria decision-aiding (MCDA) methods using Dynamo visual scripting. To streamline the data-intensive LCA process, this study enriched the BIM properties and accommodated them into the LCA data template to enhance data interoperability, thus achieving seamless data transfer. Moreover, hybrid MCDA methods are integrated into the decision-making workflow for DWM scenario ranking. A pilot study is employed to verify the applicability of the decision-aiding framework. The results unveil that the sustainability score ascended with the recycling rate. The optimal DWM alternative with the highest recycling rate yields the highest sustainability score at 91.63. Conversely, a DWM alternative reflecting the 'status quo' in China's recycling industry has the lowest score at 8.37, significantly lower than the baseline scenario with a 50% recycling rate. It is worth noting that the 'growth curve' of the sustainability score continuously flattens as the target recycling rate escalates. The increment in recycling rate from the 'Australian standard' scenario to the optimal scenario is 18.4%, whereas the sustainability score merely increases by 2.3%, signalling that the former scenario arrived at an optimum point for maximising the cost-efficiency of DWM under the predefined framework and contexts.

"Guilds" as Worker Empowerment and Control in a Chinese Data Work Platform

Data work plays a fundamental role in the development of algorithmic systems and the AI industry. It is often performed in business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and crowdsourcing platforms, involving a global and distributed workforce as well as networks of collaborative actors. Previous work on community building among data workers centers organization and mutual support or focuses on the structuring and instrumentalization of crowdworker groups for complicated projects. We add to these lines of research by focusing on a specific form of community building encouraged and facilitated by platforms in China: guilds. Based on ethnographic work on a Chinese crowdsourcing platform and 14 semi-structured interviews with data workers, our findings show that guilds are a form of both worker empowerment and control. With this work, we add a nuanced empirical case to the interconnection of BPOs, online communities and crowdsourcing platforms in the current data production sector in China, thus expanding previous investigations on global perspectives of data production. We discuss guilds in relation to individual workers and highlight their effects on data work, including efficient coordination, enhanced standardization, and flattened power structure.

The Role of Complexity Theory as a Foundation for Taking a Systems Approach in Your Organization

This article examines how leaders can apply concepts from complexity theory to take a systems-based approach to navigating organizational complexity. It first defines key ideas from complexity science such as complexity theory, which views organizations as existing in a state of productive tension at the "edge of chaos" rather than under pure control, a systems approach that recognizes organizations as interconnected networks of interdependent parts, and complex adaptive systems characterized by self-organization. The article then discusses how leaders can establish clear yet flexible goals and direction, loosen central control to allow decentralized experimentation, promote transparency, and embrace diversity to foster conditions for bottom-up self-organization. It also explores developing networked mindsets through cross-functional teams, relationship building, and transparent information sharing to enhance emergent coordination. Additionally, the article emphasizes cultivating attentiveness to subtle changes and disturbances by establishing early warning systems and experimenting quickly, as well as nurturing an adaptive culture through innovation, reskilling, and rapid pilot-based learning to sustainably renew the organization amid nonlinearity and uncertainty.

Semantic building information modeling: An empirical evaluation of existing tools

Semantic Building Information Modeling (BIM) consists in translating data expressed using BIM formats (namely IFC) into Semantic Web files using RDF serializations (e.g., Turtle). This enables the inference of new knowledge and constraint checking, among other advantages. While several software tools for translating BIM models into Semantic Web languages have been proposed in the literature, they differ in the features exposed.This paper analyzes and empirically compares some of these tools (namely, IFC converters translating an input IFC model into an RDF graph), identifying their strengths and main limitations. Our methodology includes measuring computation times of common tasks (file conversion, query and inference over output files), assessing the retention of knowledge (particularly, geometric information) and examining reasoning capabilities (complexity and completeness of the resulting models). Our results show that IFCtoLBD is the best option in many cases. IFCtoRDF and IFC2LD are slower but better preserve geometric information, while KGG is faster at the expense of losing information in the translation.

HBIM for conservation and valorization of structural heritage: The Stylite Tower at Umm ar-Rasas, Jordan

The Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) is a consistent approach to support the multidisciplinary process of knowledge, conservation, and valorization of the historical building heritage, exploiting the combination of advanced 3D modelling and heterogeneous informative data. In the present paper, a highly customized HBIM workflow is developed for the enhancement and conservation of the byzantine Stylite Tower in the Jordan archaeological site of Umm ar-Rasas. The case study is considered a benchmark to test the effectiveness and the scalability of the proposed methodology for the broader set of ancient structures located in archaeological sites. The proposed HBIM process has a dual aim: the organization of heterogeneous and fragmented sources concerning the history and the actual state maintenance of the Tower and the development of a flexible tool to perform fast qualitative and quantitative analysis oriented towards conservation and management projects. The small scale of the structure and an innovative semi-automatic modelling process based on visual coding allowed for a stone-by-stone segmentation of the Tower. The model procedure is based on an information management workflow based on CIDOC-CRM ontology and the interchange format Industry Foundation Classes to ensure interoperability, developing an open-access interactive visualization of the model of the Tower, embedding organized document sources. The proposed HBIM model can also be a valuable tool for enhanced monument fruition and dissemination activities of the structure.

The impact of nanomaterials on energy-centric form-finding of educational buildings in semi-arid climate

In the modern world, the use of novel technologies in architecture has become highly significant and transformative for human-environment interactions. One of the most critical concerns in architecture is achieving optimal forms and selecting suitable materials for effective design across diverse climatic zones. Also, adopting innovative climate design methods in public spaces, such as educational buildings, is essential due to their strategic urban locations and diverse user populations. Therefore, the research conducted in this study focuses on two main aspects: optimizing building form based on energy consumption and solar radiation received by vertical surfaces, and, selecting appropriate nanomaterials for building surface to reduce energy usage and maintenance costs. This study begins with theoretical foundations, defining the key terms through a comprehensive review of relevant literature. Then, four identical classroom modules with consistent height and floor levels are proposed, and Energy Plus software is used to evaluate the energy consumption based on a module simulation in initial forms of square and rectangle with varying proportions. The best module and orientation is determined using specified climatic data of the coldest and the hottest days of the year. Further, investigations involve combining these modules in various layouts, emphasizing those that align with the functional requirements of educational spaces. Finally, two parameters of energy consumption and solar radiation on vertical surfaces are measured during specified time interval between sunrise and sunset. The results indicate that among the four proposed modules, the 18 × 18 module with a north-south orientation is the most optimal in the semi-arid climate of Tehran, and therefore, Type 3 layout demonstrates the best performance for energy consumption. This is while by incorporating selected nanotechnology (self-cleaning nanomaterial paint), energy usage decreases in all layouts, regardless of the season.

Building Information Modelling from Cadastral Plans and Application to an Italian Case Study Building Using Innovative Strategies

This paper explores the applicability of different methods to construct a Building information System Model (BIM) from 2D plans and, more specifically, cadastral plans. The explored procedures use three different approaches to build BIMs: one manual, one semi-automatic based on Rhinoceros/Grasshopper, and one based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). To analyse the performance of the three methods, the case study of a masonry building located in an Italian historic centre is used. The fastest is the AI-based method, although it has some limitations in automatic recognition of some objects. This latter aspect was further explored by analysing a very large dataset of cadastral plans. The results show good recognition of wall elements, but problems arise in the recognition of other elements, such as doors and windows. The manual method, on the other hand, allowed for the construction of a detailed model of the considered structure. However, the method requires strong user interaction and longer time frames than the AI-based method. The semi-automatic based method requires quite a lot of pre-processing but through an algorithm in Grasshopper a fast and detailed modelling of the structure is obtained. The paper also outlines future scenarios for the full exploitation of cadastral data.

Building Information Modelling from Cadastral Plans and Application to an Italian Case Study Building Using Innovative Strategies

This paper explores the applicability of different methods to construct a Building information System Model (BIM) from 2D plans and, more specifically, cadastral plans. The explored procedures use three different approaches to build BIMs: one manual, one semi-automatic based on Rhinoceros/Grasshopper, and one based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). To analyse the performance of the three methods, the case study of a masonry building located in an Italian historic centre is used. The fastest is the AI-based method, although it has some limitations in automatic recognition of some objects. This latter aspect was further explored by analysing a very large dataset of cadastral plans. The results show good recognition of wall elements, but problems arise in the recognition of other elements, such as doors and windows. The manual method, on the other hand, allowed for the construction of a detailed model of the considered structure. However, the method requires strong user interaction and longer time frames than the AI-based method. The semi-automatic based method requires quite a lot of pre-processing but through an algorithm in Grasshopper a fast and detailed modelling of the structure is obtained. The paper also outlines future scenarios for the full exploitation of cadastral data.

Analisa Wisata Edukasi Sejarah di Smart Museum Gedung Sate

The Gedung Sate Museum, a historical educational tourism destination in Bandung, is the focus of this research. This study aims to analyze the tourist attraction and the implementation of historical education tourism in the museum. The methods used include observation, interviews with visitors, and documentary studies. The research results show that the attraction of the Gedung Sate Museum lies in a unique combination of core resources in the form of an iconic historical building, modern and interactive additional services such as augmented reality technology, interactive floors, and interactive picture frames, intangible values that evoke nationalism through the stories of heroes' struggles, and strong context markers related to the history of Gedung Sate. Furthermore, the implementation of historical education tourism in this museum successfully integrates clear instructions, diverse teaching methods through visual and interactive media, and active learning experiences that directly involve visitors. These findings provide valuable insights for the development of historical education tourism in other museums, especially those adopting the smart museum concept.

Optimization of architectural design and construction with integrated BIM and PLM methodologies.

Digital transformation in the architecture industry encounters challenges such as data silos within design stages, between design and construction, and across the entire industry chain, including BIM and project management. This study introduces a pioneering approach for seamlessly integrating building information modeling (BIM) and product lifecycle management (PLM) within the management framework and collaborative workflows of architectural design and construction. The proposed methodology was implemented in two major projects, namely, the Wuhan Next-Generation Weather Radar Construction Project and the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention Comprehensive Capacity Enhancement Project (Phase I), with the former being China's first end-to-end digitally integrated construction project. Compared with traditional projects, these implementations achieved improvements of 24.39% and 38.04%, respectively, in objective function values. The findings highlight the unique advantages of BIM-PLM integration in optimizing lifecycle management, enhancing cross-disciplinary, cross-enterprise, and cross-regional collaboration, improving project design efficiency and quality, and reducing costs and waste. This integration provides valuable insights into the digital advancement of the construction industry.

Variant Analysis of the Ownership Structure of Land Intended for Single-family Housing

The most frequently preferred solution for the ownership structure of land for single-family housing in Poland is the structure of one cadastral plot – one single-family building. However, changing architectural concepts allow for the creation of single-family housing estates in systems consisting of atrial houses or T-type buildings, which have much more advantages than traditional terraced or semi-detached buildings. These advantages result from a different solution of building forms, which can be combined not only in rows, but also in variously shaped groups consisting of many houses. This provides greater possibilities for the free shaping of development plans for groups of houses, which in turn can be combined in various spatial arrangements while maintaining the required conditions of individual entrance, proper lighting of rooms and mutual distances. At the same time, it allows for more intensive use of the area. Despite the indicated advantages, in the light of the observed implementation practice, it seems problematic to locate buildings with separate ownership, used individually on a plot of land used jointly. The article analyzes the possibilities of legal solutions in the area of land and buildings that can be applied in such a solution. The strengths and weaknesses of each solution were assessed and their opportunities and threats were indicated. For the purposes of this research, four differently shaped groups of buildings consisting of T houses were selected. The results were presented in a SWOT analysis for the development variants adopted for the research using the T house as a repeatable residential unit. The article proposes four legal and neighborly solutions that enable and promote the construction of housing estates using highly intensive atrial development based on the T-house.

Rapid remote volcanic ashfall impact assessment for the 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano, Tonga: a bespoke approach and lessons identified

When disasters occur, rapid impact assessments are required to prioritise response actions, support in-country efforts and inform the mobilisation of aid. The 15 January 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano, Tonga, and the resulting atmospheric shockwave, ashfall, underwater mass disturbance and tsunami, caused substantial impacts across the Kingdom of Tonga. Volcanic impacts on the scale observed after the eruption are rare, necessitating a reliance on international advice and assistance. The situation was complicated by the loss of Tonga’s international submarine fibreoptic cable (causing a complete loss of communications for approximately 20 days) along with border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A need emerged for a rapid remote volcanic impact assessment and provision of specialist advice to help inform the response of international partners. Here we present a novel methodology for conducting rapid remote volcanic ashfall impact assessments, conducted over a 10-day period following the eruption. We used three different hazard models for ashfall thickness across the main island of Tongatapu and available asset information and vulnerability functions for buildings, agriculture, electricity networks, water supply and roads, to provide initial estimates of losses due to ashfall from the 15 January eruption. For buildings, we estimated losses both as total losses and as percentages of the total replacement cost of buildings on Tongatapu. For agriculture, we made probabilistic estimates of production losses for three different crop classes. For ashfall clean-up, we estimated ranges of ashfall volumes requiring clean-up from road surfaces and roofs. For water supply, electricity networks and roads, our analysis was limited to assessing the exposure of important assets to ashfall, as we had insufficient information on system configurations to take the analysis further. Key constraints on our analysis were the limited nature of critical infrastructure asset inventories and the lack of volcanic vulnerability models for tropical regions including Pacific Island nations. Key steps towards iteratively improving rapid remote impact assessments will include developing vulnerability functions for tropical environments as well as ground-truthing estimated losses from remote approaches against in-person impact assessment campaigns.

The Neglected Modern Architectural Heritage: Analysis of Housing Estates in the Second Half of the 20th Century from Izmir, Turkey, Case Study Area

Twentieth-century housing estates are an important part of the architectural heritage of the modern age, reflecting not only the evolution of housing forms, but also the technological advances and sociocultural dynamics of the twentieth century. However, awareness of the value of this heritage is still insufficient, resulting in a lack of legal protection and numerous threats in the form of transformation and negligence. In this research, we present the problem using the example of modernist Turkish architecture. The settlements of Izmir, a cosmopolitan port city with a diverse socio-cultural fabric and rapidly developing housing architecture, are chosen as the subject of the study. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the state of conservation and the degree of transformation of the selected estates. The overall assessment of the maintenance of the legibility of urban layouts and the form of individual buildings shows that, despite the lack of systematic protection, it is possible to preserve the existing architectural heritage in the examples analyzed and to provide recommendations for future policies to sustain the heritage values of modernism. The research aims to fill the existing gaps in the discourse on modern housing and contribute to a broader international dialogue on the conservation of modern architecture. By including these estates in the ongoing discussion, we recognize their historical significance and promote their preservation as important participants in contemporary urban life.

A Comprehensive Review of Thermal Transmittance Assessments of Building Envelopes

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is an important element of the effort to address global warming. The thermal performance of building envelopes is the most important thermal and physical property affecting energy performance. Therefore, identifying the thermal performance of a building envelope is essential to applying effective energy-saving measures. The U-value is a quantitative indicator of the thermal performance of the building envelope quantitatively. Methods for determining the U-value are largely classified into passive methods, which use building information without measurement campaigns, and active methods, which conduct in situ measurements. This paper reviews and evaluates the most commonly used methods and experimental results of previous studies to determine the actual U-value of a building envelope. Accordingly, this paper focuses solely on field measurement studies, excluding laboratory measurements. Comparing the existing methods used to determine the U-value can help researchers choose appropriate field measurement methods and future research directions.

A Geometric Significance-Aware Deep Mutual Learning Network for Building Extraction from Aerial Images

Knowledge-driven building extraction method exhibits a restricted adaptability scope and is vulnerable to external factors that affect its extraction accuracy. On the other hand, data-driven building extraction method lacks interpretability, heavily relies on extensive training data, and may result in extraction outcomes with building boundary blur issues. The integration of pre-existing knowledge with data-driven learning is essential for the intelligent identification and extraction of buildings from high-resolution aerial images. To overcome the limitations of current deep learning building extraction networks in effectively leveraging prior knowledge of aerial images, a geometric significance-aware deep mutual learning network (GSDMLNet) is proposed. Firstly, the GeoSay algorithm is utilized to derive building geometric significance feature maps as prior knowledge and integrate them into the deep learning network to enhance the targeted extraction of building features. Secondly, a bi-directional guidance attention module (BGAM) is developed to facilitate deep mutual learning between the building feature map and the building geometric significance feature map within the dual-branch network. Furthermore, the deployment of an enhanced flow alignment module (FAM++) is utilized to produce high-resolution, robust semantic feature maps with strong interpretability. Ultimately, a multi-objective loss function is crafted to refine the network’s performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the GSDMLNet excels in building extraction tasks within densely populated and diverse urban areas, reducing misidentification of shadow-obscured regions and color-similar terrains lacking building structural features. This approach effectively ensures the precise acquisition of urban building information in aerial images.

A study on the digital restoration of an ancient city based on historic building information modeling of wooden architectural heritage: focusing on Suwon Hwaseong

This study describes the process of digitally reconstructing the ancient Korean city of Suwon Hwaseong in 3D utilizing Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) resources to accurately represent its wooden architectural heritage. Previous 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage have often prioritized appearance or remained partially disassembled. However, our reconstruction method offers a comprehensive representation of the appearance and the internal structure of wooden architectural heritage, which can be suitable for restoration maintenance. To ensure accuracy in digital restoration, we collected and utilized administrative records and historical materials, including the geography, fortress walls, folk houses, and Haenggung (the temporary palace of the Joseon Dynasty)—drawing from the archive of the Korean Cultural Heritage Service’s management records and the 1796 manuscript “Uigwe: Royal Protocols of the Hwaseong Fortress” which documents the construction of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong. Extensive architectural records were used to generate HBIM data, which digitized historical records, documents, and drawings to accurately represent the complex layout of the wooden architectural heritage. For the folk houses that lacked design records and the fortress walls that retained their original shape, we performed a digital restoration-based façade modeling. These elements of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong were assembled into a 3D model using Unreal Engine (version 5.1.1) to digitally reconstruct the city and enhance its visual representation. The digital restoration content, which utilizes visual effects and precise rendering from a game engine, can be used for the restoration, repair, and maintenance of both appearance and internal structures.

Semantic Enrichment of Non-Graphical Data of a BIM Model of a Public Building from the Perspective of the Facility Manager

Building information modeling (BIM) is undeniably the most important trend in the digitization of the construction sector in recent years. BIM models currently being built are extremely geometrically rich, that is, they are modeled at a high level of detail in terms of geometry. Thanks to object-oriented programming paradigms, BIM models include high-level relationships to ensure interactions between objects, rapid view generation, and documentation. However, these models are not always equally rich in non-graphical data. This is true for parameters at the library object level, with which building object models are saturated, but also at the project, site, building, or floor levels according to the structure of the interoperable industry foundation classes (IFC) format. The current state of knowledge also lacks a clear methodology for inputting such data. For this reason, experimental work was undertaken on semantic enrichment in non-graphical data of a public building (a public kindergarten, Secemin, Poland), which has its BIM model at a high level of geometric detail but is poor in non-graphical data. As a result of the research and development work, all levels of the IFC structure were saturated with non-graphical data and validated, and the possibilities of their use were shown from the perspective of the facility manager. Documentation from the manager was used to achieve this goal, and selected analyses and simulations were performed on the enriched model. This article contributes to the discussion on semantic enrichment from CAD3D to BIM by presenting a detailed process for entering non-graphical data into a BIM model. The presented data entry method can be used by both modelers and facility managers. Thus, this paper fills an important research gap related to semantic enrichment in non-graphical data at different levels of the IFC structure.