The required basis for the development of the BIM4Ren tools consisted in a detailed analysis of current practices, needs and expectations of the whole value chain, collected through questionnaire and activities related to the pilot sites. Their formalization were reified to deliver user stories, technical requirements and a clear mapping between challenges/user requirements and tools to be developed. A generic collaborative BIM4Ren workflow was formalized. Additionally, the potential and expected gains in using BIM for renovation helped identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Finally, a first draft of an IFC (i.e. openBIM format) extension was produced and living labs activities were initiated for each three pilot sites (France, Italy and Spain) to connect to the practitioners and identify current practices.
Following activities focused on the development of the different tools as services to be integrated in the platform. Those are decomposed in 3 categories (i) end-user tools to collect data from an existing building, (ii) tools used to create and evaluate different renovation strategies, and (iii) core BIM tools to store BIM models, handle different formats, validate the digital files. Continuous internal exchanges allowed each partner to have a good understanding of the tools being developed, useful for technical considerations and to ensure the soft landing of the tools being developed.
During the final period of the project, the main activities concerned: (i) the integration and packaging of the tools into a single platform, (ii) the tests and validation of the tools and workflows in real renovation projects, (iii) the definition and sharing of an exploitation strategy, and (iv) an intensive dissemination activity of the results.
The biggest challenges for the OSAP were related to the integration of the tools and in agreeing in the content and functionalities. It is now up and running and publicly available. In addition, some of the tools were integrated in the Kroqi platform, a market-ready collaborative platform owned by CSTB. The testing activities were performed on the three initially planned pilots, and on the additional Romanian site. It led to feedbacks regarding usability and suitability from the beta testers to the developers and allowed to further improve the tools with the objective to have easy to use tools that can participate in reaching positive environmental, socio-economic and productivity-related impacts.
The exploitation strategy was defined for each of the tools independently and for the global solution with a market analysis prioritizing French and Italian markets. In addition, the advocacy campaign was successfully launched through the support of three ambassadors and an open letter to support the use of BIM to accelerate the renovation of the European building stock.
Finally, dissemination and communication of the project was done through different channels: 7 webinars wereorganized and uploaded on the YouTube channel; tools demonstrations were recorded and uploaded; the consortium participated in fairs and congresses. 304 people were trained and dedicated website was created to share publicly all materials. Finally, the consortium dedicated some specific efforts to produce a whitepaper on BIM for renovation as a legacy of the project and its results to a broad audience, with more than 150 downloads to date.
