Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BIM4REN (Building Information Modelling based tools & technologies for fast and efficient RENovation of residential buildings)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-10-01 al 2022-09-30
The low productivity of the construction sector is due to many factors, amongst which are the fragmentation of the domain, the silotization of the process, the lack of innovation, in particular of digitization. BIM (Building Information Modelling) is a collaborative process and methodology that can solve those issues. Indeed, BIM is also as a digital model of a building that centralizes information used and added by every stakeholder of a construction project.
Considering energy renovation, the BIM4Ren project dedicates its efforts in making BIM usable to support the global reduction of the energy consumption of the European building stock. While BIM is being increasingly adopted on new buildings, creating a model of existing assets requires specific and challenging tools and skills. Aiming at delivering fast, efficient, easy to use tools for the renovation of existing residential building, the BIM4Ren project integrates different technologies to digitize the existing building stock, and assist the renovation process considering modification of the building envelopes, installation of renewable energy sources, occupants behavior... Other relevant aspects are considered such as the financial analysis or the carbon impact.
Regarding end users, the main target considered is the (SMEs) as they are the main renovation actors while being the less digitized. SMEs need some help to survive especially regarding the use of digital solutions, that can enable them to be key actors of the green transition of our societies.
All results of the BIM4ren project are compiled in the OSAP website, https://platform.bim4ren.eu/documentation and a dedicated legacy website with public material, including training and a white paper is accessible to all, https://bim4renovation.eu The 34 tools developed by the project are presented, tutorials available and conclusions and lessons learnt from the pilots are shared.
Considering energy renovation, the BIM4Ren project dedicates its efforts in making BIM usable to support the global reduction of the energy consumption of the European building stock. While BIM is being increasingly adopted on new buildings, creating a model of existing assets requires specific and challenging tools and skills. Aiming at delivering fast, efficient, easy to use tools for the renovation of existing residential building, the BIM4Ren project integrates different technologies to digitize the existing building stock, and assist the renovation process considering modification of the building envelopes, installation of renewable energy sources, occupants behavior... Other relevant aspects are considered such as the financial analysis or the carbon impact.
Regarding end users, the main target considered is the (SMEs) as they are the main renovation actors while being the less digitized. SMEs need some help to survive especially regarding the use of digital solutions, that can enable them to be key actors of the green transition of our societies.
All results of the BIM4ren project are compiled in the OSAP website, https://platform.bim4ren.eu/documentation and a dedicated legacy website with public material, including training and a white paper is accessible to all, https://bim4renovation.eu The 34 tools developed by the project are presented, tutorials available and conclusions and lessons learnt from the pilots are shared.
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.
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.
The BIM4Ren project led to the elaboration of a collaborative workflow that covers five phases: strategic planning, on-site and off-site data collection, a diagnosis phase to re-evaluate the initial planning and potential works to be made, the design phase and finally the renovation work. It is flexible and supported by the whole set of softwares of the consortium.
Amongst the tools that are being developed, some represent some scientific novel approaches:
- Plans2BIM and HVAC2BIM, (WBIM), as SaaS transform 2D layouts as images, into IFC models through the use of AI based pattern identification
- BIM2BEM tool (EBIM) uses raytracing techniques to identify and correct potential geometric issues, before creating a geometry bug free model for energy simulation
- Massdoc tool (NBK) is a search engine dedicated to construction documents, facilitating the transformation of practices from being document-based to being model-based.
- BIM Bot approach (TNO) leads to building microservice-oriented environment for BIM projects, enabling more modular and configurable BIM processing, adaptable to different projects.
Overall, the integration of the tools into a single platform dedicated to the use of BIM in renovation projects represents a major innovation in the sector, and one of the final targets of the BIM4Ren project, that we aim at reaching at the end of the final period of the project.
The final effort in delivering a whitepaper on BIM for renovation is also a success, since no such material on the topic exist to our knowledge, in particular dedicated to renovation professionals. The consortium expects it to be key point to make the project live after its finalization, and a key material to promote the more general effort to push the use of BIM in renovation projects.
The dissemination activities already gave some results since the consortium was contacted by four companies (in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania). In addition, some of the partners launched activities related to the project (Kursaal created a BIM division, and Nobatek/INEF4 is starting delivering a BIM-based consultancy for energy renovation).
Amongst the tools that are being developed, some represent some scientific novel approaches:
- Plans2BIM and HVAC2BIM, (WBIM), as SaaS transform 2D layouts as images, into IFC models through the use of AI based pattern identification
- BIM2BEM tool (EBIM) uses raytracing techniques to identify and correct potential geometric issues, before creating a geometry bug free model for energy simulation
- Massdoc tool (NBK) is a search engine dedicated to construction documents, facilitating the transformation of practices from being document-based to being model-based.
- BIM Bot approach (TNO) leads to building microservice-oriented environment for BIM projects, enabling more modular and configurable BIM processing, adaptable to different projects.
Overall, the integration of the tools into a single platform dedicated to the use of BIM in renovation projects represents a major innovation in the sector, and one of the final targets of the BIM4Ren project, that we aim at reaching at the end of the final period of the project.
The final effort in delivering a whitepaper on BIM for renovation is also a success, since no such material on the topic exist to our knowledge, in particular dedicated to renovation professionals. The consortium expects it to be key point to make the project live after its finalization, and a key material to promote the more general effort to push the use of BIM in renovation projects.
The dissemination activities already gave some results since the consortium was contacted by four companies (in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania). In addition, some of the partners launched activities related to the project (Kursaal created a BIM division, and Nobatek/INEF4 is starting delivering a BIM-based consultancy for energy renovation).