A hands-on BYOBIM workshop on Linked Building Data (continued)

Synopsis:

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could exchange “information” over “documents” in an interconnected manner with better insights? With Linked Building Data (LBD), we can, and in this workshop, you will learn why this is important and how you can get started with the technology today.

(All LAB attendees must bring their own devices)

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the shortcomings of Today’s file-based information exchange
2. Understand the benefits of direct semantic web-mediated data exchange between applications
3. Hands-on experience with converting a BIM-model to Linked Building Data and asking queries against it

Body:

The Architecture, Engineering Construction and Operations (AECO) industry is fragmented as several actors consume, process and further develop a common project material throughout the building’s life cycle. This, in combination with continuous design iterations and a highly document-centric working manner, challenges the design process. In his PhD, Mads has investigated the possibilities of creating a web-based infrastructure that supports the need for dynamic, interconnected information exchanges. Semantic web technologies are used to capture knowledge about a building, its spatial and physical elements and their internal relationships in an extendable, distributed data model. Such a model is referred to as an AEC Knowledge Graph and it describes the building information in an unambiguous, machine-readable manner where the processing of design information can to some extent be automated.

In the workshop, Mads will initially describe the challenges of the industry and the shortcomings of Today’s BIM. He will then give an introduction to the semantic web and linked data technologies and describe how these could be used to accommodate some of the identified challenges by structuring data in AEC Knowledge Graphs.

Through visual examples, it will be demonstrated what an AEC Knowledge Graph looks like, how it captures knowledge and how this knowledge can be accessed through structured queries that traverse the graph. But as a participant, you will also be able to parse one of your own IFC files into an AEC Knowledge Graph using the LD-BIM web app. During the hands-on session, you will get an introduction to the SPARQL query language and learn how to make sophisticated data requests such as “all the rooms on the 3rd floor that have south-facing windows”.

NIRAS has been using the technologies for some years and it is our hope to inspire other companies to develop minimal apps that consume and extend an AEC Knowledge Graph following our example. We have previously seen how strong communities can help to spread and mature technologies and it is our belief that the industry as a whole will benefit from such a community for AEC Knowledge Graphs.

(All installation instructions will be provided by the speaker)