Process design for BIM-based, material building passport

Project Description

Currently, settlements and infrastructures constitute the largest material stock in an industrial economy, where these material stocks for essential raw materials are globally as large as the economically extractable primary deposits. To reduce further exploitation of primary resources, the preservation or recycling of urban stocks represents a significant economic objective. Additionally, a large portion of building materials become waste products at the end of their life cycle, hence the need for future recycling or reuse strategies to be considered in early planning phases. Design-centric tools are necessary to predict and optimize the entire life cycle of buildings in terms of resource efficiency and environmental impacts. New digital tools such as BIM-based workflows and tool chains enable analyses and optimizations through information-rich 3D building and data models already in early planning stages. In the BIMaterial project, the BIM-based Material Building Passport (MGP) serves as a tool that allows for the qualitative and quantitative assessment, optimization, and inventory of the material composition and ecological footprint of a building.

The MGP has multiple functions: it is a planning and optimization tool with respect to efficient material use and later demolition, a documentation of the necessary material information for the recycling of buildings at the end of their life, and serves as a basis for an urban raw material cadaster at the city level. In the project, a methodology for creating BIM-based MGPs was developed; as well as the workflow for linking digital tools—BIM, eco and recycling databases, and the material database and analysis tool BuildingOne, was defined.