Building information models to support life-cycle assessments

The current building information models (BIMs) usually do not support life-cycle calculations for buildings, which are an important tool in identifying emissions. If life-cycle assessments and BIMs were to be made compatible, emissions could be reduced more effectively than before.

What kind of problem is this project trying to solve?

Life-cycle assessments of buildings are a planning tool for identifying and validating emissions and for finding areas where emissions can be reduced.

Life-cycle assessments can be automatically obtained directly from a BIM, which would speed up assessments by up to 100 times. However, BIMs as currently constructed often do not meet the requirements of life-cycle calculations, and only a few creators of such models possess the necessary competence in and knowledge of the needs of life-cycle calculations.

Objective: to enable the use of building information models in life-cycle assessments

The project’s objective is to remove barriers to the utilisation of existing IFC models in life-cycle assessments of buildings. IFC is a common format used in building information modelling.

Moreover, the project also aims to enable the BIMs to be used in controlling and validating the environmental effects of buildings’ life cycles on a large scale.

The objective can be achieved by:

- Mapping out the applicability of current BIMs to life-cycle assessments

- Compiling minimum requirements for IFC models that are compatible with life-cycle calculations

- Creating a prototype of an automatic BIM testing tool

- Testing the minimum requirements and prototype in real-life projects

Using the competence acquired in the project, the definition requirements and the model testing tool, architects, structural engineers, BIM coordinators and other people working with BIMs will be able to account for the requirements of life-cycle calculations by creating models that support the use of data when calculating emissions for life-cycle designs.

The project is being implemented in three stages:

- Mapping out the applicability of current models and defining the minimum requirements (November 2017−February 2018)

- Creating a Model Checker prototype (January−April 2018)

- Piloting the requirements and the Model Checker tool (April−June 2018)

Who benefits?

Architects, construction engineers, structural engineers, BIM coordinators.

Piloting of BIMs for life-cycle calculations for buildings and for validating national emissions targets
Duration: 10 October 2017–31 May 2018
Implemented by: Bionova

Contact information

Panu Pasanen, Bionova
Email: panu.pasanen(at)bionova.fi
Tel: +358 44 2871 722

Tytti Bruce-Hyrkäs, Bionova
Email: tytti.bruce(at)bionova.fi
Tel: +358 500 655 020

Progress of the project

10.10.2017 4.9.2018

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