How BIM can use Big City Data

The use of BIM within the design process is now becoming established, both at design stage and during the construction phase, as multiple designers from the architect through to the engineers, service engineers and contractors use the same 3D model base to add function to the design. This paper will look at the relationship between a building’s central control programme and the Rich BIM data embedded within a 3D IFC file (a platform neutral, open 3D file format specification) and the ever-increasing availability of external smart, city-wide data points now being propagated in many of the rising smart cities. As we embed more information and material data specs into the 3D model, it is quite possible for autonomous building management programmes that control a building’s use and heating to interrogate the exported 3D IFC model and check the building’s real-time integrity based upon temperature and humidity sensor readings embedded within the building’s core, together using the rich Internet of Things (IoT) external data fetched from external weather sensors, and compare it to the model to give real-time references for control of such things as lighting, heating and cooling. Sensors looking at structural loads from a similar sensor grid, again looking at the same IFC file, will allow real-time structural analysis of imposed loads such as people, equipment and materials on the building fabric and the building’s reaction to wind load.