A semantic rule checking environment for building performance checking
P. Pauwels
a,b,
⁎
, D. Van Deursen
c
, R. Verstraeten
a,b
, J. De Roo
c
, R. De Meyer
a
,
R. Van de Walle
c
, J. Van Campenhout
b
a
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University, J. Plateaustraat 22, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
b
Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
c
Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Multimedia Lab, Ghent University-IBBT, Gaston Crommenlaan 8 bus 201, B-9050 Ledeberg-Ghent, Belgium
abstractarticle info
Article history:
Accepted 4 November 2010
Available online 13 December 2010
Keywords:
Semantic web
Construction industry
Rule checking
Reasoning
Today's construction industry relies heavily on high-performing building information modelling (BIM)
systems. By deploying the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a description language, these systems offer
building information in a widely interoperable format, so that several applications are able to infer extra
information. For a certain functionality, IFC shows limitations however. Existing semantic web technology
may be able to overcome these limitations, thereby enabling a range of significant improvements and
possibilities for automation in building design and construction. This paper gives a short overview of the
functionality of IFC as a language, compared to the functionality of languages deployed in the semantic web
domain. The improvements generated by deploying semantic web languages are briefly discussed, after
which a concrete implementation approach is presented for a semantic rule checking environment for
building design and construction. An implemented test case for acoustic performance checking illustrates the
improvements of such an environment compared to traditionally deployed approaches in rule checking.
© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Current architectural design and construction processes become
more complex every day because of the introduction of new building
technologies, research outcomes and increasingly stringent building
codes. As a result, an architect is not only responsible for the design
and construction of a building, he also needs to comply with acoustic
standards, fire safety regulations, energy performance requirements,
etc. He is also more and more subject to increasing expectations on
several knowledge domains, striving towards building designs with
better performance and quality. These challenges require an intense
communication among project participants, and a profound evalua-
tion of the building design starting from the earliest stages in the
design process.
1.1. Information management in construction industry
Several software tools are available to help a designer manage a
building design project and the associated requirements. Numerous
initiatives have emerged concentrating on the management and
visualisation of this information, typically building on the concept of
product data management (PDM) and information modelling (IM).
Building information modelling (BIM) can be named as one of the
most notable efforts in recent years regarding information manage-
ment in the construction industry [1]. BIM modellers typically provide
different ‘specialised’ model views (e.g. structural and architectural)
of a single building model within one and the same software suite.
Additionally, they aim at making the model accessible for applications
outside the BIM modelling environment through the Industry
Foundation Classes (IFC) [2]. The IFC language thus aims at providing
easy communication of construction-related information back and
forth between BIM modelling environments and other IFC-compatible
software environments, thereby targeting a more integrated design
and construction process and thus a considerably improved construc-
tion process quality and efficiency [3].
Significant improvements were expected in the domain of rule
checking, with the emergence of rule checking environments capable of
assessing the features and characteristics of a building design (e.g.
energy performance level) based on the information available in an IFC
model. These software environments typically apply a set of procedures
to the information model, thereby deriving new information and
eventually resulting in a ‘pass’, ‘fail’, ‘warning’ or ‘unknown’ message for
the assessed features. These improvements in terms of interoperability
are, however, not met as expected in practice [4]. The data structure of
IFC and the information contained within the IFC model often collide
with the information model deployed within the rule checking
Automation in Construction 20 (2011) 506–518
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 9 264 8917, +32 486 791488; fax: +32 9 264
4185.
E-mail addresses: pipauwel.pauwels@ugent.be (P. Pauwels),
davy.vandeursen@ugent.be (D. Van Deursen), ruben.verstraeten@ugent.be
(R. Verstraeten), jos.deroo@agfa.be (J. De Roo), ronald.demeyer@ugent.be
(R. De Meyer), rik.vandewalle@ugent.be (R. Van de Walle),
jan.vancampenhout@ugent.be (J. Van Campenhout).
0926-5805/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2010.11.017
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Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon