Building Information and Physical Model: A Novel Form of Information Description for Buildings

Abstract

Information is the core element to drive human‒cyber‒physical collaborations and promote the orderly operation of building activities in the entire lifecycle of buildings. More realistic and efficient description and sharing of building information has always been an important theme pursued in the field of architecture. To meet the rapidly growing demand for interactive collaboration between virtual and real building conditions, this study proposes a novel form of information description for buildings, namely a building information and physical model (BIPM), for realizing the true mapping and collaboration from building physical entities to the information space. The BIPM is composed of a building basic information model, a physical model, and an interaction model, and unifies the description of the external geometric attribute information and the internal physical mechanisms of buildings. The theoretical foundation and key technical system of the BIPM are discussed, and the application effectiveness and benefits of the BIPM are demonstrated using building chillers as an example. Furthermore, the application ecologies and values of the BIPM are analyzed. Research suggestions are proposed as follows: (1) deepening the research on BIPM theories and key technologies, (2) formulating serialized BIPM standards and specifications, and (3) developing BIPM building industry software tools to expand the BIPM application ecosystem. This study is expected to provide support for the development of new basic software for the building industry,involving architectural design, construction, operation and maintenance, and urban digital twins.

Keywords

• architectural information description
• information modeling technology
• building information model
• digital twins
• building industry software