Buildings and Semantics

The built environment has been digitizing rapidly and is now transforming into a physical world that is at all times supplemented by a fully web-supported and interconnected digital version, often referred to as Digital Twin. This book shows how diverse data models and web technologies can be created and used for the built environment. Key features of this book are its technical nature and technical detail. The first part of the book highlights a large diversity of IT techniques and their use in the AEC domain, from JSON to XML to EXPRESS to RDF/OWL, for modelling geometry, products, properties, sensor and energy data. The second part of the book focuses on diverse software solutions and approaches, including digital twins, federated data storage on the web, IoT, cloud computing, and smart cities. Key research and strategic development opportunities are comprehensively discussed for distributed web-based building data management, IoT integration and cloud computing. This book aims to serve as a guide and reference for experts and professionals in AEC computing and digital construction including Master's students, PhD researchers, and junior to senior IT-oriented AEC professionals.

Pieter Pauwels works as an Associate Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe), the Department of the Built Environment. He previously worked at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ghent University (2008–2019). His work and interests are in information system support for the building life-cycle (architectural design, construction, building operation). With a lot of experience and knowledge in computer science and software development, he is involved in a number of industry-oriented research projects on topics affiliated to AI in construction, design thinking, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Linked Building Data (LBD), Linked Data in Architecture and Construction (LDAC), and Semantic Web technologies.

Kris McGlinn, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow and Computer Scientist in the ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin. His research focus is knowledge engineering, in particular the application of Web of Data technologies for managing data from heterogeneous data sources. He has extensive experience working within the building domain, having worked on several EU and Irish national projects which explored topics ranging from smart building application development and evaluation, energy management in buildings, and the integration of building data with geospatial data. He was Principal Investigator for the H2020 SWIMing project, a Coordination and Support Action which explored the use of Semantic Web technologies for information modelling across EU projects and industry, and he was a founding chair of the W3C Linked Building Data community group, with the stated goal of developing ontologies for managing building data.