The life cycle of a building consists of roughly four phases: initiate, design, build and operate (including use, manage and maintain). Many players have to cooperate during these phases. For matters like managing, drawing, modelling, calculating and simulating these players typically use different software, which does not exactly support information exchange, sharing and reuse. The consequences? Costs of failure, exceeding deadlines and buildings and infrastructures that do not comply with the requirements of the client. TNO has many years of experience in the field of ICT integration and its prerequisite product modelling in building and construction, nowadays better known as Building Information Modelling (BIM). This is complex stuff for which TNO is able to provide clarity and transparency as an independent partner in the development and application of relevant open standards. We advise authorities, clients, building partners and (building) software vendors in the area of open and smart ICT integration solutions.

Benefits

The right integration of software offers the end user many advantages:

• More reuse of knowledge;
• Fewer non-productive hours;
• Reduced failure costs;
• Shorter process times;
• Better decisions due to consideration of more alternative solutions with associated consequences in the same timeframe;
• Use of the best solutions of different software vendors openly integrated, both now and in the future.

Furthermore, the TNO approach is the ‘engine’ for many innovative building concepts and processes like partnering, performance-based contracts, consumer-oriented construction, industrial construction, virtual construction and 'living building' principles.

Technology

Under the hood we use various technologies such as the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP – ISO 10303) of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) and the (Semantic) Web of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as well as models, schemas, ontologies and object libraries based on these technologies. A good example is the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), also called BuildingSmart. TNO has developed the IFC Engine Series software used by various software vendors to make their solutions compatible with IFC. In this respect, TNO has also started the initiative for an Open Source BIM/IFC Server. For further information, just contact us. For examples of projects, see cases.