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Description
BIM - Building Information Modeling has been one of the most talked about concepts in the construction industry in the last decade. The materialization of the full potential of BIM contributes to the Digital Twin in construction. PDT (Prevention Through Design) is the answer.
From manufacturing to waste auditing, PDTs can promote a more efficient use of industry resources, improve the management of products used in construction, promote construction quality, as well as support recycling processes. GrowingCircle activities will develop, identify and measure these outcomes and impacts. 1- Awareness of the industry for the need and advantages of PDT (Prevention Through Design); 2- The development and testing of these frameworks and evaluation of results in various analyses, phases and case studies. secondary materials increased in the supported sectors.
Innovative solutions for increased resource efficiency piloted. SMEs supported
Summary of project results
Digitalization trends in the construction sector point to processes and technologies that promote the systematization, aggregation, management, tracking and maintenance of the information about constructed objects as well as the construction products that compose them. The systematization of data and its conversion into information blocks must take into account the needs of those involved in the construction process as well as the construction life cycle phases. It is imperative for the dynamics of circular economy in the construction sector to ensure the circularity of information about build objects and its elements.
Data Templates are standardized and interoperable metadata structures with the capability of responding to the abovementioned needs, contributing to the effective implementation of more circular, more efficient and environmentally friendly practices.
The GrowingCircle project aims to raise awareness among agents, through training/dissemination actions for the (fundamental ... core ... essential ...) role of Data Templates and evidence their impact through practical implementation in specific case studies.
GrowingCircle had seven activities.
Act. 1 – Project Management. Cut crosses all project and is assured by the Promoter. It was composed by all project activities at communication and management level.
Act. 2 – PDT follow and set-up. This activity was composed by 3 tasks. The 1st sets the basis for the entire project as it started with the new EN ISO standards, namely 23386 and 23387. The two other tasks comprehend the development of PDT’s and the identification of relevant data depending on products, CP - construction process stage, discipline, contract type, among others. These tasks are related and explored deeper previous research/practical work developed by the team members. Broad approach in terms of data identification provided guidelines for the Act. 3 to 5. Their results allowed the development of a detailed report on "Construction Information Requirements".
Act. 3 – Information Framework Database. The Promoter has been involved in several industry projects related with information management during design, construction and use stages. In addition, it has been gathering complete projects for several analysis (buildings and infrastructures). The scope of this activity was to set an information framework and database based on project sample (old, recent and to obtain) to evaluate and characterize the amount of information that is already set on "common" processes and the data that is missing. Evaluation at construction and product level was made. The outcome was a report with evaluation of data achieved VS data required and guidelines to improve data delivery.
Act. 4 – PDT on the construction process. With the elements previously produced, this activity evaluated the practical application and benefits of providing interoperable data structures for distinct purposes as well as identify the data fields that are relevant each analysis. The main objective was to evaluate all the required data in detail following the guidelines from Act.2.
Act. 5 – PDT for Built Environment. The main principles, involvement of the parts and outcomes are the same as described in Act. 4. The scopewas the Built Environment and the focus were the relevant data for asset management strategies, waste audits, recycling potential analysis, among others.
Act. 6 – Case Studies/Implementation. The potential benefits can only be evaluated and predicted trough real tests. The goal was to implement data templates for construction projects in more than two projects reporting the observed and potential benefits and agent’s feedback. The project did benefit from the commitment owners. The outcomes are implementation guidelines on the context of the variables stated in Act.2.
Act. 7 – Awareness and Education. Construction PD cut cross all the industry and its stakeholders. One of the goals of the project was to provide the awareness of the industry for this topic and the benefits/impacts that can result from it. Therefore it was envisaged a multidisciplinary approach that aimed to provide high level and detailed level information/practices for different agents. This approach was composed by 4 types of actions as follows: - generic approach; - data requirements and management in different stages of the CP; - the value of non pdf data and data sets for different analysis; - best use of the data on the context of a project;
The project produced and tested Product Data Templates (PDT) and it''s Guidelines, and built a training action organized jointly between the Portuguese and Norwegian partners.
Stakeholders in the construction sector reacted positively to the innovative solutions presented by this project, engaging in the challenges and raising questions for their implementation.
The GrowingCircle project was a pioneer in raising these issues and raising awareness on the topic, both nationally, in Norway and in different European member states.
The ongoing discussion on the proposed Construction Products Regulation will bring this topic even further to the forefront.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian partner - NTNU - was especially involved in activity 2 - Product DT follow and set-up and activity 7 - Awareness and Education.