Nowadays, buildings renovation is a subject of special interest since the building and construction sector is the main body responsible for energy consumption and emissions. Hence, it is necessary to concentrate on refurbishment to achieve Europe’s climate neutrality by 2050 according to European Agenda goals. The BIM4EEB Project, a BIM-based fast toolkit for the efficient renovation of residential buildings, directs the attention toward developing an exhaustive toolkit based on Building Information Modeling (BIM) to be adopted in the renovation of existing residential buildings, to make the flow of information efficient, decreasing intervention working time while improving building performances, quality, and comfort for inhabitants. BIM4EEB is developing a BIM management system connected to an operational and multifunctional toolkit for various architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) stakeholders, integrating a set of tools for improving BIM adoption in renovation environments based on an interoperable flow of information. This paper presents the Horizon2020 Project and the framework used to develop the toolkit. In addition, the first outcomes of the toolkit development are outlined. The validation procedure in real environments has started to demonstrate the efficacy and applicability of the methodology and tools. Although the project is still in progress, benefits connected to the framework and the BIM-based toolkit result in an enhanced building renovation process.

Since the buildings and construction sector is one of the main areas responsible for energy consumption and emissions, focusing on their refurbishment and promoting actions in this direction will be helpful to achieve an EU Agenda objective of making Europe climate-neutral by 2050. One step towards the renovation action is the exploitation of digital tools into a BIM framework. The scope of the research contained in this paper is to improve the management of information throughout the different stages of the renovation process, allowing an interoperable exchange of data among the involved stakeholders; the development of an innovative BIM-based toolkit is the answer to the research question. The research and results obtained related with the development of an interoperable BIM-based toolkit for efficient renovation in buildings in the framework of the European research project BIM4EEB. Specifically, the developed BIM management system allows the exchange of the data among the different tools, using open interoperable formats (as IFC) and linked data, in a Common Data Environment, to be used by the different stakeholders. Additionally, the developed tools allow the stakeholders to manage different stages of the renovation process, facilitating efficiencies in terms of time reduction and improving the resulting quality. The validity of each tool with respect to existing practices is demonstrated here, and the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed tools are described in the workflow detailing issues such as interoperability, collaboration, integration of different solutions, and time consuming existing survey processes.

The construction sector is nowadays affected by a great evolution concerning the information management along the building life cycle. Great efforts have been devoted by International, European and national working groups for addressing BIM-related issues and for overcoming barriers that can possibly arise within BIM-based processes. In the Italian context, a national research project, namely INNOVance, has been carried out, proposing solutions for managing information concerning construction works. A classification system, an information structure, a database and BIM objects have been developed for products and objects adopted in construction works, for spaces characterising buildings and for actors involved along the whole building process. The presented paper describes the main objectives and results of the project, focusing on the approach adopted for the development of a BIM library. Requirements of objects classified and standardised through the INNOVance BIM library approach have been defined starting from an analysis of the state of the art. Particularly, a literature review of BIM guidelines and existing product libraries has been carried out, providing a reliable picture of the actual situation concerning the standardisation of information and highlighting main innovations of the proposed approach. Furthermore, a collaboration has been established with different stakeholders (as product manufacturers and construction companies) for analysing current practises and identifying information requirements for satisfying their needs related to information collection and transmission. The proposed approach for the development of the BIM library takes advantages of a consistent information structure. Among the main benefits, the developed solution is software-independent, it is not only design-orientated and it collects information related to different systems (e.g., spatial system, technological system, environmental system, and process).

The digitalisation of construction sector introduces opportunities for all the actors of AEC chain. Using the virtualisation of real entities, with models of buildings, infrastructures or of the environment (BIM: Building Information Model), it could be possible to simulate the sustainability of new property developments or renewal ones (capex/opex; BS PAS 1192-2-3 [1] [2]). With the object-oriented programming, the new ICT tools for AEC sector can rework on the data themselves, with the classes and attributes they have “learned”. At the beginning, the typology of classes and attributes were defined in BIM authoring software. To complete all the information required for every different use, the actors can find other attributes (of objects) they may need in other database existing on the market. These extended attributes could be linked to the BIM authoring objects to complete their functionality in all phases of the construction process. Thus, all the attributes of each object are now defined by the software houses, by public or private organisations (and their BIM tools) or by every single manufacturer company. However, there isn’t an international standard other than the Italian UNI 11337-3:2015 [3]. To improve this status quo, increase the implementation of sustainability simulation and life cycling data management in AEC process, it is necessary to define a new specific technical standard of BIM object attributes. BIMReL is the first BIM object library that uses the common information structure and the essential characteristics for CE mark of CPR 350/2011 (Construction Product Regulation) [4], to define the attributes of the virtual objects like the real products. The architecture of BIMReL is based on the data structure of newly released Italian standard UNI 11337-3 (2019) and, as a consequence, part of the EN draft standard at European CEN 442 Technical Committee (WG 4).

In the last few years, the technology re-evolution has deeply transformed several aspects of everyday life. For sure, one technology with a strong impact is the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT paradigm made it possible to break down the data barrier between the vertical domains on which the traditional information and communication technology (ICT) world was organized. Recently, the designers of home automation systems have begun looking to the IoT paradigm to ease the deployment of systems that are able to collect data from different plants. Such a situation has driven further evolution from the traditional automation system, where logic is defined by the programmer or by the user, to a cognitive system that is able to learn from the user’ habits regarding what should be the best configuration of plants. Several countries are funding renovations of public and private buildings for improving energy efficiency. Generally, such renovations are only focusing on the structure of the building and of its energy performance (e.g., the thermal envelope, window units, air-conditioning plants, and renewable generators) and largely ignoring the use of intelligent devices. On the contrary, scientific literature and practice have demonstrated that the wider use of IoT sensors, as well as distributed and remote intelligence, is fundamental to optimize energy consumption. This research work aimed to identify issues due the application of cognitive solutions during the renovation phase of buildings. In particular, the paper presents a cognitive architecture to support the operation and management phases of buildings, thanks to the massive digitalization of the entire supply chain of the construction sector from the single building element to the entire construction process. Such an architecture is capable of combining data from the IoT sensors and actuators of smart objects installed during the renovation phase, as well as legacy building automation systems. As an indication of the capability of the proposed solution, an intelligent window device was developed and validated. Within the Energy, Life Styled, and Seismic Innovation for Regenerated Buildings (ELISIR) project, window units are equipped with sensors to monitor indoor and outdoor condition behaviours of users. In addition, windows are able to react to changes in the environment by means of actuators that enable motorized opening and shading. Thanks to the cognitive layer designed in the project, the window is able to automatically define the best rules for opening and shading by using the local controller to satisfy user’s habits and energy efficiency targets. The cognitive layer defines the appropriate rules for opening and shading using the decision tree algorithm applied to the data generated by the sensors in order to infer users’ preferences. For this research, two prototypes of the window units were installed in two offices of Politecnico di Milano, Italy. The accuracy of this algorithm to classify the users’ behaviour and preferences was found to be around 90%, considering an observation interval of two months.