An information system architecture to create building components catalogues using semantic technologies

The AEC industry is increasingly requiring more integration in the different phases of the building life-cycle. The progressive adoption of BIM technology is contributing to this integration by facilitating the participation of the multiple actors involved. However, only those who have access to the BIM model can participate in this process leaving out other stakeholders such as manufacturers of building components and systems. To over-come these limitations, it is necessary to link BIM models with other information systems. In this way, BIM models would be part of a comprehensive ecosystem in which they can relate to other AEC databases. We have developed an architecture of an information system which facilitates the connection between building component catalogues, associated services, and BIM software. Semantic Web technologies have been used to integrate multiple data sources providing a unified access which facilitates end-users searching in a building product catalogue. In this paper, we present the work done and discuss the consequences of the application of ontologies to integrate building product catalogues and BIM models.