A Case-Study Investigating the Integration of ISO 19650 and OpenBIM Principles

The digital transformation of the construction sector is leading to a wider adoption of project digitization, process automation, and new project methodologies, demonstrating numerous benefits for sector productivity. This growth is pushing the sector more than ever into the era of digitalization, along with the issues that come with it. Managing the large amount of data from multiple different sources, multiple tools and software, and multiple project stakeholders represents a challenge in terms of interoperability and collaboration in the construction sector. Building Information Modelling (BIM) as a collaborative process has been discussed for improving interaction and exchange between both software and people. Structuring this approach, ISO 19650 provides guidelines on how to manage project data efficiently, whereas BuildingSMART International promotes the use of the openBIM approach, based on IFC open data schema, and propose a set of tools and processes aiming to facilitate the exchange and integration of data for all project participants, regardless of their working discipline. The approaches supported through ISO 19650 and openBIM share similar purposes, aiming to improve project data management, exchange and flow. This paper presents an integrated approach to the application of ISO19650 and openBIM principles to leverage the benefits from both standardized orientations. The study uses a Design Science Research methodology to implement the approach in a renovation project, to understand its foundations and issues. The paper provides an example of the ISO 19650 applications, supported by openBIM concepts to ensure interoperability. This study contributes to the ISO 19650 understanding and openBIM approach adoption in both academic and industry fields by testing its practicability and proposing an experimented process, but also by identifying strengths and weaknesses, as well as points of attention for leveraging the value of this approach.