=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3633/industry2
|storemode=property
|title=bhOWL: BHoM with semantic web technologies
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3633/industry2.pdf
|volume=Vol-3633
|authors=Alessio Lombardi,Diellza Elshani,Al Fisher,Thomas Wortmann
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ldac/LombardiEWF23
}}
==bhOWL: BHoM with semantic web technologies==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3633/industry2.pdf
bhOWL: BHoM with Semantic Web Technologies
Alessio Lombardi 1, Diellza Elshani 2 , Al Fisher1 and Thomas Wortmann 2
1
Buro Happold, 17 Newman St, London W1T 1PD, UK
2
Institute for Computational Design and Construction, Chair for Computing in Architecture (ICD/CA), Faculty
of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Stuttgart, Keplerstraße 11, Stuttgart, 70174, Germany
Abstract
Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects require multidisciplinary
solutions resulting in several disciplinary representations for one physical asset. However,
interoperability issues between software often hinder disciplinary data integration, leading to
the late recognition of violated design constraints.
Buildings and Habitats object Model (BHoM) is an open-source framework initiated by Buro
Happold, and it provides a unified data model for building design and construction
information. Semantic Web technologies can link data effectively, and integrating BHoM and
Semantic Web can enhance information exchange efficiency in the building industry.
To achieve this integration, Buro Happold and the Institute for Computational Design and
Construction, Chair for Computing in Architecture (ICD/CA) from the University of
Stuttgart, have been working on a joint research project. The work includes research on
BHoM and its parallels with Semantic Web Technologies; the translation of the
terminological and assertional layer from BHoM to OWL/RDF named bhOWL (and vice-
versa) and the integration of bhOWL with design software and graph databases. The graph
database integrated with the work receives data from multiple design software disciplines,
allowing users to perform cross-database queries. Because both BHoM and bhOWL are
prominently dedicated to design, the proposed tool is currently geared towards co-design by
designers from various disciplines, such as architects or structural designers. Designers can
make better decisions by accessing data from various disciplines. For instance, an acoustic
designer might need to know the structural model's ceiling deformation values to determine
the best location to place acoustic insulation. Although the tool fulfills the requirements of
certain case studies, such as describing building parts and materials, it is still unable to utilise
an extensive OWL vocabulary, and the process of reusing existing ontologies is rigid.
In future work, we will explore using extensive OWL vocabulary and integrating bhOWL
with existing ontologies like BOT, IFC-related ontologies, etc. We will also investigate using
Machine Learning approaches to predict links between entities in the same and different
domains, inferring new entities from sources beyond BHoM. Future investigation will pivot
around combining design tools with Semantic Web standards to improve data interoperability
and assist design decisions through inferential reasoning.
Acknowledgement: This research is party supported by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence
Strategy - EXC 2120/1 - 390831618 and Buro Happold.
Keywords
Data Integration, Machine Learning, Ontologies and Building Data Standards (e.g. IFC),
Knowledge graphs, Idea/vision
Proceedings LDAC2023 – 11th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction, June 15–16, 2023, Matera, Italy
EMAIL: Alessio.Lombardi@BuroHappold.com (A. Lombardi); diellza.elshani@icd.uni-stuttgart.de (D. Elshani);
al.fisher@burohappold.com (A. Fisher); thomas.wortmann@icd.uni-stuttgart.de (T. Wortmann)
ORCID: 0000-0003-2902-341X (D. Elshani); 0000-0002-5604-1624 T. Wortmann)
© 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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