Improving the integration between BIMs and Agent-Based Simulations: the Swarm Building Modeling - SBM

The construction sector is, currently, one of the most important sectors of the world economy, although it is managed by dated systems compared to innovation that pervades other sectors such as, for example, the automotive. Till now, in fact, it is estimated that about 30% (McKinsley, 2017) of resources globally used in these processes, is dissipated due to management inefficiencies, which can be found both in the design phase and in the executive as well. This inefficiency is not a new problem, but a constant condition in the construction realm, faced by current developments in digital techniques according to different approaches to the extension of CAD capabilities: from the interactive verification of choices through the use of Augmented, Mediated and Virtual Reality (Park et al, 2013), to the integration between the BIM model and predictive statistical methods, till to the definition of methodologies oriented to the verification of the model through simulation approaches (Scherer et Schapke, 2011). Despite the development of Collaborative Design methodologies, the analysis of results of different lines of research shows, however, the tendency to discretize the design problem in different ‘specialist packages’, risking losing of the sense of complexity of the building system, and the repercussions that design choices can have on the entire building organism. The aim of the research is therefore to provide Actors of the building process appropriate methodologies to manage the complexity of building, and to evaluate the outcomes of these choices in a predictive way. Thus, the prototype under development "Swarm Building Model - SBM" is based on the paradigm of Agents Swarm: each agent indeed is able to receive stimuli from the outside, reacting according to their behaviour and objectives, and then involve in any changes all the other agents involved in the system: the result is the adaptation adapting the model to a collectively satisfying behaviour as happens, in nature, with a flock of birds.