BIM and simulation of building use processes

Since its advent, Building Information Modelling approach has been gradually extended from the sole representation of the Building and of its components (BIM 3D) to the management of knowledge related to construction time (BIM 4D), costs estimation (BIM 5D) and building life cycle (BIM 6D). Nevertheless, a relevant factor as the building functional response to the activities of its intended users is still underrepresented by current BIM and IFC models. As result, designers are still forced to make decisions that will impact the building future use just relying on norms, regulations and manuals, or on their previous professional experience. The consequences are often clear in our world: after their construction, many buildings don’t work as expected, but it is usually too late or too costly to intervene. The research described in this paper aims at: 1) extending the current BIM approach in order to include semantics related to the building use process; 2) integrate this model with a virtual simulation environment, where the designers can observe how the building will interact with its intended users. The proposed model is based on an ontology-based representation of the building use process, structured in terms of activities performed, users involved and building spaces where they are located. This static representation is associated to a simulation engine derived from the videogames industry, where the use process previously formalized is simulated and dynamically visualized. This system allows designers and clients to predict and evaluate how the building will be used and experienced before it will be actually realized and occupied, when it is still possible to in-crease the quality of the final product and solve errors and problems.To test and calibrate the model, some experiments have been developed in the hospital design field, simulating the functioning of some hospital wards both under routine and emergency scenarios.