Concept for a BIM-based Material Passport for buildings

Minimisation of resources consumption belongs to the main concerns of EU, resulting in the development of strategies for maximizing recycling rates in order to minimize environmental impacts and energy consumption caused by extraction of primary materials. Detailed knowledge about the embedded materials as well as their characteristics of building stocks is crucial in order to enable high recycling rates and low environmental impacts of buildings. In this paper, we will present the results of the funded research project BIMaterial: Process design for a BIM (Building Information Modelling) -based Material Passport. The concept of the BIM-based Material Passport is used for evaluating the recycling potential and environmental impact of materials embedded in buildings. The BIM-based Material Passport assesses all materials including their quantitative and qualitative properties, thus significantly supporting recycling and reduction of environmental impacts. Further, the BIM-supported Material Passport serves as design optimization tool and enables the generation and comparison of variants thus supporting the decision making process. The main aim of this research is to generate a BIM-based Material Passport for the optimization of the building design regarding resources use and documentation of materials, thereby using Building Information Modelling as knowledge base for geometry and material properties and coupling to further databases for assessment of ecologic footprint and recycling potentials. Thereby a framework for modelling and the methodology for the semi-automated generation of the BIM-based Material Passport will be proposed.