NFDI4Culture Community Architecture

In architecture, documentation standards and data modelling play a critical, constitutive as well as literally constructive role on many levels: in the design and building process as well as in site surveys, built heritage conservation and reconstruction. Research data are the basis for the development of new building and planning concepts as well as for historical research. Thus, building information is incorporated in a variety of types and forms, often from neighbouring sciences: standards, surveys, object and material properties, (historical) GIS, photographs, sections, floor plans, views, models and many more are linked to a building.

Learning to use this data in turn requires the implementation of digital tools and standards, both in the planning office as well as in GLAM institutions and universities. NFDI4Culture wants to collaborate with the architecture community to develop tools, repositories and open standards, and seeks to establish a long-term perspective in accordance with the FAIR principles.

Buzzwords such as 'digital building', 'smart' and 'informed city' emphasise the challenges architectural practice faces today, especially since the mandatory introduction of BIM (Building Information Modeling): Information technology solutions should accompany as many phases as possible, from the draft to the building permit to facility management, and further enable the integration into land use planning, as well as urban development and economy.

Thereby, multiple 'life cycle phases' are being passed through, which include a variety of data (types) and formats. In CAD, three-dimensional building models, floor plans and wireframes are not only drawn, processed and stored but linked to building information in detail through parametric and intelligent reference objects across all scales. By means of synchronised models, all participants are to be coordinated in order to promote the exchange of information and to create transparency with regard to costs and risks. Standards, interfaces and software platforms for exchanging data should therefore be included in planning, design and construction processes as well as in building surveys, assessment and reconstruction.

From a cultural and art historical perspective, long-term archiving, reliability and interoperability of research data are essential for the collection and development of building information. Corresponding with traditional methods of archaeology, art and architectural history, there is an growing trend towards retrodigitisation and the extensive creation of 3D scans, models and site plans, which in turn are linked to other knowledge bases and expanded with metadata. When it comes to the acquisition of image data and the indexing of rara, the transitions to art history are fluid, especially with regard to context-based annotation and content-based indexing.