Development and Demonstration of an HBIM Framework for the Preventive Conservation of Cultural Heritage

Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology is becoming widespread with many potential uses, such as facility and asset management for new buildings. Recently, it has also been applied for the maintenance of built heritage, within the so-called Historical BIM (HBIM) field. A BIM model, empowered by detailed embedded information, is an excellent tool to monitor and infer on the behaviour, performance and deterioration of heritage buildings, collecting and classifying diverse data that can co-exist in an asset model. However, three main issues must be tackled: lack of standardization, insufficient interoperability and inherent complexity of the information. It is essential to balance model’s geometrical and non-geometrical features, such as the level of detail accuracy and the quantity of linked information, to make the methodology cost-effective and hence more attractive for end-users. The present work focuses on the development of easy-to-implement strategy to report and monitor damage evolution over time. Standardization and simplification of the procedures are pursued by using Product Data Templates (PDTs) and focusing on interoperability of information through specific provisions of export/import definitions for Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The developed methodology is tested on the Ducal Palace in Guimarães, Portugal, one of the most prominent monuments of the country.