Alain Zarli

R2M Solution

The market of smart building solutions aiming at improving the comfort, well-being and health of occupants, but also the inclusiveness and accessibility of the building to people with more specific needs is growing. More and more smart solutions, as well as standards, certifications and public regulations are currently being developed, but a more g...

As our society is becoming increasingly interconnected, the construction industry is faced with unparalleled needs for digital infrastructure as it is beginning to adopt sophisticated cyber-physical integra-tions, known as Digital Twins. Previous work on BIM and cyber-physical systems within the construction sec-tor as well as from nearby engineeri...

More than two decades ago, object-oriented representation of AEC (architecture engineering and construction) projects started to offer the promise of seamless communication of semantic data models between computer-based systems used from the design stage to the operation of the facilities. BIM (building information modelling) emerged and appeared a...

An integrated understanding of the Smart City hypothesis, is that these projects are a part of a general concept of city modernisation. However, smart city projects should never be seen in isolation, but as one element in a city's (or a region's) continuous effort to find the next best way of operations. This paper evaluates the problems associated...

A Big Question is do we " Europe " have agile infrastructures, network systems and operational models for developing and maintaining smart grid applications for our city districts and can we extend our Hyper Connected World through Internet of Things and Big Data? This paper will evaluate architecture models for designing complex systems such as th...

The European transport infrastructure network is considered as the lifeblood of European trade and society, and is commonly regarded as a shared heritage of great economic value. But it is also recognised today that this network is composed of many existing infrastructures that no longer fulfil the current functional requirements and today's safety...

A Big Question is do we " Europe " have agile infrastructures, network systems and operational models for developing and maintaining smart grid applications for our city districts and can we extend our Hyper Connected World through Internet of Things and Big Data? This paper will evaluate architecture models for designing complex systems such as th...

This papers problem statement relates to IAQ and the sharp rise in the number of people diagnosed with allergic diseases in developed countries. The issues of customizing homes for health needs of their occupants requires proofing against allergens caused by materials or products. In order, to use ICT applications systems for identifying/analyzing...

The construction sector is characterised by delivery of one-of-a-kind product and service delivery through competence sharing between different organisations (some of which may be unknown to others). ICT usage in the sector is limited and lags far behind other manufacturing sectors. The ROADCON project offered a vision for ICT in construction in ad...

The challenges confronting urban centralization survivability is connected to environmental resources and their usage within urban spaces for example; SMART CITIES. The requirement attributes of FP7 "Topic 6.5 Information Communication Technology (ICT) for energy positive neighborhoods 'Open Dynamic System for Saving Energy in Urban Spaces (ODYSSEU...

The FP7 WISDOM project aims to achieve a step change in water (and energy) savings via the integration of innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks to optimize water distribution networks and to enable change in consumer behaviour through innovative demand management and adaptive pricing schemes. The WISDOM approach cou...

The challenges confronting urban centralization survivability is connected to environmental re- sources and their usage within urban spaces for example; SMART CITIES. The requirement attributes of FP7 “Topic 6.5 Information Communication Technology (ICT) for energy positive neighborhoods ‘ Open Dynam- ic System for Saving Energy in Urban Spaces (O...

The design of energy awareness solutions for the residential sector is a popular topic within research and innovation communities, with major industrial players being active in the field; the massive roll-out of smart energy meters in several countries is acting as a catalyst factor. However, the majority of existing solutions do not fully meet use...

The three pillars of education are based on: i) curriculum – what is taught, ii) pedagogy – how it is taught and iii) assessment – assessing what is taught. The final educational component of 'assessment' is the main focus of this paper. The authors will seek to demonstrate the various purposes of assessment through utilizing the visual, parametric...

IREEN is a strategy project which examines the ways that ICT for energy efficiency and performance can be extended beyond individual homes and buildings to the wider context of neighbourhoods and communities.

Regulations in the Building Industry are becoming increasingly complex and involve more than one technical area, covering products, components and project implementations. They also play an important role in ensuring the quality of a building, and to minimize its environmental impact. Control or conformance checking are becoming more complex every...

New information and advanced computer technologies today provide relevant powerful and reliable tools for PDM, enhancing companies business processes. Nevertheless, their deployment in Inter/Intranet environments becomes increasingly complex. This paper investigates the major ones of these technologies together with their possible inter-working, an...

Distributed client/server architectures nowadays appear as a must for the wide information systems of the future virtual enterprise. At the same time, the continued growth of the Internet/WEB and its associated standard developments leads to new ways of world-wide information communication, distribution and access to information. This paper introdu...

The paper gives a comprehensive description of the OSMOS 1 project. OSMOS aims at providing an infrastructure that brings together, and promote co-operation between actors and companies on construction projects. In particular, an emphasis is put on developing an information infrastructure that enable SMEs to be more closely integrated on projects,...

This paper presents a framework for building distributed CORBA components in. The new CORBA Component Model promoted by the OMG is briefly introduced. According to this specification, a component framework with its accompanying tools is depicted. Services offered to developers are summarised. This papers show how this framework is well suited for b...

This paper presents an ontological method aimed at the capitalisation and organisation of conformance-related knowledge for semi-automatic checking model of the conformance of construction projects against a set of conformance requirements. We start by developing a method for knowledge representation of explicit knowledge taking part in checking, a...

This paper reports the results of a feasibility study related to the setting-up of an advanced information platform dedicated to the European construction industry that could become a “one-stop information point” to access all relevant documentation (policies, directives, regulations, standards, research programmes, etc.) issued by the European Uni...

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are expected to have a significant impact on improving energy efficiency in buildings. Currently there is limited understanding of the potential of ICT to reduce energy consumption in buildings. In order to put ICT at the core of the energy efficiency effort and to enable reaching their full potentia...

This paper presents an ontology-based method for the formalisation and application of construction conformance requirements for effective code checking. This research continues our work on the development of a generic model automating the conformance checking of construction projects against building codes. We start from the analysis of the related...

The October 2009 special issue of Journal of Information Technology in Construction presents some papers on building information modeling (BIM) applications, challenges and future directions. Dr Erastos Filos discusses ways in which the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) and facility management sectors can benefit from advances in inf...

CISBAT International Scientific Conference "Renewables in changing climate. From nano to urban scale", Lausanne, Switzerland, 2-3 September 2009, cd-ROM The distributed energy generation concept, where energy is produced close to where it is being used, has been thoroughly investigated in the case of electricity networks. However, until now limited...

This paper presents a method for the adaptation of domain ontologies to different contexts and user profiles. It is applied to the modeling of conformity checking in construction. Considering a method we have developed to acquire and represent the expert knowledge involved in the conformity checking process, we highlight the need to reduce the gap...

This paper presents a formal method for the development of the domain ontology for different user profiles in the context of conformity checking in construction, which is developed to enrich our conformity-checking model. We start by describing our research domain: the conformity-checking in construction. Then we discuss some ontology-based approac...

This paper presents an ontological method aimed at the capitalization of expert knowledge in the context of semi-automatic checking model of the conformity of construction projects against a set of construction norms. The efficiency of our ontology-based reasoning model relies on two keystones. First, it is based on the matching of construction pro...

Information technology tools and methods have been in use in building industry for over three decades. Utilization of IT tools such as computer-aided design applications in the building design phase is pervasive. However, CAD drawings do not suffice the requirements of effective building models. IAI IFC models have been introduced as means of provi...

Cet article présente un modèle pour le contrôle semi-automatique dela conformité d'un projet de construction par rapport aux normes du bâtiment. Les projets de construction sont décrits par des graphes RDF et les normes par des requêtes SPARQL. Notre approche se base sur l'appariement des représentations des requêtes de conformité avec celles des p...

This paper presents an ontological method and a corresponding system C3R aimed to semi-automatically check the conformity of a construction project represented by RDF graph against a set of construction norms formalized as SPARQL queries. Our conformity-checking model has a two-level structure: the reasoning relies on matching of these queries and...

This paper presents an ontological method aimed at semi-automatic checking the conformity of a construction project represented by RDF graph against a set of construction norms formalized as SPARQL queries. The reasoning is modeled by the matching of RDF representations of construction projects to SPARQL conformity queries. We integrate meta-knowle...

This paper tackles the problem of assisting the steering distributed design processes in architecture. It suggests a macro model oriented steering, based on breakpoints notion borrowed from computer field. We formalize the use of breakpoint into process based on two notions: Concern Situation and Aimed Situation. A first software implementation is...

This paper gives an overview of a formal ontological approach of conformance models for regulations in Construction aiming at answering the research question: "is an IFC-represented building project compliant to a set of construction rules?" The study analyses three key subtasks: (i) transformation of the IFC of the construction project; (ii) regul...

he development of Controlled Vocabularies (CV’s) - dictionaries, classifications, taxonomies and ontologies - has been the focus of many research initiatives around the world targeting the Construction sector. Bringing experience of several pan-European initiatives over the past decade and more, the authors highlight milestones on the path of evolu...

In the last 40 years, the development of Controlled Vocabularies (CVs) such as dictionaries, classifications, taxonomies, and of course the scary and appealing ontologies, has been the focus of many research projects targeting the Construction sector around the world. Being involved in several pan-European initiatives, the authros of this paper int...

The paper provides a synthesis of the construction industry needs and requirements in relation to the adoption and use of information and communication technologies ICT. This is based, on the one hand, on existing research and technology development initiatives commissioned at a national and European level, and, on the other, on a wide consultation...

This paper proposes an application of fuzzy logic to assess the quality of (semantic) mappings linking concepts from two Semantic Resources5. The “fuzzification process”, i.e., the way of modelling fuzzy membership functions and assigning membership, is based on the definition of the concepts semantically mapped, as well as on the common semantics...

One of the main challenges that must be taken up by many industries in the coming years is to allow fast and flexible production of complex products that meet customer's requirements in an optimised way. We present here a new research approach allowing ICT-supported engineering of complex products that consists in an optimised assembly of partially...

This paper presents the framework to support the interoperability among Semantic Resources (SRs) proposed by the FUNSIEC project. FUNSIEC aims at studying the feasibility of building and maintaining an Open Semantic Infrastructure for the European Construction Sector (OSIECS). FUNSIEC adopted a layered approach where the SRs are mapped at the meta-...

This paper presents a modelling of Design Process in Architecture: DPA. The goal of this modelling is to control the DPA. This modelling of DPA is based on a process-oriented approach of DPA. It is extended by a suggestion of a software architecture to steer DPA. Thus we State the foundations of a future tool, a kind of "manufacture software" able...

This paper presents the current status of the FUNSIEC project3, which is a feasibility project that aims at evaluating the potential use of Semantic Resources4 (SRs) in e-business matters, through the development of the Open Semantic Infrastructure for the European Construction Sector (OSIECS). This infrastructure is designed within the scope of th...

This paper presents the current status of the FUNSIEC project3, which is a feasibility project that aims at evaluating the potential use of Semantic Resources4 (SRs) in e-business matters, through the development of the Open Semantic Infrastructure for the European Construction Sector (OSIECS). This infrastructure is designed within the scope of th...

This paper presents the framework to support the interoperability among Semantic Resources (SRs) proposed by the FUNSIEC project. FUNSIEC aims at studying the feasibility of building and maintaining an Open Semantic Infrastructure for the European Construction Sector (OSIECS). FUNSIEC adopted a layered approach where the SRs are mapped at the meta-...

This study presents a brainstorming on the dynamics of the design process in architecture. It is motivated by the needs and the evolution of the professional practice, and based on their study; it is exposed to allow us to learn the appropriate lessons for a future modeling of this dynamics. We will introduce our working hypothesis of the component...

To support research in the building sector and in order to help it move towards a new digital economy, the European Commission under the 5th Framework initiative, especially the IST programme, funded various RTD projects. The opportunity to bring these IST projects together was acknowledged so that stronger links can be created under a clustering u...

The COLLABORATOR project has developed a synchronous collaborative web- based system dedicated to mobile workers and virtual teams for the construction industry. This paper describes the work related to the specification, development and assessment of the aforementioned solution, emphasising the impact on the working practices. Discussing the techn...

The aim of the paper is to give a synthesis of current Research and Technological Development (RTD) initiatives and results in Europe in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). These initiatives have the aim to set-up an agenda for future RTD, so as to ensure that, in the future, all European companies from the building and civ...

A significant amount of research and development has been funded but the IST fifth framework programme in the domain of construction ICT. Most of these efforts have centred on the elicitation of industrial requirements, specification of solutions, development of applications, and deployment of the same for construction organisations operating under...

This papers presents the development of Knowledge Management (KM) environment, e-CKMI, tailored the Building and Construction (BC) sector in Europe. The e-CKMI is a Web-centred and ontology-enabled solution that has been implemented following the Web services model. The functional, architectural, and technical requirements adopted to guide the deve...

Ce document s'intéresse à l'introduction puis à la possible généralisation de l'usage de la norme STEP dans le secteur du bâtiment, ce dans le contexte de l'avènement de nouvelles formes d'entreprises dites virtuelles, i.e. constituées de partenaires qui se regroupent pour des périodes déterminées correspondant à l'exécution de projets spécifiques.

The paper focuses upon the contribution which adequate use of the latest development in Information and Communication Technologies can make to the enhancement, development and improvement of professional expertise in the Construction domain. The paper is based on the e-COGNOS project, which aims at specifying and developing an open model-based infr...

Roadcon is a new twelve-month EU-funded research project to develop a 'roadmap' for implementing information and communication technology in the construction industry during the next 20 years, It, is aiming, and less has the potential, to lead to an 'Integrated Initiative' under the sixth European framework, programme for research involving a criti...

Funding bodies in general, and the European Commission in particular, have for over a decade funded project centred Research and Technology Development (RTD) efforts. While these have traditionally operated in isolation with little co-operation and cross-fertilization of results, a crucial requirement has emerged, following the latest advances in I...

This paper describes the ontology-based platform called e-COGNOS Knowledge Management Infrastructure (e-CKMI), which has been developed in the context of the e-COGNOS IST project. The e-CKMI is intended to support Knowledge Management (KM) in the Building and Construction (BC) industry. One key element in the e-CKMI architecture is the e-COGNOS Ont...

This paper describes the e-COGNOS Knowledge Management Infrastructure (e-CKMI) which has been developed in the context of the e-COGNOS IST project aiming at to support KM in the Building and Construction (BC) industry. The e-COGNOS approach is based on the fact that knowledge in BC industry can be classified into three main categories, namely the D...

This paper describes the ontology-enabled approach adopted by the e-COGNOS IST project in order to support the Knowledge Management in the Building and Construction industry. The e-COGNOS approach is based on two complementary perspectives, namely managerial and IT-related, where the IT-related side comprises the development of the e-COGNOS Knowled...

The major project goal of the ISTforCE project is to provide an open, human-centered Web-based collaboration environment which supports concurrent engineering while working on multiple projects simultaneously and offers easy access to specialized engineering services distributed over the Web. Normally, engineering applications are bought and then i...

This paper first gives a synthesised investigation of the requirements for a standardised open infrastructure, relying on now available distributed objects systems, and integrating in a flexible way the enterprise business model through the emerging concept of Business Objects (BOs), that allows systems designers to put the stress on the business t...

Networking technology, object-oriented distributed systems, workflow mechanisms and the WEB are now the obvious foundations for complex information management and concurrent engineering in the distributed virtual enterprises to come. Moreover, the combination of these rapidly evolving technologies are to be done in compliance with Product Data Tech...

This document is a public brochure that support the vision of the VEGA project and was made available in various European languages, including French as depicted in the document attached.

The VEGA1 project aims to establish an information infrastructure which supports the technical and business operations of virtual or extended enterprises. GroupWare tools and distributed architectures are developed in compliance with product data technology standardization activities in line with the current specifications coming from the Object Ma...

The VEGA 1 project aims to establish an information infrastructure which supports the technical and business operations of virtual or extended enterprises. GroupWare tools and distributed architectures are developed in compliance with product data technology standardisation activities in line with the current specifications coming from the Object M...