Open HBIM: IFC-Based Virtualization of Architectural Heritage

The widespread usage of BIM for the study (HBIM) of architectural heritage (AH) advocates for a critical consideration of how models are built, in relation to information sharing and the need to carry out multiple disciplinary analyses from a single model. This Open HBIM is made possible by shared and standardized ontologies, such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). IFC, originally thought for new buildings, is a well-known open standard, currently used as a sharing format in BIM authoring software. The paper proposes a virtualization (model definition) procedure of AH organized in ‘semantic segmentation’ (modular and systematic decomposition) and ‘semantic enrichment’ (relation definition and property attribution) entirely based on IFC and open-source software (Blender-Bonsai, Python programming language). The resulting Open HBIM of a simple heritage building appeared as a data rich environment, easily shareable and ready for disciplinary analyses.