Source EuropeInnova, 10/2006
The STAND-INN project with the full title 'CA 031133-Integration of building standards into business processes using IFC open standards to enhance innovation and sustainable development' got off to a successful start at its kick-off meeting in Valencia 11-12. September.
The 2-day meeting that were attended by representatives from almost all 33 members, was split in the administrative, the technical - and the detailed technical session, were all aspects of the project were dealt with.
The strategically very important building and construction (B&C) industry is now facing a paradigm shift, from where the buildings and building products are no longer considered only as physical objects, but are rather seen as service arenas designed to facilitate management of life cycle performance and value adding services to meet changing end user needs.
This paradigm shift, coupled with the drive for customer orientation, sustainability and ICT deployment is regarded as the key drivers for change and improvement in the B&C sector.
New manufacturing processes based on the IFC standards will create new and more efficient business processes, thus facilitating the construction sectors great potential for cost reduction and productivity increase, consequently, improving the competitiveness of the B&C industry.
The suite of IFC standards for shared information exchange has the potential to change the entire B&C industry. These standards form the foundation and structure for effective e-collaboration practices, B2B and B2C exchanges, and B2A/building permit and public tendering procedures.
The vision of the project is thus to improve the business processes for innovative design of sustainable new buildings/- products and -services by bringing together
- the set of open IFC/IFD/IFG standards for improved information exchange/interoperability in the building life-cycle, and
- new standards for sustainable development
The project Consortium comprise 28 members from 11 European countries and with 5 European(World wide) networks, entailing major stakeholders from industry including SMEs, users, R&D and standardisation organizations, as well as 2 partners from China and 1 from Australia.
