An information-based approach to “Digital Twins”

Résumé En

Information-based issues are becoming important in all areas. This change has revolutionized workflows, processes, and methodologies in several disciplines (Rifkin, 2012). In the construction field, the digital and information revolution has given rise to BIM technologies, which have changed the processes of design, construction, and building management (Tulenheimo, 2015). This article sheds light on the current construction processes from a different perspective through the analysis of three study cases. Until now, building projects were mainly analyzed through their plans and geometry. We suggest that BIM projects should also be studied through the analysis of the information stored in the "digital twin" of the building. We consider a digital twin as a database linked to the building's digital geometry. We make the hypothesis that the study of this database and the way in which the actor's structure and manage this information, will give a better insight on how functions these buildings.