"Every construction decision leaves a footprint that remains with a building for decades. Choosing materials, construction systems, or design strategies is no longer determined solely by cost or technical performance, but also by environmental impact and contribution to the circular economy. To make better decisions, the construction sector needs tools capable of transforming data into useful and actionable knowledge."
Tatiana Quintero
The transition towards a decarbonised building stock requires reliable and accessible data. While this was previously managed through physical blueprints, the digital transformation of the environment has led to an alternative: building information modelling (BIM), a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets. Yet, much of the required information is still fragmented across different tools, databases, and stakeholders throughout the sector.
To address this challenge, the INBUILT project is developing a digital platform that consolidates all the relevant data. It combines information on materials, building information models, environmental indicators, and costs within a single environment, and transforms these sources into useful knowledge for architects, engineers, manufacturers, developers, and public authorities.
From data to decisions: the INBUILT digital platform
Take an architect who has to choose the most sustainable product or a municipal planner who needs to know whether their choices support the city's climate and circularity goals. They both need access to reliable data. The INBUILT digital platform is being developed to help them evaluate the impact of different design decisions from the earliest stages of a project.
The platform integrates BIM models with construction databases such as BEDEC (ITeC database of construction elements), environmental assessment tools, and life cycle assessment methodologies. This makes it possible not only to visualise buildings and innovative products, but also to compare different construction solutions and analyse their performance from environmental and economic perspectives.
Completion of the platform is planned for late 2027, but several key functionalities have already been implemented, including the visualisation of INBUILT demonstration buildings, the integration of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and Revit files (RVT) models, the INBUILT innovative products library, and access to the technical and environmental information associated with these products.
The platform has been designed to provide environmental, economic, and circularity indicators aligned with recognised European methodologies. This includes the integration of life cycle assessment results derived from EN 15804 +A2 to generate indicators at building level helping accelerate the adoption of low-carbon innovative materials and circular economy strategies across the construction sector.
What’s next for the platform
Future developments will expand the platform’s analytical capabilities through the incorporation of new sustainability indicators, advanced scenario comparison tools, and functionalities associated with the material passport, a digital record that captures key information about the materials incorporated within a building. These functionalities will enable users to document and trace material data, improve transparency across the value chain, and facilitate the identification of materials that retain value beyond a building’s initial use phase.
Beyond the results achieved during the project, INBUILT's long-term vision is to establish a platform that brings digitalisation, sustainability, and circular economy principles closer to the wider construction sector, helping ensure that the decisions made today contribute to more resilient, efficient, and climate-ready buildings tomorrow.
