A scenario for the development and implementation of a building product model standard

Product models offer a promising method for structuring data describing a building in the databases which will be used in the computer integrated construction process of the next century.

In order to define product model standards which completely describe modern buildings, many years of theoretical and experimental work are needed. In order to ensure industrial backing for the work needed to develop full standards, it seems prudent to organize such work on a step by step basis where partial standards can be agreed on and implemented rather quickly.

In addition to the international work being carried out within the ISO/STEP working group, it is possible to obtain results on a national basis, provided there is a large enough consensus within the construction industry on what ought to be done.

In Finland the basic principles of a building product model, the RATAS-model, have been defined. The model uses a data model consisting of such concepts as objects, attributes, relationships and it describes the building with a five-level abstraction hierarchy starting with the building object. At present a number of prototypes are being developed based on the RATAS-model. These prototypes are developed using different types of application software: relational databases, hypermedia, drafting systems etc., but they all utilize the same conceptual information structure.