Digital twins are already an established technology in many industries. They are now becoming increasingly important for building management. But what is the added value of digital twins for the building industry, or are they just a new buzz?
A digital twin for buildings is a virtual replica of a physical built asset, created using advanced visualisation techniques like BIM or 3D point clouds, and updated with real-time data. Essentially, it acts as a dynamic, data-driven mirror of the real-world building.
There are several stages of a digital twin:
- The Static Twin: Only a static visualisation.
- The Detailed Twin: Linked with additional data.
- The As-Built Twin: Reflects the actual implementation.
- The Sensored Twin: Updated with real-time data from IoT sensors.
- The Responsive Twin: Reflects responsive action in the physical twin.
- The Adaptive Twin: Simulates scenarios semi-automatically.
- The Intelligent Twin: Makes decisions fully autonomously.
While the static, detailed and as-built twin are already common use in BIM projects, they are still just preliminary stages of a real digital twin.
The intelligent twin is more of a future vision that still requires further development and discussion.
However, the sensored, responsive and adaptive twin are already operational stages of a full digital twin for the building industry that can be handled by advanced digital twin solutions.
Addressing industry challenges
The building industry urgently needs innovative solutions to address the diverse challenges it faces.
Cost pressures are enormous, with 46%* of real estate firms cutting expenses or planning further reductions.
At the same time, the requirements for meeting sustainability-related regulations are increasing. 59% of real estate firms report that they don’t have the data, processes or internal controls to comply with these regulations.
These challenges must be overcome with fewer resources. That’s why 61% of real estate firms are considering outsourcing operational capabilities.
Technology can play a big role here, but 61% of global real estate owners are still dependent on legacy infrastructure.
The building industry, therefore, needs innovative technical solutions that can better connect and evaluate data, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Full digital twins, as described above, can fulfil these requirements.
Digital twins visualise buildings and data
The visualisation capabilities of digital twin platforms are not limited to displaying a 3D model.
Platforms like dTwin by Nemetschek connect BIM models with point clouds generated by 3D laser scanners and 360° photogrammetric data. This enables users to choose their preferred data sources and view a complete, holistic representation of a building.
But there’s more: connected with real-time data from IoT sensors, digital twin platforms can visualise this data in 3D, for example, through heatmaps. This allows operators to easily identify areas where energy is being wasted.
Digital twins make data understandable
Many companies already collect vast amounts of data about their buildings. However, this data is often siloed and unconnected. Digital twin platforms unlock the potential of this data by collecting it from any source, format or device, and putting it into context.
This enables the connection of data from IoT sensors, technical systems, building management systems and facility management systems, providing insights that siloed data cannot. This makes it possible to create comprehensive dashboards and reports, such as those required for ESG (Environmental, social and governance) reporting.
Digital twins optimise buildings
The real power of digital twins goes beyond visualisation and data aggregation. They can monitor, simulate, predict and optimise. Digital twin platforms can identify problems and anomalies by analysing and comparing the large volumes of available data. They can simulate various scenarios and incidents, helping to find the best solutions.
Additionally, they can evaluate a building’s past and present to predict its future. Ultimately, this leads to better, data-driven decision-making and improved building performance.
These benefits can be realised through various use cases, including:
- Energy management: A digital twin can identify inefficiencies and suggest optimisations.
- Predictive maintenance: A digital twin can predict when equipment is likely to fail, enabling proactive maintenance before issues arise.
- Space utilisation: A digital twin can track real-time occupancy levels and usage patterns to optimise floorplans and reallocate space.
- Remote inspections: Building managers can remotely access a digital twin to monitor building systems and track performance from anywhere.
- Green building certification: Digital twins track environmental performance, including energy consumption, water usage and carbon emissions.
- Risk management: Digital twins can simulate emergency scenarios, such as fires, floods or structural failures, to test evacuation plans and improve safety.
- Smart building automation: Digital twins can feed real-time data into building automation systems, allowing dynamic control of lighting, temperature and ventilation based on occupancy patterns.
Digital Twins for the building industry are not only adding value to building management. Platforms like dTwin by Nemetschek are connecting all systems and data in one, improving numerous crucial use cases. The technology is already here.
*All numbers are from the 2024 Commercial Real Estate Outlook by Deloitte
*Please note that this is a commercial profile.
