The digital workflow of the Smart Swap Building: validation of information-representation methods and tools for the housing renewal process innovation

The main challenge of Smart Swap Building project, carried out in collaboration with Aster and TekneHub Laboratory by Construction Platform of Emilia-Romagna High Technology Network, was to identify possible solutions to the crisis that is severely affecting the construction industry, through new approaches to urban regeneration based on housing refurbishment and soil consumption reduction. The recent downturn in the housing market has generated a significant amount of unsold assets. The swap term, borrowed from finance field, indicate the flow exchange between two counterparts: Smart Swap Building wants to use the unsold housing stock as temporary accommodation for the inhabitants of the areas in which a renewal program take place. For this reason, the Smart Swap Building project has the strong need to define a set of advanced information tools to support the complex decision-making process, integrating different skills in different stages of the building life cycle. The overall objective of this doctoral research is to evaluate the feasibility of BIM tools adoption in the Smart Swap Building workflow. The representative tool is an integrated part of the design process and because product innovations are strictly connected to the building processes, from design to construction, to management, it becomes itself an element of project quality, allowing more sustainable and aware choices.