Reversible BIM

Reversible BIM is a digital tool that provides insight into the potential of buildings to be deconstructed with high recovery and reuse of materials in mind.

Reversible BIM is a 3D building tool based on Model Durmisevic that performs digital reversibility assessment of building structures and measures reuse potential of the building and its materials. To do this, the model analyzes relations and dependencies that individual elements have within a building structure. With deconstruction of existing buildings in mind the reuse potential of materials is mainly determined by their technical and physical dependencies within a building structure. These dependencies reflect their hierarchical position.

8 indicators assess the reversibility of the building. Indicators of technical and physical dependencies have a main impact on the recovery of high value materials. The assessment of the indicators result in a reuse potential score. A number between 0.1 and 0.9. Reversible BIM uses color codes from green – 0.9 – to red – 0.1 – to visualize assessment of reuse potential.

Reversible BIM relies on 3D point cloud files from 3D scanning. Point cloud data is imported into Revit as the main modeling reference. Point cloud files illustrate the scanned surfaces of the building. 3D scanning files are mapped with the technical drawings in the models which provide additional information not included in the point cloud. For example, the layers between the scanned surfaces. Mapping of point cloud files to the technical drawings is verified on site when needed. Once the geometry has been verified, the basic BIM model is created according to the Reversible Building methodology and taking care that all elements are clustered according to their main building function, and can be counted and their relations analyzed.

After the basic BIM is created, Reversible BIM plugins are used to provide additional information. The user assigns a connection type from the standardized list to each pair of connected elements. All list of all connections of an element is visible in the View Element Data window. Once connections are assigned, a color-coded view based on the connection type is reported. A special tool has been developed to enable the user to assign the appropriate assembly sequence number to each element and include it in parallel assembly groups. 3D Viewer enables non-Revit users to view the model and contained information through several custom-made views that reflect Reversible BIM principles.

Besideds information about the type of element, its position, its dimensions, etc., 3D Viewer is color-coded. The color coding is based on the element functions. This assembly sequence, number of relations between elements, reversibility and Reuse Potential of the materials. The reversible BIM tool currently provides several types of reports in graphical or numerical form, such as Relational Graph that visualizes all relationships between elements. The graph is color-coded and reflects the reuse potential and number of connections per element. Color-coded views based on number of connections, reuse potential, list of all connections made during the assembly of an element.

Reversible BIM includes useful data outputs for decision-makers such as position, dimensions, m2 and volume, and most important: the Reuse Potential of the material. The Reuse Potential of material score corresponds with the reuse options of material and gives an indication of the embodied value of the material. Finally, a BIM object library of all elements with high reuse potential is made available to the architects. Such catalogs will boost reapplication of valuable materials in new designs.