This includes the structure of information and the representations it contains, the purpose of managing information in these representations and the situations in which the representations are used. The fourth part of the book contains the most important changes from the first edition.
DIGITIZATION
The book begins with some key features of the information age: how the digital revolution not only changed the amount of information stored, but also attitudes towards information. Space restrictions were lifted with the rise of home computers and the invention of the Internet.
INFORMATION AND DIGITIZATION
From concern, the abundance of information we produce and consume has turned into opportunity. Such data, although essential to information processing operations, is largely invisible to the end user and therefore easy to ignore if one focuses primarily on the products rather than the entire chain of technologies involved in a task.
EFFECTS OF DIGITAL INFORMATION
More and more facts, events and opinions are becoming common knowledge, from what is happening around the world today to new interpretations of the past, including absurd conspiracy theories. Another cardinal effect is that we are no longer the center of the information world, the sole or ultimate owner and processor of information.
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Specify how much of the above data is stored or distributed on the Internet and how much remains only on personal storage devices (hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, etc.) 3. Calculations and predictions of information collected by human societies can be found at : Rider, F., 1944, The researcher and the future of the research library.
PRIVATE VERSUS BUSINESS
DIGITAL UPTAKE
INFORMATION EXPLOSION IN AECO
This also affects basic digitization, such as CAD and BIM: why invest in well-structured and accurate models if the only purpose of the software is to produce drawings on paper. Consequently, AECO seems to share many of the problems of the digital information explosion without enjoying the proper benefits of the information processing possibilities of the digital age.
ORIGINS AND OUTCOMES
This reveals the biggest problems of this file-flooded information landscape: more than the amount of information, file sizes and inefficient software, they are redundancy (multiple files covering the same topics with significant overlap), lack of coherence (weak conceptual and operational links between these files) and low consistency (different descriptions of the same aspects in different files and different descriptions of related aspects).
BIM: RADICAL INTENTIONS
LIMITATIONS AND NECESSITIES
That such problems are not limited to AECO is not a consolation, but a further danger: studies of human decision-making show that people make decisions intuitively, based on readily available rather than necessary, well-structured information, even in sensitive, high-risk, high-profit areas such as finance. This information, structured in transparent and operational descriptions of a task and its context, is the real goal for digitization in any AECO project: it returns human-computer partnerships, where machines support human decision-making through extensive data collection, analysis and representation.
REPRESENTATION
SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS
It introduces graphs to describe spatial symbolic representations (which presupposes knowledge of the contents of Annex I) and presents some advantages of such mathematical foundations. Decimal numbers, for example, are considered appropriate for humans because we have ten fingers to use to help us calculate.
SYMBOLS AND THINGS
SPATIAL SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS
Any section of the rail network connecting two stations of the same line is represented by a line symbol of that line. On a map of a subway line (i.e. the sub-graph consisting of the vertices and edges associated with the line), this order is a good indication of chances of crossing over to other lines, as well as how busy the line and its stations are could be if passengers make use of these options.
PARADIGMATIC AND SYNTAGMATIC DIMENSIONS
Symbolic descriptions have a paradigmatic and a syntagmatic dimension, related respectively to the symbols they contain and the order in which the symbols are entered in the description. Interpretation of a description relies primarily on the paradigmatic dimension, while management is strongly related to the syntagmatic dimension.
PICTORIAL REPRESENTATIONS AND GEOMETRY
For many, the primary function of digital building renderings, including not only CAD but also BIM, is the production of conventional analogue drawings either on paper (printouts) or as digital facsimiles (eg a PDF of a floor plan). For example, most people recognize the same number of spaces on a paper floor plan; scanning the floor plan transforms it into a computer file, but computers generally only recognize it as a set of pixels.
VISUAL PERCEPTION AND RECOGNITION
Colonnade in ground plan: recognition of the columns as a group is based on their arrangement and similarity. Yet most people with a basic understanding of building drawings are able to recognize the spaces in a floor plan (infer them from the bounding building elements) with precision, accuracy, and reliability (Figure 5).
ABSTRACTION AND INCOMPLETENESS
A basic example is dotted lines: even if half of the line is missing, the human visual system invariably recognizes the complete lines and the shapes they form (Figure 11). This is related to a general tendency of the human visual system to rely on points of maximum curvature in the outline of shapes.2 Corners, in particular, are very important: the presence of corners is often sufficient for the perception of illusory figures (Figure 12). .
IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS
In short, one of the key advantages of symbolic representations is the superiority of symbols and the reduction of confusion between symbols and execution mechanisms. The reliance of analog representations of a building on geometry leads to an overemphasis on implementation mechanisms such as graphical elements, even in digital environments.
SYMBOLS AND RELATIONS IN BIM
Many of the relationships between symbols are present in BIM, even if they are not always obvious or readily accessible. A door schedule in BIM shows that each door is aware of the spaces it connects.
BIM SYMBOLS AND THINGS
Second, BIM retains some of the geometric bias of earlier building representations, for example in defining elements such as walls that have a fixed cross-section but variable length or shape. BIM usually defines symbols based on the most fundamental primitives in this form.
ABSTRACTION AND GROUPING IN BIM
Changing the value of the parameter automatically changes the length of all related walls. The specificity of these decisions and of the resulting representations is not accidental or conventional.
IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS IN BIM
Similarly, the specificity of a building representation should be as high as the available information allows. Our need for information determines the level of abstraction at which we consider the representation, as well as actions that allow us to increase the specificity of some of its parts.
MODELS AS GRAPHS
The host relationship means that some of the properties of the wall are inherited by the window. Symbols in BIM integrate all properties of the symbolized entities, which determine their pictorial appearance.
INFORMATION
THEORIES AND DEFINITIONS
SYNTACTIC, SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC THEORIES
In this book, we focus on data, information and their connection in the operational context of digital representations of buildings. Rather than making unfounded claims about knowledge and performance, we focus on more modest IM-related goals: understanding construction information, quality and its flows, and organizing them in ways that can help AECO make informed decisions, in the hope that informed also means better.
A SEMANTIC THEORY FOR BUILDING INFORMATION
A new state of the floor plan: the coffee stain is neither well formed nor meaningful in the context of a line drawing. In the context of analogous building representations such as floor plans (Figure 5), lines denoting building elements are primary data.
BIM, INFORMATION AND DATA
In the different views and windows of the BIM software, the properties of each symbol, either instance (Figures 16 and 18) or type (Figure 17), can be easily found. This extends to relationships between window or door properties and adjacent spaces, e.g.
SYMBOLS AND THEIR PROPERTIES IN CONTEXT
In the example of a window and the wall that hosts it, some properties of the window, such as orientation, are inherited from the corresponding properties of the host element (Figure 19). Identify the semantic data types in the information box of a Wikipedia biographical lemma (the summary panel at the top right), e.g.
INFORMATION SOURCES
The same applies to a photo of part of the building during construction or use. This too needs to be linked to BIM as a link between the digital file of the photo and relevant symbols in the model (Figure 1) or even mapped as a decal on the symbols (Figure 2).
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT GOALS
In BIM, this means augmenting the basic model configuration (site plan, floor levels, grids etc.) with constraints from planning regulations (eg in the form of the permitted building envelope), using information from the brief and restrictions on the type of building elements that are acceptable in the model (eg in relation to the fire rating of the building.). Since derivative data can be produced from the primary when needed, it should not be prioritized - in many cases, it should not be stored at all.
MANAGEMENT
The chapter introduces the dual-process theory and explains its relevance to decision-making in AECO. It presents the foundations of the theory and a series of illusions, biases and fallacies that stem from our cognitive limitations.
DUAL-PROCESS THEORY
This is because Type 1 processes represent categories with prototypes or typical examples. Still other times it's anti-data, like a pen that doesn't write.
COGNITIVE ILLUSIONS, BIASES, FALLACIES AND FAILURES
For example, any decision to repair a damaged car must depend on the technical and economic feasibility of the repairs, in relation to the value and utility of the car. Unfortunately, the fluency with which Type 1 thinking finds solutions to simple problems leads us to think we have found adequate solutions to the complex ones they have replaced.
DUAL PROCESSES AND INFORMATION
AECO AND DUAL-PROCESS THEORY
It leads to an arrogant, persistent repetition of the same mistakes, coupled with a lack of interest in thorough analysis that can reveal what is going wrong. For example, policy makers propose intensified, denser and higher housing construction in the Dutch Randstad to meet demand without linking this to other issues, such as environmental concerns (e.g. the negative effects of urban heat islands) or transport problems.
THE SOCIAL AND INFORMATION SIDES
In most cases, it is the emphasis on the social side of management and the power games it involves that set the conditions, underestimating the information side and its importance for decision-making. Give three examples that do not fit the curve, including specific information and the resulting curve.
PROCESS DESCRIPTIONS
This chapter explains how a process can be described as a graph of tasks that provides overview and supports reliable planning and effective guidance for each task and throughout the process. What issues can be addressed in these schemes, focusing on the unwanted products of Type 1 thinking, so that the social side of management becomes both more specific and free of cognitive illusions and fallacies.
FLOWCHARTS
These are responsible for the budget, the design, the cost estimate and the evaluation of the estimate, leading to either feedback to the design (usually to lower the cost) or acceptance of the design as it is. This expresses the iterative character of design: the cost evaluation can be repeated a number of times, each leading to design improvements, until the evaluation finally gives approval of the design.
TESTING PROCESS DIAGRAMS
After considering each perspective separately, we need to investigate how they come together in a process flow simulation. Many conflicts in a process are due to bad timing and the need to rush to achieve the flow of the process.
OVERCOMING COGNITIVE LIMITATIONS
If a waiver is likely, the process diagram should also include feedback to the regulations. For example, the budget in Figure 2 is based on assumptions that can go unchallenged if all that matters is that the design conforms to the budget.
PROCESS OPERATIONALIZATION
How the calculation is made (with a computer, a calculator, an abacus or mentally) is usually a matter for the actor, their abilities in relation to the demands of the task and applicable professional standards. Such specificity is necessary for the informational side of management: guiding and controlling a process based on what actors in it produce and consume.
FROM PROCESS TO INFORMATION DIAGRAM: I-P-O
From process to information diagram: The I-P-O diagram is overlaid on each task in the process diagram (middle), resulting in the graph expanding with a new source and terminal, and an input/output node between the two tasks (right ). One such elaboration is the analysis from the design node in the process diagram to a sequence of nodes (design, floor plan, floor areas per type of use) in the information diagram.
INFORMATION DIAGRAMS FOR BIM
While generally the flow is the same in both diagrams, the higher specificity of the information diagram can lead to new insights and local elaborations or changes in process design. Therefore, input to the model (including feedback) should not be associated with views, but with symbols in the model.
TOLERANCES
TESTING INFORMATION DIAGRAMS
It should always be kept in mind that any partial treatment of the process is merely for convenience and not to divide the process into artificially separate modules. If the process is truly modular, each module should be treated as a separate process to verify its self-sufficiency.
PROCESS VALIDATION
Thus, when translating a task into information instances, always consider what is already available in the process (information and processing tools), especially with respect to the accuracy requirements of each task. To express the process in terms of information actions and transactions yields more objective, comprehensive and practical arguments why a.
VERACITY
INFORMATION DIAGRAMS IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Add symbols, attributes, and relationships to the information diagram of Figure 6 (especially regarding feedback). Make an information diagram for Figure 6 in the previous chapter (the "more comprehensive process diagram").
EXERCISES
