Improving Metadata of Non-Fungible Tokens for Multipurpose BIM Data Distribution

Tomoya Izumi, Keisuke Toyoda

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, IFC, Metadata, Blockchain, Non-Fungible Token, Data Retrieval

Abstract:

In the rapidly advancing digitization of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, end-users of buildings are seeking a diverse supply of Building Information Modeling (BIM) data to meet their intended use. However, in a Common Data Environment (CDE) managed by a specific organization, the project-oriented platform philosophy, management structure, and security risks make it difficult to release and distribute data to third parties other than project members. One potential solution is the public release of BIM data using blockchain technology. However, there is insufficient research on how to record the contents of large volumes of BIM data in a blockchain and improve data searchability from users and applications.
Therefore, this paper proposes a metadata, IFC Catalog, created by summarizing information from Industrial Foundation Classes (IFC), a standard specification for BIM data representation, with the perspective of minting it as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). The IFC Catalog consists of JSON data composed of Static Fields extracted from IFC and Custom Fields tailored to the purpose of the data. It is lighter in comparison to the BIM data itself, allowing users to easily review its content in applications for searching, buying, and managing NFTs. In the created minimum viable product, it was possible to display information from IFC files recorded in the IFC Catalog on the application interface with simple controls. This implementation demonstrated that large volumes of BIM data can be stored using blockchain technologies and in doing so, improved the data searchability.