Room Description 2.0

When a building is to be erected, public or private, the construction process is guided through several differentstages: prelimin ary study, program, design, production, and follow-up. Each stage results in the submission of documents such as descriptions and drawings.

The stages are complex with many involved parties and a great need for coordination for all involved. The complexity and multiple information flows lead to mistakes that cost the real estate sector many billions of Swedish Kronor annually.

The room description is a description document usually drawn up by architects or project developers. It provides a detailed final inventory of all surfaces and products that must be carried out in each individual room within a building project. As part of the description documents, it takes precedence over drawings in the event
of conflicting information. The room description is usually done manually and there are no clear rules for how it should be designed and used. There is also a lack of clarity about who is responsible for the final content of the document.

The person who writes the room description is rarely the same person who projects the drawings and model, which gives rise to mistakes like difficulties in keeping long documents updated with the right information, revisions that require a lot of review, unclear status of decisions, as well as errors from previous projects that are copied in again and again.

The overall aim of the Room Description 2.0 project is to automate the description process in all stages of the construction process and enable, in addition to developers and architects, also administrators and users to benefit from the document. The project is focused on developing a tool to help streamline the industry and improve information flows – with the objective of increasing efficiency to help reduce climate impact, create more equity within the industry and reduce the technical knowledge gap.

By proposing automatisation of the room description process, the Project touches on two of Smart Built Environment's theme areas: Value Chains and Business Models, and Information Structure. Expected results and effects for the project correspond to several of Smart Built Environment's impact goals:

Improved information flow

• Allows use from the earliest stages when financial and environmental requirements are set for the project.
• Lowers the knowledge threshold so that more people choose to actively use the tool.
• Provides better overview of materials and products described, supplemented by images and links.
• Provides publicly available export formats.
• Allows for easier decision-making.

Streamlining

• Scales up and down without losing its value.
• Links information between model and descriptions.
• Clarifies which choices have been approved by the developer.
• Enables quick and accurate revisions.
• Offers simpler review steps.
• Saves time and therefore freeing up time for value-enhancing elements in the
• process.
• Minimizes mistakes based on the human factor.
• Allows better handling of data flows.

Climate perspective

• Facilitates the environmental certification process through connections to various databases for material assessments.
• Overview of current material and product choices facilitates environmental certifications.
• Provides administrators and users with an overview of materials and furnishings in the building before potential reconstruction.
• Is easy to read and an extended user group provides good conditions for life cycle analysis.

Equality

• An easy-to-use tool that can be used by everyone.
• Evens out the difference between small and large players, and also among laymen.

The implementation is divided into three stages and only the first stage is part of the application. In this first stage, a reference group will be identified, data will be collected and analyzed, and finally a mock-up design of Room Description 2.0 will be presented to provide an (early) test and proof of concept feasibility. The mock-up is also used to establish more contacts, and collaboration, and finding possible partners for financial and software development support.

After this first step, the business model will be designed so that intended users have the opportunity to implement Room Description 2.0 in their systems and workflows. The goal is for this tool to become a standard for the future!