Digitisation of Shopping Centres - From BIM to the Digital TwinDigitisation of Shopping Centres - From BIM to the Digital Twin BIM2digitalTWIN

Digital methods and tools, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the digitalTWIN, are seen as having great potential for increasing information availability and efficiency, as a workshop held in November 2017 by the German Council of Shopping Places (GCSP) and the University of Wuppertal (BUW) revealed. To concretise and test the initially conceptual ideas, the GCSP and BUW initiated the joint project BIM2digitalTWIN.

The project investigated and developed the digital handling of real estate asset management processes with a special focus on retail properties together with practice and technology partners. Technical support was provided by the practice partners NUVEEN Real Estate, ECE, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and WISAG, in the area of BIM and process management by Mondrian and BUW, and the technology partners Architrave and SAP. The following aspects were implemented within the project:

For the PEP Munich pilot project, a building data model (3D model of the building, enriched with information on areas, types of use, components and facilities, among other things) was created.

The building data model could be imported into the SAP Cloud for Real Estate software designed for real estate management and optimisation. Imported data from the building data model on (among other things) areas, types of use and designations are available in the SAP Cloud for Real Estate software and can be used in it.

Supplementary software-specific application areas with a focus on retail real estate were created in the form of prototypes and mockups.

Information requirements for building data models were defined and published as so-called "BIM profiles".

Learn more in our project video or contact Matthias Kaufhold kaufhold[at]uni-wuppertal.de if you are interested.