School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Research

Digital transformation

We explore new approaches to the design, manufacture, delivery and operation of buildings and infrastructure and examine how emergent technologies such as BIM, digital twin, IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital fabrication can be adapted into current working practices in industry.

RECENT PROJECTS

BIM-Hub

With a fund of £57,959 from the Higher Education Academy to lead an international network of partners and form the BIM-Hub, it was one of only 8 projects funded from 232 applications and was recognised for its innovative use of BIM in education by the CIOB International Innovation and Research Award 2014.

Find out more about BIM-Hub here.

DECONT: Digital Enablers for CONstruction Transformation

A new paradigm for rethinking construction (July 2019 – 31 March 2020; UKRI via TCN+, UCL): working with Constructing Excellence, the CIOB and leading industry partners, we identified hype-free future scenarios for construction and outlined the paradigm shift in business models needed to embrace these new Industry 4.0 technologies.

Find out more here.

3DIR: Three-Dimensional Information Retrieval

Explores how 3D information can be leveraged in computations of relevance when retrieving information linked to 3D artefacts. This research is crucial for making use of building models, with ever more information packed into them. The research continues to make an impact through its Autodesk Revit search engine app which has been downloaded over once per day since it was first released.

Find out more about 3DIR here.

Network FOuNTAIN

The vision is for all stakeholders in Digital Built Britain (DBB) to be able to meet their information needs. With the establishment of concepts such as BIM and Common Data Environments (CDE), built environment design, construction and operation are becoming increasingly information-intensive. This work was acknowledged as influencing the CDBB’s “Developing the Capabilities for a Digital Built Britain” report and “National Digital Twin” project.

Find out more here.

3D Concrete Printing

We have already established ourselves as leaders in the field of digital construction techniques as exemplified by our innovative research into 3D concrete printing. Funded by the EPSRC and IMCRC, we have been developing 3D printing technology for the construction industry for almost a decade.

Find out more here.

UKCRIC National Facility for Infrastructure (N-FIC)

We have been awarded £1.3M worth of equipment to work on modern methods of delivery and maintenance of infrastructure, underpinned by the vision of transforming and modernising the construction industry.

Find out more here.

Design4Energy

Aims to develop an innovative Integrated Evolutionary Design Methodology that can allow the stakeholders to predict the current and future energy efficiency of buildings (both at individual level and neighbourhood level) and make better-informed decisions in optimising the energy performance at building life cycle level, including operation and maintenance.

Find out more here.

EEBERS (EEB ICT ClustERS)

Focuses on identifying opportunities for synergies in ICT related RTD in the EeB (energy-efficient buildings) domain and engaging stakeholders in networking for future RTD and exploitation of results.

Find out more here.

Information Resilience in a Digital Built Environment

The quality of information is crucial to the success of asset delivery, management, and performance in the

Digitised Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (DAECO) sector. The exposure and sensitivity of information to threats during its lifecycle leaves it vulnerable, affecting the intrinsic, relational, and security dimensions of information quality. A resilient information lifecycle perspective that identifies capabilities and requirements is therefore needed to assure information quality amid threats. This research develops and presents an information resilience (IR) framework by drawing on the theories of resilience, information quality, and vulnerability.

Find out more here and here.

MORE ABOUT US

Expertise

Our focus on data as sources of societal and commercial value is helping industry actors embrace the radical new forms of production required to satisfy government policy, secure commercial advantage, address global challenges and meet intergenerational needs.

We have vast expertise in the areas of:

  • Digital twins for construction projects
  • Building information modelling
  • 3D printing
  • Sustainable building design and operation
  • Energy simulation, prediction and integration with BIM
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning

CONTACT US

Dr Peter Demian

Peter joined the Construction Management research group at Loughborough in 2005 and has been the lead since 2019. He conducts research in all aspects of information management in design, construction, and the built environment.

Dr Peter Demian

Athena Swan Bronze award

Contact us

+44 (0)1509 222637

School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Loughborough University
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU