A concept of space for building classification, product modelling, and design

Information about a buildingʹs spaces is of interest in every stage of the construction and facility management processes. An organisation1In this text, the term `user organisationʹ denotes the users of a building, their activities and the equipment used. nterprise is located in and uses the buildingʹs spaces, and many of the buildingʹs spatial properties are determined on the basis of the user organisationʹs requirements. The definition of the concept “space” as applied in information systems for building classification and building product modelling today is unclear. A fundamental problem is to reconcile a material and construction method viewpoint with a space-centred viewpoint. In order to enable communication among actors and computer systems in the construction process, the concepts used in model development and the corresponding terms have to be formally defined and standardised. In this article, we analyse the concept of space and suggest a comprehensive definition for the construction context. The identification of a space in a building is based on a spatial view. We introduce the concept of aspectual unit and show how this concept can be used to integrate different aspect views in a conceptual schema. Additionally, we define the user organisation as a thing, which is separate from the building and has spatial properties of its own, so-called “activity spaces”. Finally, we show how space may be represented in a comprehensive conceptual schema.