The following article is excerpted from How Virtual Twins Drive More Sustainable High-Performance Buildings: The 4 Perspectives drives sustainability in the construction industry, a whitepaper developed by Dassault Systèmes. To read more about virtual twins in the construction industry, download the full whitepaper here. For part 2 of this series, visit here.
The construction industry is not starting from scratch. Many elements of circular thinking are already deployed in the built environment through innovative, bio-sourced construction materials in service-based and consumer-oriented design. Circularity is also enabling modularization and off-site productization to drive quality and efficiency, and facilitating predictive maintenance and operations in asset sharing platforms.
But incremental change won’t cut it. To improve win rates, become more competitive, efficient and sustainable, a big step change is required in how industry stakeholders interact and collaborate on common preferred outcomes and single referential along the entire value chain.
This is where the transformative power of virtual twins comes into play, leveraging insights from other more standardized industries. Virtual twins can help bridge the gap between the virtual and the real world in real time, improving energy performance through virtualization of regulatory compliance and integration of innovative energy-saving materials. Virtual twins can also simulate optimized bio-sourced building and packaging materials for existing and new buildings throughout their lifecycle.
So far, the virtual twin opportunity is largely untapped primarily due to the fragmented and complex nature of the industry — with only 10 percent adoption globally. Its full potential to improve building lifecycle management has yet to be unleashed.
First movers and bold decision-makers will gain market share and competitiveness for sustainable business success.
Dassault Systèmes provides virtual universes to imagine sustainable businesses and helps clients push the boundaries of innovation, learning and production. Virtual twins accelerate the sustainable transformation of the construction industry towards more circular, productive and competitive project engagements.
Excerpted from How Virtual Twins Drive More Sustainable and High-Performance Buildings, a Dassault Systèmes whitepaper
Based in Tokyo, Seko Negae is part of Dassault Systèmes’ Construction, Cities & Territories industry marketing team.