European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles

Matthias Buchholz; Thomas Lützkendorf

doi:10.5334/bc.355

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Selected types of building information management tools (BIMTs) and their main functions

TYPE OF BIMT	MAIN FUNCTION	EXAMPLE
Action plan	Approach that goes beyond an operating manual, describing concepts for future activities and providing bases for their implementation (including retrofitting, modernisation, conversion, expansion, deconstruction)	Renovation roadmaps
Data and document repository	Approach to collection and management of building-related data and documents of all kinds throughout the life cycle, usually based on a documentation of as-built information	Building passport, logbook or file
Green building rating and sustainability assessment system	Approach to describing and evaluating essential characteristics and properties of a building such as the technical and functional quality.	Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e.V. (DGNB)
Quality assurance system	Approach in the sense of a checklist that first formulates the requirements and then documents the qualities achieved in planning and execution	Building documentation according to regulations
User manual	Approach to describing the way in which a building is used and operated	Building user guide
Virtual representation	Approach to creating and maintaining a digital copy of the building in conjunction with building information modelling (BIM)	Digital twins

Approach to the identification of the relevant literature.

Important milestones of building passport (BP) development in the literature.

Table 2

Overview of European Union-funded research projects with reference to building passports

PROJECT NAME	OBJECT OF CONSIDERATION AND REFERENCE TO BP	SOURCE
ALDREN	Foster renovations of non-residential buildings using building renovation passports	Sesana et al. (2020)
BIM4EEB	Building information modelling (BIM)-based solutions for planning renovations in residential buildings	Signorini et al. (2021)
iBRoad	Renovations of single-family houses using individual building renovation roadmaps and enhanced Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)	Sousa Monteiro et al. (2018)
X-tendo	Development of a new generation of EPCs	Volt et al. (2020b)

Table 3

Existing barriers and challenges for the diffusion of building passports

BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES	SPECIFICATION
Legal challenges	Administrative burden Unclear legislation Fragmented regional approach Uncertainty of data ownership and access rights
Economic challenges	Lack of sound business models Costs too high
Technical challenges	Lack of synergies with other tools and technologies Accessibility of information
Personal barriers of potential users	Lack of motivation to update contents Lack of trust Issues of data privacy and data protection Lack of understanding main functionalities Benefits not clearly defined Unfamiliarity with digital tools
Barriers connected to the tool	Data quality issues such as accuracy, availability, consistency or interoperability Unclear object of consideration and system boundaries

[i] Sources: Carbonari et al. (2020); Hartenberger et al. (2021).

Table 4

Comparison of different building passport (BP) and digital building logbook (DBL) definitions

	DOURLENS-QUARANTA ET AL. (2020)	HARTENBERGER ET AL. (2021)	MAIA ET AL. (2021)	SOUSA MONTEIRO ET AL. (2018)	GERMAN PARLIAMENT (1998)
Used term: Passport (BP)		×			×
Used term: Logbook (DBL)	×		×	×
Main function as dynamic data repository	×	×	×	×	×
Whole life cycle focus	×	×	×
Single-building focus	×	×	×	×	×
Single point of access	×	×	×	×
Coverage of all relevant building data	×
Facilitate decision-making and information exchange	×	×		×	×

Basic operations performed on a data repository.

Table 5

Relation between building-related tasks and the main operations on a building passport

OCCASION/TASK IN THE BUILDING LIFE CYCLE	DATA COLLECTION (WRITE)	DATA RETRIEVAL (READ)	DATA USE AND ALTERATION (EDIT)
Building design documentation	☒	☐	☐
Construction documentation	☒	☐	☐
Proof of compliance with regulations	☐	☒	☒
Financing and valuation	☐	☒	☒
Finance-oriented real estate management	☐	☒	☐
Technical building management including maintenance management	☒	☒	☒
Refurbishment or renovation	☐	☒	☒
Sustainability/building performance assessment	☐	☒	☒
Deconstruction planning	☐	☒	☐
Change of owner	☐	☒	☒
Statistical surveying	☐	☒	☐

Table 6

Selection of the main data categories in a building passport

DATA CATEGORY: INFORMATION ABOUT …	SPECIFICATION
Identification	ID for the building, building unit, cadastral parcel
Administration	General data about the building owner, involved actors, date of construction, etc.
Location and plot	Data that describe the specificity of the location and the plot, e.g. results from location analyses or climate data
Building structure	Data about the primary, secondary and tertiary physical structure of the building, as presented through design documents and digital building models
Technical and functional characteristics	Refer to structural stability, fire safety, thermal protection or flexibility of use
Built-in materials and systems	Material inventory, including type, quantity, quality of installed materials, risks to health and the environment, etc.
Use and operation	Data related to the use stage of a building, such as consumption data or maintenance aspects
Financial aspects	Include one-time and running costs and revenues
Financial, social and environmental building performance	Considers indicators and results from sustainability assessments, life cycle assessments (LCAs), cost–benefit analyses and other aggregated data
Documents	Additional attached documents and models such as licences, technical drawings, contracts, certificates, etc.

[i] Sources: Dourlens-Quaranta et al. (2020); Hartenberger et al. (2021); Libórîo et al. (2018); Maia et al. (2021); Böhms et al. (2023); Malinovec Puček et al. (2023).

Scope of different building information management tools (BIMTs) including building passports (BPs).
*Source:* Buchholz & Lützkendorf (2022).

Table 7

Recommendations to actors based on the results

ACTOR GROUP	RECOMMENDATIONS
Building passport (BP) developers	Development of sound business models for BPs by creating and promoting benefits for the involved actors Incorporate the existing knowledge on the functions of BPs and define a clear scope of the own product/service (i.e. definition of target groups, development of a modular approach for applied functions that can be enhanced over time, etc.) Consider specifications and requirements from political institutions, academics and potential users
Researchers	Consider the current state of knowledge on BPs to avoid (further) misunderstandings regarding key aspects Further investigate existing barriers that hamper the diffusion of BPs Analyse problems and provide solutions regarding the semantic and technical interoperability between BPs and other building information management tools (BIMTs)/technologies (examples from other tools/industries can be taken into account)
Policymakers	Further develop existing proposals to use BPs as a tool for tasks of the public sector (e.g. monitoring of the national building stock) Communicate current developments and provide guidance to building owners and other actors of the real estate industry Integrate BPs into the landscape of existing BIMTs with relevance in regulation (e.g. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), renovation roadmaps, building information modelling (BIM), etc.) Clarify formal issues (e.g. regarding property rights and data privacy) and provide a clear legal framework in the long run
BP users	Articulate, signal, and communicate requirements on information management and on BIMTs to relevant stakeholders in order to implicate a demand-driven approach Intensify the dialogue with other industry representatives to foster knowledge transfer, innovation and a common understanding of BPs (e.g. expressed through industry standards)

European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles

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