Chimni has issued a first ever ‘consumer data standard’ for new homes, outlining the data and digital information that housebuilders should increasingly expect to deliver to buyers at handover.
Outlined in a new white paper - ‘The Data Home’ - the data standard is a product of an InnovateUK funded research project called Re-Imagining BIM. The project encompassed behavioural research with homeowners as well as a technical trial with BIM specialist xbim. The intention was to set an aggressive benchmark for digital delivery in the housebuilding industry.
Chimni MD Nigel Walley says: “We know that homebuilders recognise that data and digital tools are now part of their core product - our homes are becoming complex systems. But the extent of the data and intelligence handed over to buyers varies widely across the industry.”
The current practice of handing over PDFs of key documents is only a transition phase as we move from the old paper handover packs, to a truly digitised information market where home buyers will access open, structured data via apps.
Nigel Walley says; “Expectations are being set by the motor industry. If you buy a high-end electric car you get an app and a web account. Everything is delivered online. Homes are more complex but we need to aspire to the same digital innovation that cars and financial services are experiencing. The new data standard we’ve produced creates a high bar for home builders to measure themselves against.”
The data set that was created as part of the ‘Re-Imagining BIM’ project initially looked initially at re-purposing data held in BIM models and linking it to homeowner-friendly apps like Chimni. The project proved the technical viability of linking BIM models to consumer apps via systems like the xbim OpenBIM servers. However, the behavioural research component of the project went much further. Nigel Walley says “we addressed the question of ‘what data could and should be delivered to homeowners’, and what kinds of services they may expect with it. “
The project produced a range of homeowner scenarios that imagined homeowner tasks or problems and identified what data they might want to resolve it. The scenarios, which are outlined in the white paper, enabled the project team to identify what formats the homeowners expected and how they wanted to access it.
“A great example is maintenance schedules for complex stuff like central heating. In the research the consumers told us they didn’t want user manuals. They asked why they can’t just have an Outlook file with all key dates included, that they can load up in their calendars. This pushes consumer expectation much closer to closer real estate, where a facilities manager would expect that level of system integration to run a building.”
Chimni have built the new data standards into Chimni logbooks and are currently looking for trial partners from the housebuilding industry ahead of second InnovateUK funded project to refine and codify the standard early next year.
