Reasoning in Common Data Environments. Re-thinking CDEs to enhance collaboration in BIM processes

In BIM processes, the concept of Common Data Environment - CDE - has often been depicted as a key element for successful collaboration and information sharing among different actors but, in current practice, acts as a mere documentation repository ineffective for true collaborative purposes. Therefore, the idea of CDE seems to be overrated on the one hand and unexploited on the other, while effective collaboration is still far from being decisively supported. To overcome this lack, the present research focuses on the definition of a new generation of CDEs, enhanced with an information level for knowledge integration provided by different information carriers such as models and datasets. The paper discusses its development through a graph database platform and dedicated methodologies for data retrieval and query, to verify coherence and consistency of information among different models.