Abstract
Professionals who are involved in design, construction and occupancy phases of a building not only generate information that must eventually be used by other building professionals, but also they themselves must use data and information provided by others such as product manufacturers, planning departments, etc. The integration of information and data through all phases of the life cycle of a building is important as it impacts the work done by a large number of constituents in the building industry. Seamless integration of such information has been a bigger concern for those who are downstream users of the data generated by the architect as he/she designs a building. Such downstream users can range from structural engineers to construction managers, from facility managers to building asset managers. More recently, the considerable increase in the design and operation of intelligent buildings that incorporate a very wide range of technologies has rendered this coordination more important than ever.