Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digital twins are two important technological concepts that can, at times, be considered quite separate or be used interchangeably in the buildings sector. Both concepts could be defined as “a digital representation of assets, processes and systems in a physical space,” yet they tend to be used by very different people and in different stages of the building’s life cycle. In this research note, we consider the similarities and differences of these concepts, to discover where BIM ends and the digital twin begins. On the surface, you could say that BIM is more of a design and construction tool, and digital twins are focused on the operational phases of the building life cycle. While this is true to a certain extent, each concept has the potential to do it all, so why has each concept found its niche rather than one dominating the whole field? The answer to this lies […]