Architecture of an open knowledge base for sustainable buildings based on Linked Data technologies

• The study focus is on information integration related to building sustainability.
• The requirements for information sharing among the AEC stakeholders are analysed.
• An information integration model is presented.
• A prototype of an open knowledge base system is developed and populated.
• The developed prototype indicates benefits of such information integration.

Currently, the information related to building sustainability – such as information on the various approaches, products and services, experiences and opinions of professionals – are not readily shared among the various stakeholders. The reasons for such a situation are both the sheer complexity of the information sources that need integration as well as strong competition in the field. The goal of this study was to analyse the requirements for information sharing by various stakeholders and to actually model the relevant information sources for integrative purposes. As a result, a prototype of an open knowledge-base system, which relies on the mainstream Linked Data technologies of the Semantic Web, was designed and created. The prototype makes it possible to capture, distill, analyse and share information on building sustainability among the stakeholders and demonstrates the benefits of such information integration.