MatR enables a range of users — from architects and developers to city officials or deconstruction contractors (more on this below) — to connect data to a live BIM file of a building. This may be technical specifications from manufacturers; environmental impact data from EPDs or life cycle inventory datasets; air quality or noise from indoor sensors; a log of component condition and any repairs; or residual value of components.
This registry of materials and building performance can then be scaled from a building, to a district, to a city or even nation — contributing to a dataset providing the granularity of the constituent materials in a door handle, to the aggregation of material flows across a city. In the future, it could integrate directly with public datasets and dashboards — for instance emerging digital twins and 3D city models. Data permissions would ensure that any sensitive data — for example detailed BIM files or granular energy use data — is only accessible via authentication, whilst open data standards can enable aggregate data to be pooled at the city level to inform benchmarks and analyse material flows.
