A wealth of information on best practice and pitfalls in construction of modern, energy efficient homes, offices, shops and public buildings is to be shared through a new Building Data Exchange.

The Building Data Exchange has been created by the Digital Catapult centre to allow designers, developers and constructors to take advantage of the wealth of information gathered over the last 6 years by Innovate UK’s £8 million Buildings Performance Evaluation programme.

Building data exchange opens 5 February

Its opening on 5 February coincides with the publication of 2 reports that analyse data from Innovate UK’s Building Performance Evaluation programme. The reports highlight that more needs to be done to ensure modern, energy efficient properties are meeting their targets on energy use and efficiency.

Simon Hart, Innovate UK programme leader for the built environment, said: “Homes and offices are not performing as they should do. They are consuming up to 10 times the energy they should, and there are a multitude of factors behind that.

“The programme has amassed so much data that it’s difficult for constructors to process it. There is an opportunity now for digital businesses to create smart home or property technology that could be adopted by the construction industry and help it to tackle these issues.”

There are opportunities to use the data in many fields including in proptech, smart homes, Internet of Things, future cities, wearable tech, data, buildings information management, retail, energy systems, renewables fintech, sensors, materials and manufacturing.

Building Data Exchange useful for construction industry

The exchange will help constructors to find relevant information and also to start working with digital innovators on solutions to some of the challenges they face.

The full data set will be available for a hackathon on 5-7 February. It will be made available to the public shortly afterwards as part of a three-year Catapult programme to encourage interaction between the construction industry and digital innovators.