Proposal to add ElementStatus flags for circular construction supply chain

[marcuspollio]

Hi there,

Given the growing interest in the reuse of construction components and materials by multiple actors in the construction sector (governments, industries, contractors, architects, engineers and individuals) in order to preserve some of the natural resources, and the lack of integration of reuse and circularity issues in current digital tools and standards, we propose to add the following flags to the IFC standard:

Ifc Product Extension > Property Sets > Element Status

Name	Description
NEW	element designed as new addition
EXISTING	element exists and is to remain
DEMOLISH	element exists but is to be demolished
TEMPORARY	element will exist only temporarily (such as a temporary support structure)
OTHER	Value is not listed
NOTKNOWN	Value is unknown
UNSET	Value has not been specified
DISASSEMBLE	element exists and is to be disassembled for reuse	new status flag
REUSED	element reused from disassembly as addition	new status flag

Here, DISSASSEMBLE is used as a status flag indicating that an existing element is designated as suitable for disassembly to be assessed for potential reuse, on or off-site. This information can be found for example on dismantling/demolition documents or so-called urban mining campaign plans, along existing and demolished elements.

REUSED is used as a status flag indicating that an existing element coming from a disassembly phase is reused in a construction phase, on or off-site. This information can be found for example on construction/transformation/renovation documents, along existing, new and temporary elements.

The flags added to the scheme are minimal but allow the development of specific processes, workflows and tools in order to strengthen the practice of circular economy and reuse of construction elements. Forward compatibility is secured as it is a non-destructive addition to the existing scheme.

The current proposal tries to be in line with the existing structure of the standard, which allows an easy integration in an intermediate version like IFC 4.4, without fundamentally questioning the role of Element Status, which is a larger undertaking for a later version like IFC5.

Should the proposal be validated in substance, we can investigate extensively the integration of these new status flags into the standard and the tools involved, such as IfcOpenShell (@aothms @Moult @theoryshaw @Andrej730 )