BuildAudIt AI Platform to transform the circular economy for existing buildings

The Innovate UK-funded research project, BuildAudIt, is creating an ambitious new AI-enabled survey platform to enhance the circular economy in existing buildings, reducing cost and experience barriers for organisations wanting to understand their building stock ahead of refurbishment for net zero. 

BuildAudIt is being developed through a year-long collaborative programme between organisations developing digital and AI-based solutions in the construction sector, including Unit9, Enable My Team, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), Reusefully and Imperial College London. 

Through application of state-of-the-art AI, BuildAudIt will increase the efficacy of pre-demolition and pre-refurbishment audits which are essential for driving circular outcomes for building materials. It will also mean a reduced level of experience is required to complete an audit, enabling cost barriers to be lowered nationwide as building owners prepare for net zero refurbishment. 

The UK alone contains 30 million residential, public and commercial buildings that will require some form of refurbishment to achieve net zero, while 50,000 buildings containing valuable materials and components are demolished per annum. 

Increased support is therefore needed to ensure the pre-retrofit and pre-demolition stages of projects can be equipped with the seamless combination of existing and new datasets to inform best practice. 

Whilst new buildings are typically constructed with a BIM model or digital twin, these are not available for the vast majority of existing buildings, and their creation is both time consuming and expensive. 

BuildAudIt will address this shortcoming by applying AI to datasets, such as existing architectural plans and drawings, and combining this with technologies including point cloud scanning, visual data capture and emerging AI technologies such as image recognition.

Beyond the initial project scope of addressing pre-demolition and pre-refurbishment auditing, the platform has the potential for adaptation across all stages of the built environment lifecycle as well as different types of building surveys, including condition surveys, planned maintenance, sustainability, energy efficiency, fire risk & health and safety. 

Beyond net zero, the importance of surveys and auditing of existing building stock is growing at an increasing pace as a result of the Building Safety Act 2022, adding significant demand to an already burgeoning market in the UK. 

With no other commercial solution currently linking these aspects into one offering, BuildAudIt has the potential to turbocharge the collection of existing building data required for the expansion of building retrofit activities, helping the UK lead the way in addressing global challenges in the built environment. 

For more information on BuildAudIt please contact buildaudit@bregroup.com to register your interest in the project.

Notes to Editors

For media inquiries, please contact: brepress@pagefield.co.uk 

BuildAudIt is funded under Innovate UK’s BridgeAI funding programme entitled ‘Collaborative AI Solutions to Improve Productivity in Key Sectors’ where UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £32 million for innovation projects that can improve productivity in key sectors through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). BridgeAI - Innovate UK Business Connect (ktn-uk.org).

The project will run until March 2025 to develop a proof-of-concept platform, after which the partners behind BuildAudIt plan to achieve commercialisation through 2025, making it widely available by licensing it for use by building surveyors and auditors for buildings across the UK and beyond.
The partners within BuildAudIt are:

• Unit9, who develop complex creative digital technology productions for multiple industries including construction. Unit9 will focus on UX/UI design, software development for AI/LLM integration, deployment of solution on sites and testing in collaboration with EMT. 
• Enable My Team, who leverage automation and AI to extract deeper insights from an extensive range of unstructured data combined with additional data such as 3D models, GIS data and documents. 
• BRE, the independent and impartial, research-based consultancy, testing and training organisation, offering expertise in every aspect of construction. BRE delivers a number of products focused on reducing the environmental impact of construction and buildings in-use including BREEAM and SmartWaste. 
• Reusefully, an innovative start-up organisation providing circular economy and sustainability advice and services within the built environment, including pre-demolition and pre-refurbishment audits. 
• Imperial College London, a leader in research in energy, AI and computing science and design engineering. Previous ICL research has used AI-enabled feature/material recognition technologies early in decision-making cycles, enabling stakeholders to manage information flows and highlight opportunities.