BCRW 2022

Contents of the 3rd Blockchain in Construction Research Workshop, hosted by Northumbria University in collaboration with the Construction Blockchain Consortium. The workshop took place on the 20th and 21st of June 2022 in Amsterdam and presented early and ongoing research in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies for the construction sector.

Presentations

Session 1: Information Management

BIM Single Source of Truth for Construction Supply Chain (CSC)

Amer Hijaz

Decentralised Information Management Along the Entire Lifecycle of the Building Asset

Klaudia Jaskula

The construction industry is highly project-based and characterized by a high level of fragmentation and decentralisation with most of the businesses being Small-Medium-Enterprises. Adoption of digital technologies could help to overcome some of the issues like low productivity and ineffective collaboration. However adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) raises concerns about data security, data ownership, legal implications and responsibility distribution in shared BIM models. According to ISO 19650 information management workflow should be based on the use of a Common Data Environment (CDE) as a single source of truth for all project stakeholders. However, currently used centralised CDE solutions are not corresponding with the needs of the highly fragmented construction industry. Some of the problems such as lack of accountability and transparency might be solved by introducing blockchain technology into information management practice. This study presents a systematic literature review about the challenges and limitations of currently used Common Data Environment tools and compares centralised and decentralised approaches to lifecycle information management. To determine the problems and challenges of information management in practice and investigate the potential of implementing blockchain technology in this area, a survey and semi-structured interviews with industry professionals were conducted. The results show that the idea of a single source of truth is difficult to implement in practice, as most projects rely on multiple sources of information. The use of a centralised CDE needs to be re-evaluated, with other more decentralised solutions being investigated. Decentralised blockchain-enabled CDE could provide data security, quality, and integrity standards, which are vital for its function. It could provide an accountable record of all data transactions and establish reliable source of information for project handover from design and construction phase to operation and maintenance phase. Moreover, the tool must be easy to use for the stakeholders who have no experience with blockchain and enable them to see the relationships between different data recorded on the blockchain and better understand the flow of the decisions taken during the whole process. Finally, the study proposes a conceptual framework for decentralised information management workflow based on blockchain technology and the Inter-Planetary File System. Using smart contracts can improve the information flow between different phases by providing more efficiency, accountability and traceability of information. In the next steps the study will focus on the development of a prototype tool based on the conceptual framework.

Construction Management Process Automation using Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Xuling Ye

Harnessing Blockchain Technology and the Platform Business Model to Improve Regulatory Compliance and Enhance Interoperability Within the Built Environment Technology Ecosystems

Imanuel Steele

Session 2: Circular Economy

Collective Digital Factories for Buildings

Theo Dounas

The Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is burdened by chronic low productivity, resource under-utilisation, excessive litigation, high carbon emissions, and disproportionate environmental impact. To accelerate the shift to environmentally sustainable and resilient construction, we propose innovative new digital tools that optimise project governance, improve design quality, streamline supply chains, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance the digital representation of buildings. The paper presents the collective digital factories for buildings, a series of open source tools connected via smart contracts to reduce the carbon performance of buildings, decrease waste, and increase performance. Specifically we analyse the manner in which Topologic, Speckle and Ethereum smart contracts can be combined in a light-weight BIM process that incentivises a design AEC team to prioritise carbon and waste reduction and building performance. The smart contracts aspect of the CDFB consists of a series of tokens and staking smart contracts that showcase how one can directly tokenise carbon/waste/building performance in a collaborative AEC practice. Beyond the theoretical framework that relies on stigmergic collaboration, we present also the step by step tooling and process with which the open source tools work.

A Blockchain-based Tack-Back Framework to Support the Extended Producer Responsibility Implementation for Construction Products and Materials

Arghavan Akbarieh

The global society is transitioning from linear to circular economy. It is encouraged by the ever-increasing awareness of the significance of circular practices, especially recycling. Recycling leads to obtaining secondary materials and prevents resource extraction and depletion. In the construction industry, recycling falls under waste management strategies and is a technologically-established practice. It could solve the current problem of soaring construction material prices due to supply shortages. Yet, despite technological advancements, recycling is often done sporadically and depends on the capacity or interest of local parties after the end-of-lifecycle (EoL) of built assets. As a consequence, valuable recyclable materials sometimes end up in landfills or are transported to other locations for recycling. This situation creates two problems. Firstly, it paints an unrealistic picture of the available materials in the market. More importantly, no one is officially responsible for recycling materials, which could leave the recyclable materials orphaned and creates a free-rider problem between generations of construction professionals. One policy that addresses EoL handling and recycling is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which holds producers accountable for treating their products in the EoL phase. EPR is not yet implemented in the construction sector for many reasons. Buildings are (1) complex and unique products - built with a different selection of thousands of components and materials, (2) built through the collaboration of several parties who finally hands them over to owners, and (3) long-term assets with a lifecycle of at least 50 years. Tracking thousands of materials sold to contractors and passed on to owners for several decades after the sale point is not easy for construction producers. However, thanks to digital technologies such as blockchain and Building Information Modelling (BIM), it is currently possible to keep an ongoing, meticulous and tamper-proof record of product information. Based on the state-of-the-art review, design thinking and experimental methodologies, this study proposes a smart contract-based material take-back framework to overcome the above-mentioned issues by supporting the EPR implementation in the construction industry. This study looks into who is responsible for recycling what and financially incentivizes them to engage in future recycling activities. This establishes recycling responsibilities, regulates recycling activities and brings transparency to the construction material supply chain. The suggested framework consists of (1) an accounting base (through capturing the salvage value), (2) a blockchain base, and (3) a financial transition instrument. Furthermore, a work-in-progress proof-of-concept is developed to test the feasibility of the framework.

Session 3: Smart Contracts

Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Successful Implementation Avoiding the Legal Minefield

May Winfield

Blockchain and smart contracts are increasingly being used worldwide across various industries. Some Governments and industry organisations have issued mandates and white papers in support of the adoption of blockchain. However, the legal and regulatory aspects are lagging behind. This is a largely misunderstood and ignored area, leading to a ticking time bomb of risk, liability and misunderstandings. In this practical session, a digital tech legal specialist discusses the common key risks and how to avoid or mitigate them.

BIM Validation During the Design Stage with Smart Contracts

Giulia Pattini

Smart Contracts for Construction Contracts

Mahir Msawii

Session 4: Blockchain in Construction

Blockchain in Malaysian Construction Industry

Eeydzah Aminudin

A Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) on Blockchain Decentralization

KAte Baucherel

Confidenciality-minded Framework for Blockchain-Based BIM Design Collaboration

Xingyu Tao

Session 5: Governance

NFT’s: the good, the bad, and (it’s not all) the ugly

Gavin Johnson, aGenium

Whilst the metaverse is the tech hot topic, Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFTs”) remain the blockchain zeitgeist. However, there remains considerable practical and legal risks when dealing with NFTs. Few projects consider the complex, interwoven, legal frameworks within which they operate. Ill-considered applications, when tokenising a project, or elements thereof, digital or physical, risks their legal grounding and long-term resilience.

NFTs are a critical component of built environment technologies. Digital twins, blockchain and asset tokenisation, building information models and others, need to merge to create unified information spaces (“UISs”). UISs will overcome siloed data, fragmented systems, and deliver smart data-structures for future cities. NFTs will form a valuable ‘information exchange currency’, operating on a blockchain backbone, for UISs.

NFTs are not new to the blockchain community. The ERC-721 NFT standard was introduced in January 2018, itself preceded by Crypto-punks in mid-2017. However, it was only in 2021 that NFTs caught the wider public’s interest. The NFT concept is simple, create a unique token that (somehow) is accepted as a representation, or a certificate of provenance, of a unique digital or physical item. Common examples include works of art, limited production sporting memorabilia or collectibles, in-world (metaverse) game items or property, music, or even DeFi staking pool rewards.

Minting NFTs requires little technical knowledge. Artists have leapt at the opportunity to generate digital artworks, and an income stream, whilst retaining intellectual property rights and so continue to benefit from future sales and any appreciation in value. Mintors see token sales regularly oversubscribed, so attracting a premium above the ‘true’ value. Mintees are able to invest in and acquire ownership of rare (i.e., scarce, and so presumably valuable) assets.

This sudden rise in popularity has not been accompanied by a similar rush to understand the legal environment within which an investor (casual or sophisticated) may ordinarily expect to be protected. The ambiguity of the applicable legal frameworks around NFTs, accompanied by poor structural governance and lack of understanding of the legal (and practical) obligations by transaction counterparties place considerable legal risk on an entire ecosystem.

Legal data should form part of the NFT, with terms managed by smart contracts, each supported and regulated by a robust and transparent governance framework in the form of a smart legal contract. An ecosystem with functional-layer smart legal contracts, execution-layer smart contracts, and data-layer multi-source data enriched tokens, such that digital-realm tokens move with the asset and physical-realm tokens that are, or mirror, the single point of truth.

Cryptoeconomic mechanisms for the governance of collaborative construction project deliveries

Jens Hunhevicz, ETH Zurich

I will present my newest findings on blockchain-based cryptoeconomic mechanisms for the governance of collaborative construction project deliveries. Building on identified connections between common pool resource theory and integrated project delivery, the work 1) synthesizes fourteen blockchain-based mechanisms to govern CPRs, and 2) identifies twenty-two possible applications of these mechanisms to govern collaborative project deliveries. Overall, the work introduces a conceptualization of the above relationships towards a holistic understanding of possible new forms of collaborative construction project delivery on the "crypto commons". This could enable in the longer term novel collective organization of construction project delivery between both humans and machines.

DAO governance application in the built environment

Hongyang Wang, ETH Zurich

My general research topic is DAO governance application in the built environment. The specific research focus is to establish a governance system of coded rules leveraging blockchain smart contracts that distribute rights, value and power among a hybrid community of autonomous human or machine agents. The presentation will be about two parts. First a prototype no1s1 (no-one’s-one), a house equipped with IoT systems and owns its treasury on the blockchain. Second, the theoretical foundation for the governance system of such an autonomous self-owning house, which I termed as engineered ownership.