Case Study: Vienna University of Technology advances ecological building design with Ontotext GraphDB

Vienna University of Technology accelerates ecological design with Ontotext’s GraphDB and Ontotext Refine

A research team from Vienna University of Technology faced the challenge of integrating vast and disparate multi-disciplinary data from architecture and ecology to support the design of ecological building envelopes. Their goal was to move beyond anthropocentric design by providing architects and planners with a holistic view of relevant information, but the data existed in separate silos with varying formats and completeness. They chose to collaborate with Ontotext to overcome these data integration hurdles.

Ontotext's GraphDB and Ontotext Refine were used to implement an Ontology-based Data Access (OBDA) solution, creating the ECOLOPES Knowledge Graph. This integrated data from multiple sources, both through materialization and virtualization, and connected it to design workflows. The solution from Ontotext provided architects with the ability to ask complex competency questions and receive immediate feedback on their designs, significantly shortening data integration tasks and accelerating the ability to derive insights for ecological planning and innovation.

Vienna University of Technology