Something fascinating is happening in the world of architecture and construction. Behind the flashy presentations and buzzword-heavy marketing, a quiet revolution is taking place in how we think about buildings. Months of in-depth research covering more than 15,000 scientific publications on digital twins have yielded insights that challenge many prevalent assumptions about the direction of our industry.
We live in a volatile world where our existence is intricately woven into a complex web of systems — healthcare, energy distribution, transportation, and more. These systems represent the pinnacle of human achievement, yet they face unprecedented challenges. The built environment, as the host of society’s most critical systems, stands at the centre of this transformation.
The story begins with a misconception. When most architects and engineers hear “digital twin,” they envision a perfect real-time replica of a building, complete with endless streams of sensor data and complex visualizations. But the reality I’ve uncovered is far more nuanced — and ultimately more useful.
Beyond the Mirror
What’s emerging from the research is a tale of two different approaches to digital twins, each with its own character and purpose. Think of them as two siblings who, despite their shared DNA, have grown up to serve very different roles in the world of architecture.
The first sibling, which we might call the Building Digital Twin (BDT), is more like a thoughtful advisor than a mirror. It doesn’t need to reflect every minor detail in real-time. Instead, it gathers information at meaningful intervals, helping us understand patterns and make better decisions about how we design and operate our buildings. It’s less about instant updates and more about meaningful insights.
The second sibling, the Urban Digital Twin (UDT), takes a broader view. It looks at how buildings interact with their surroundings, how they contribute to city life, and how they fit into larger systems of infrastructure and human activity. This perspective helps us understand not just how a building performs in isolation, but how it contributes to the life of a city.
The buildingSMART community has recognized that this evolution requires a new way of thinking — seeing the built environment as a “system of systems” rather than isolated components. This shift is accompanied by the crucial need for open standards and alignment to make digital transformation successful. The foundation of this transformation lies in frameworks like openBIM, which provides structured, interoperable, and accessible data across the built environment.
What makes this distinction important isn’t just academic curiosity.
It fundamentally changes how we should think about implementing digital twins in our work. I’ve seen too many firms exhaust themselves trying to create perfect real-time replicas when what they really needed was a thoughtful tool for long-term decision-making. This aligns with what buildingSMART calls the “Three Horizons Framework” — a transition from today’s realities to a future vision of connected digital twins.
A New Paradigm
This transition isn’t just about technology — it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we approach the built environment. The research reveals two distinct categories of digital twins that serve fundamentally different purposes: High-Performance Real-Time (HPRT) and Long-Term Decision Support (LTDS) digital twins. Understanding this distinction is crucial because it helps us avoid one of the most common pitfalls in digital twin implementation — trying to force real-time capabilities where they aren’t needed.
The LTDS approach, which is more relevant to the built environment, focuses on strategic planning and lifecycle management. It’s about understanding patterns, predicting future scenarios, and making informed decisions about how our buildings and cities evolve over time. This aligns perfectly with what buildingSMART describes as the “Seven Perspectives” framework, which encompasses everything from governance and capability to societal impact and technological innovation.
What’s particularly interesting is how digital twins are pushing us to think differently about buildings themselves. We’re moving away from seeing them as static objects that we design, build, and forget. Instead, they’re becoming active participants in what buildingSMART calls the “cyber-physical systems” — environments where digital and physical worlds converge to create smarter, more responsive spaces.
Take Singapore’s groundbreaking initiative, for example. Their digital twin platform isn’t just a technological showcase — it’s a powerful demonstration of how integrated systems thinking can transform urban planning and management. By combining real-time data with sophisticated modelling capabilities, they’re making better decisions about everything from energy usage to emergency response planning.
But perhaps the most profound insight comes from understanding that successful digital twins aren’t necessarily the most technologically advanced ones. They’re the ones that best integrate with how architects and engineers actually work. This is where the concept of openBIM becomes crucial — it provides the foundation for structured, interoperable data that can evolve with our needs.
The future of digital twins in architecture isn’t about creating perfect virtual replicas. It’s about developing tools that help us understand and enhance the complex relationships between buildings, people, and the broader urban environment.
As buildingSMART emphasizes, this requires thinking in terms of “connected wholes rather than separate parts”. (Remember the Andrea Palladio’s concinnitas concept? It is exactly as it is).
The Human Element
This systems-based approach is already transforming how pioneering firms work. Consider the emerging field of Smart Operations & Maintenance, where digital twins are being used not just to monitor building performance, but to predict and prevent issues before they occur. The integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning isn’t just automating tasks — it’s providing insights that would be impossible to gather through traditional means.
The research shows a fascinating evolution in how we’re using these tools. Environmental Simulation capabilities are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing us to understand not just how a building performs in isolation, but how it interacts with its environment over decades. This is particularly crucial as we face the growing challenges of climate change and the urgent need for sustainable architecture.
But there’s an often-overlooked aspect of this transformation: the human dimension. While we often focus on the technical capabilities of digital twins, the most successful implementations are those that enhance human decision-making rather than trying to replace it. The buildingSMART community refers to this as “community-enabled” development — where technology serves to strengthen human connections and improve decision-making rather than creating new barriers.
The research also reveals an interesting pattern in successful implementations. Rather than trying to build comprehensive digital twins from the start, the most effective approaches begin with what buildingSMART calls “purposeful interventions” — focused applications that solve specific problems while building toward a more integrated future. This might mean starting with energy optimization, then gradually expanding to include occupancy patterns, maintenance scheduling, and eventually full lifecycle management.
Looking ahead, we’re seeing the emergence of what might be called Adaptive Digital Twins — systems that learn and evolve based on both data and human input. These aren’t just passive records of building performance; they’re active participants in the ongoing process of optimizing our built environment. This aligns with buildingSMART’s vision of moving from “Horizon 1” (current reality) through “Horizon 2” (transition) to “Horizon 3” (future vision of connected digital twins).
The implications for our profession are profound. As architects and engineers, we’re no longer just designing buildings — we’re creating nodes in a larger network of interconnected systems. This requires new skills, new ways of thinking, and new approaches to collaboration.
The buildingSMART Accelerator Program is already supporting major projects in this direction, helping teams navigate the complexity of this transformation.
But perhaps most importantly, this evolution is forcing us to reconsider what success looks like in architecture. It’s no longer enough to create beautiful, functional buildings.
We need to think about how our creations perform over time, how they adapt to changing needs, and how they contribute to the broader goals of sustainability and resilience.
Tomorrow’s Architecture
The most exciting aspect of this evolution isn’t just the technology itself — it’s the potential to fundamentally improve how we create and manage our built environment. As we move into what buildingSMART describes as the “twin transition”, we’re seeing the convergence of digital innovation and sustainable development. This isn’t just about making buildings smarter; it’s about making them more responsive to human needs while reducing their environmental impact.
The challenge ahead isn’t technical — we already have most of the tools we need. The real challenge is in changing how we think about buildings and cities. The research shows that successful digital twin implementations require what might be called “systems literacy” — the ability to understand and work with complex, interconnected systems. This isn’t just a new skill; it’s a new way of seeing the world.
As we stand at this intersection of the physical and digital worlds, the opportunities are enormous. Digital twins offer us the chance to create buildings that aren’t just structures, but active participants in creating better cities and communities. They give us the tools to make more informed decisions, to better understand the impact of our choices, and to create more sustainable, resilient environments.
But this is just the beginning of the conversation. As the buildingSMART community emphasizes, we’re moving from “connected digital twins” toward an ecosystem approach that will fundamentally transform how we think about and work with the built environment.
Join the Conversation
If this article has sparked your curiosity about how these digital counterparts are reshaping our industry, I invite you to dive deeper with me in the latest episode of Daedalus Debugger #7 — Digital Twins: Applications and Trends in Architecture and Construction.
Whether you’re an architect, engineer, or student, join me as we navigate the exciting intersection of digital and physical realms in the built environment. The future is already here — let’s explore it together.
Bibliography
Abdelrahman, M., et al. (2024). “What is a Digital Twin Anyway? Deriving the Definition for the Built Environment from over 15,000 Scientific Publications.” arXiv:2409.19005v1.
buildingSMART International (2024). “Digital Twins and the Systems Perspective: A buildingSMART Digital Twins Working Group Paper.”
buildingSMART International (2023). “Enabling an Ecosystem of Digital Twins — An Update.”
Yang, Z., Tang, C., Zhang, T., Zhang, Z., & Doan, D.T. (2024). “Digital Twins in Construction: Architecture, Applications, Trends and Challenges.” Buildings, 14(9), 2616.