New RDM Pipeline for Architectural Research Data Launched
Building on the NFDI4ING Seed Fund project “RDM-Workflows for Construction Engineering and Architecture”, the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt (ULB) and the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart are jointly developing a scalable research data management (RDM) pipeline tailored to the needs of the architectural research community.
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Architectural Research Data Management Pipeline aims to make diverse and complex architectural research data easier to capture, connect, and publish in compliance with FAIR principles.
Architectural research often produces heterogeneous datasets that are difficult to standardise and share, e.g. because they include CAD drawings and/or visual formats. The goal of the project is to develop a user-friendly web application. The tool will integrate existing NFDI services and automatically convert research outputs into linked knowledge graphs, enabling enriched datasets to be published as FAIR Digital Objects.
The initiative focuses on two core objectives:
- supporting researchers with clear workflows and templates for structured data capture
- ensuring the solution is practical and directly usable by the community.
Implementation includes enhancing an existing prototype, creating a showcase demonstrator using data from multi-storey timber construction projects, and ongoing engagement with stakeholders through workshops and conferences.
A long term goal is to provide the tool as a scalable service to other disciplines outside architecture. With its modular design and tight integration of research and infrastructure, this new RDM pipeline promises to improve data transparency, reproducibility and quality not only in in architectural research.