Digital assistance system for urban mining

Urban mining – that is, the management of man-made material reserves such as existing buildings – is regarded as a key driver of transformation for climate adaptation and resource efficiency. The systematic demolition and high-quality subsequent use of building products require reliable inventory data, simplified testing processes, robust economic feasibility assessments and improved planning capabilities with re-used building components. This is precisely where the MIRAKEL research project comes in, in which SRH University is also playing a key role. 

The aim is to develop a digital assistance system that helps experts identify the value of built-in products and assess the economic viability of their reuse. 

“MIRAKEL will be a tool that makes the hidden value of building stock visible and usable,” explains Prof. Dr.-Ing. Patrick Teuffel, Professor of Innovation and Sustainability Strategies at SRH University. “This will enable urban mining to become a standard process in the construction industry.” 

Digital technologies for the optimised assessment of reusable building components

The focus is on a practical application: buildings are interactively surveyed using a smartphone and 3D camera prior to demolition or renovation. The component data obtained is linked to existing information about the building, material and life-cycle assessment databases, as well as economic empirical values, and supplemented in real time where necessary. On this basis, MIRAKEL automatically determines reuse potential, realistic costs, revenues and environmental impacts such as emission savings. 

“Our approach reduces information uncertainties regarding existing buildings and creates a sound data foundation for portfolio decisions,” Prof. Teuffel continues. “This not only facilitates ‘form follows availability’ planning, but also improves the overall cost-effectiveness of circular construction processes.” 

Technologically, MIRAKEL combines several key digital technologies for the first time in an end-to-end process: 

• Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for transparent recommendations to reduce uncertainties, improve estimates and enhance predictability, e.g. assessing material qualities and potential 
• Mixed Reality (MR) enables interactive, standardised walk-throughs of existing buildings, speeding up inspections and closing gaps in documentation 
• Interactive machine learning (IML) continuously integrates the technical feedback from on-site experts into the AI and refines the evaluation models 
• Knowledge graphs link existing, material, cost and sustainability data in a structured way to map complex relationships

A particular focus is on integrating re-use objects into digital planning methods using Building Information Modelling (BIM) – the digital modelling and management of building data. Users should be able to simulate and compare different demolition and recycling scenarios. The prototype is being tested in real buildings and continuously refined. 

Strong partnership and the role of SRH University

The project is supported by an interdisciplinary consortium: Concular, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, SRH University, BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH, ryze technologies, Knepper and CIRCULAR STRUCTURAL DESIGN are pooling their expertise in construction practice, property management, digitalisation, AI, research and circular design.

SRH University is responsible for the scientific supervision and evaluation of technologies for the reuse of building components. This includes the development of assessment methods and the conduct of feasibility studies. “We closely integrate research, practice and teaching,” emphasises Prof. Dr.-Ing. Patrick Teuffel. “Our students work directly on current issues in sustainable construction and digital transformation.” 

The results of the project are incorporated both into teaching – for example, in the Master’s programme ‘Engineering and Sustainable Technology Management – Smart Building Technologies’ – and into specialist publications and conference papers.

Funding

The project “MIRAKEL – A mixed-reality and trustworthy AI-based assistance system for assessing the value of anthropogenic stocks and the costs of resource recovery processes in the circular economy” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under grant number 033R422E as part of the Research for Sustainability (FONA) strategy over a period of 30 months with a total budget of approximately 2.6 million euros.