Towards an Ontological Grounding of IFC

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a standard providing an open vendor-independent file format and data model for data interoperability and exchange for Architecture/Engineering/Construction and Facility Management. Some works in the literature addressed the conversion of the standard to the Web Ontology Language, but there is still need of an in depth ontological analysis of its constructs. With this work we start such an analysis focusing on the IFC type/occurrence distinction. The goal is to increase the correct understanding and use of the standard while ensuring logical coherence, ontological soundness and conceptual clarity.