ConTechLabs.

Construction ontology / Working model

See how work moves
from beginning to end.

Connect project requirements, design information, work packages, assets, records, and the people responsible for decisions. Open a lifecycle group to explore its activities and connected information.

Illustrative effort envelopes, not measured hours or staffing. Lifecycle windows are equally spaced for navigation, not proportional to elapsed time. Delivery method and work-package releases change the pattern.

Explore a connected project

One building. Every connection.

Explore a fictional U.S. office building with ground-floor retail. Follow the whole project or trace a tenant change through the requirements, design, utility coordination, procurement, field work, and operating record.

Enter the interactive project →

Scope: Primarily US AEC projects, covering buildings and civil infrastructure. AIA and FHWA references inform the U.S. context; RIBA is a UK comparison. The project’s agreements, delivery route, and jurisdiction govern actual responsibilities and requirements.

The homepage presents the same 12 lifecycle phases explored here. Its six overlapping areas summarize the eight information domains in this model. This working model is for practitioner review, not a project schedule or a prescribed contractual sequence.

How the model works

Evidence, analysis, and authorized action.

Data

Connect project and asset objects to current drawings, requirements, quantities, agreements, observations, and source revisions. Keep documented facts, attributed reports, and AI inferences distinguishable.

Logic

Use defined readiness checks, engineering tools, schedule calculations, and cost comparisons to evaluate the available evidence. AI can assemble context and prepare questions; responsible professionals retain technical judgment.

Action

Prepare the proposed response for the authorized participant. Record approval, formal issuance or system execution, acknowledgment, and verified outcomes as separate events.

A principle across the lab

Valid and early signal.

Establish the evidence.

Use identifiable, current evidence relevant to the affected work. Identify missing or conflicting information and distinguish confirmed facts, reported information, and AI inferences.

Preserve time to respond.

Connect a concern to the decision, release, or commitment that determines the remaining time to investigate. Early signal gives the responsible team time to act before options become difficult or costly to change.

Prepare a useful response.

Explain what changed, the source evidence, uncertainty, affected work, responsible participant, and when a response is needed. Evaluate the action and verified outcome, not the number of alerts.

01 / Lifecycle

How each phase moves.

Band thickness = relative effort within a workstream.
Compare its rise and taper, not totals between rows.

↶ Operating evidence, maintenance history, and renewal decisions feed the next investment brief.

How to read this map

The source model groups activities. It supplies no durations, effort allocations, activity-level timing, or contractual dependencies. These envelopes are proposed visual interpretations for review. Work can overlap and iterate. Operations and renewal can span far longer than project delivery; equal window widths do not imply equal durations. A thin tail means continuing involvement, not an obligation or quantified workload.

How delivery route and project type change the map

Design-Bid-Build: Design and construction appointments are typically separate, with tendering based on the defined design scope. Package release, specialist design, and phasing still need explicit coordination.

Design-Build: Design and construction are brought under the design-build contracting arrangement. Design development, trade input, and procurement can overlap; contractual design and review responsibilities remain explicit.

CMAR: The construction manager can contribute during preconstruction. Later construction commitments follow the project agreements; a GMP or another commercial arrangement should not be assumed.

Infrastructure and occupied assets: Add right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation, traffic staging, public access, service continuity, and asset-management requirements where applicable. Renovation and major infrastructure programs require different work packages and approvals.

Activity effort

Illustrative progression within this workstream →

All source activities are included. Their envelopes suggest overlap and follow-through, not a prescribed sequence or allocated hours.

Connected notes

Inputs → lifecycle group → outputs / Roles and decision authority below
Issues that can hold up this work
Data, analysis, and proposed AI support

02 / Continuous work

Threads that run through it all.

These concerns stay connected across all 12 groups.

03 / Connected objects

The same objects, across the work.

Select a node to see its candidate relationships and the lifecycle groups that reference it.

Candidate schema relationships from the working model. They require evidence for each project instance. Arrows show named relationships, not schedule precedence.

04 / Evidence to action

What supports the next decision?

Select a review to trace its inputs, result, and limits.

Decision basis

Retain the issue, options, evaluation criteria, source revisions, assumptions, and calculations used. A recommendation remains a recommendation until the responsible participant records a decision.

Decision and approval

Record the decision-maker, delegated authority, selected option, rationale, date, and affected work or assets. Preserve earlier decisions when the direction changes.

Action and verification

Retain the issued document or system transaction, exact revision, destination, acknowledgment, verification evidence, and remaining work. Approval alone does not establish execution or a successful field outcome.

What stays attached to a record
Technical example: AHU installation readiness

Additional worked example

Source model, scope, and standards context

Download the underlying conceptual model · Explore a connected project