Pilot project: »Digital Twin of the Francke Foundations«

Work has begun on creating a so-called »Digital Twin« of the Francke Foundations as part of a pilot project that is unique in the country. A digital twin is a computer-generated three-dimensional model of a building or a complex of buildings. As part of the SmartCity programme, the city of Halle, for example, has created such a model of the entire city and uses it for traffic calculation and planning, as well as for forecasting the effects of weather events such as heavy rain.

The Francke Foundations’ pilot project aims to link digital models with a building management system (CAFM = Computer-Aided Facility Management), which is intended to support the maintenance and usage planning of the various buildings belonging to the Francke Foundations. For the Francke Foundations – a cultural and architectural monument unique in Europe, comprising 54 buildings spanning four centuries and over 40 different partner institutions that use these buildings – these are significant tasks. The pilot project aims to test the potential applications of digital twins for such a complex building complex and to enable a first step towards the digital future of the Francke Foundations.

INFRALYTICA GmbH has been secured as a partner for the project. INFRALYTICA was founded by Professor Guido Morgenthal at the Bauhaus University Weimar and is a leading provider in Germany of digital modelling services for infrastructure and heritage projects.

The one-year project is funded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Digital Affairs of the State of Saxony-Anhalt as part of the special fund »Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality«.