Digital twin

Digital twin of buildings and municipalities

Outside the factory, digital twin means two things. For a municipality it is a digital scale model of an area you run calculation models on. For a building owner it is a model of one property with live data from the installations. This is what is happening in the Netherlands and where we fit in.

What a municipality does with it

Geonovum, the organisation for geo standards in the Netherlands, describes a digital twin of the living environment as a digital scale model containing the characteristics of an area. In that environment you run calculation models to see what an intervention does: how traffic will flow, where water will stand. Rotterdam is building a 3D model of the whole city, also for residents and partners, with an Open Urban Platform underneath.

Digital Twin as a Service

Geonovum works with provinces and municipalities on Digital Twin as a Service: a system of modular building blocks, such as data sources, visualisations and calculation models, that you reuse and share. Testbeds ran at the end of 2024 and in 2025, and in autumn 2026 the focus is AI and architecture patterns. The idea is that municipalities do not each build their own twin from scratch.

The standards for the built environment

On 16 October 2024, 39 chain partners signed the Bestuursakkoord Digitale Gebouwde Omgeving 2027. They agree to exchange data in one uniform way in design, permitting, construction and management, through the Digital System for the Built Environment. Between 2025 and 2027, 21 measures follow. For a twin that means building data will become available in a fixed form.

A twin of one building

For a warehouse, a hall or an office a twin is more concrete. The model comes from the dimensions of the property, the data from the installations: climate, energy, doors, machines. With that you see what the building does and calculate what an extension or a different layout means. SevenTwin builds such a model from three dimensions and a short description, directly in the browser, and connects to what is already running.

Where we fit in

We do not build city models. We build the twin of one property or one hall, with live data from the installations, and connect it where needed to the standards that municipalities and the construction sector agree on.

New build and extension: walk through the property before it exists.
Warehouse and logistics: racks, loading zones and dock doors calculated.
Energy: yield, consumption and storage over a whole year.

Frequently asked questions

Can my company connect to my municipality's twin?

That depends on the municipality. The building blocks of Digital Twin as a Service are meant to be shared. For your own property you do not need a municipal twin.

Do I need a BIM model?

No. A BIM model helps, but SevenTwin builds a model from the dimensions of the property and a short description. Live data from the installations matters more than drawings.

What is the Digital System for the Built Environment?

Agreements by the construction and installation sector on how building data is shared: the same standards and a secure way of exchanging.

Read on

What is a digital twin SevenTwin Digital Twin IoT and Smart Home

In this series

What is a digital twin Digital twin of a factory What does a digital twin cost All knowledge

Sources

Where every figure on this page comes from.

Our approach

From advice to management, with one partner

The same rhythm for every project.

Advice

We start with a conversation, not with code. First clarity on what you need and what you do not.

Build

We build and integrate to measure, with technology that fits you. You own your data and your code.

Manage

We stay involved: monitoring, adjusting and growing with your business.

Which property do you want to see?

With three dimensions and a short description there is a first model. Then we look at which data should go in.

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