From 24 to 26 March 2026, Porto, Portugal hosted the buildingSMART International Summit — twice a year, this event brings together experienced openBIM advocates and newcomers alike: architects, engineers, project managers, software vendors, policymakers, and researchers all working toward the digital transformation of the built environment. This year, the Benelux Chapter showed up in remarkable force: 63 participants made the trip to Portugal, of whom 15 represented the Belgian subchapter. And they didn’t come just to listen!

Open Standards as the Engine of Innovation

One of the central themes running through the entire summit was the growing importance of open standards. buildingSMART’s family of standards — IFC, IDS, BCF, ISO 19650 and more — together form a shared language that ensures tools, teams, and processes can communicate, regardless of software vendor or national context.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, the demand for high-quality, structured building data is only increasing — generative design and architectural language models all require large quantities of building information as their foundation. Open standards are not an end in themselves, but a motor for innovation: they underpin applications like automated compliance checking, the Digital Building Permit, Product Data Passports, and AI-driven processes throughout the full lifecycle of a building.

Belgians in the Spotlight

The Belgian delegation did more than show up. They brought concrete projects and creative initiatives.

openBIM Hackathon — Rethinking Operations Before the Summit started, Louis Casteleyn also participated in the first-ever openBIM Hackathon, where 50 participants in 9 teams spent 48 hours tackling a real-world BIM challenge and developing a working prototype. Louis’ team developed IFC Commit. The concept: operators don’t need native models anymore, IFC is enough. The prototype demonstrated editing changes directly in IFC-based as-built models, with no dependency on proprietary authoring tools. This points toward a fundamental shift in how openBIM can be used in operations. If this approach scales, the logic of the BIM ecosystem changes: from tool dependency to data sovereignty.

FireBIM — Automated Fire Safety Compliance Checking Jenny Delacroix presented the European FireBIM project, which uses compliance checking to automatically verify fire safety norms at an early stage of design. The principle: fire safety requirements are translated into a machine-readable language, allowing models to be checked against those norms automatically. Earlier in the process, faster, and more reliable.

Want to know more about the project? Visit the projects website: ITEA 4 · Project · 22003 FireBIM

IDS Escape Game — Learning by Playing Louis Casteleyn, Luis Briones Alonso, Jari Verniers and Evy Verwimp introduced  the new IDS Escape Game. Participants had to escape from an online escape room by creating IDS files and using them to locate the correct element in a BIM model — which then contained a code to unlock the next stage of the game. We’ll be honest: we were a little secretly pleased that even the two openBIM PCert Practitioners in the room — Lex Ransijn and Arjan Toet — only just managed to escape within the hour 😊

Want to try to escape the IDS game yourself? Soon go and check out the download section!

BIM Management Game — Going Global The Building Information Management Game was played for the fourth time at the summit, Evy and Jari hosted the session in collaboration with Spain and Brazil — reflecting the game’s growing international reach. In this boardgame, players get hands-on with the ISO 19650 standard in a low-threshold, interactive way, discovering for themselves why making clear agreements upfront makes all the difference.

Want to try this game in your own organization? It’s available in the download section!

Alongside the presentations, we brought back another reason to celebrate: Jari, Matthise Gosselink en Jan Van Sichem all achieved the buildingSMART Foundation Professional Certification. Congratulations on this excellent achievement!

The Foundation programme is aimed at all stakeholders in the construction industry from building owners, designers, and consultants to contractors and project managers. The training helps participants understand the opportunities that collaboration in a virtual, openBIM environment can offer.

And now the good news: we are bringing this programme to Belgium. The Foundation training will soon be available through the Benelux Chapter (and hosted by Bimplan), giving Belgian professionals the opportunity to obtain this internationally recognised qualification. Keep an eye on our website and social channels for dates and registration details.

Looking Ahead — and a Call to Action

Beyond the sessions, this year’s summit made extra room for informal connection: a boat trip on the Douro, an early morning run along the river, and a sticker challenge rewarding participants for filling in surveys, asking questions in sessions, and sharing LinkedIn posts. The fastest participant at the summit was Jorden Schuit, board member of the Dutch Chapter.

We’re already looking forward to the next edition: 6 to 8 October 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. Will we manage to bring 15 Belgians again? Challenge accepted.

Want to help grow the openBIM community in Belgium?

We’re looking for enthusiastic people who want to get involved — whether you have ideas for new events, workshops, games, or projects, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch via buildingsmart.be and help us build a community where open standards become the natural foundation of the Belgian construction sector. Together, we make it happen.