Document decomposition by content as a means for structuring building project information

Web‐based document management applications serve to store, organize, and manage a collection of documents within the context of a building project. The organization of documents, using mechanisms for indexing and relating these, aims to build an information structure that supports effective searching and browsing. We present a methodology for a stronger integration of project documents of different formats into a rich, highly interrelated, information structure. Specifically, we propose a decomposition of project documents by content in relation to a semantic structure for the categorization of document components. We consider a notion of typologies from architecture as a guide for constructing such a semantic structure. We discuss the application of this methodology to building projects, and propose its use in Web‐based document management applications in the AEC industry. As an illustration of this methodology, we describe a prototype application, as a presentation tool for architectural analyses in an educational context.