The editorial
Pour Rahimian, F., Dawood, N., GhaffarianHoseini, A., and Ghaffarianhoseini, AH. (2022). Guest editorial: Enabling the development and implementation of digital twins. Construction Innovation, 22(3), 405 to 411.
The theme
A digital twin is a live digital representation of a physical asset, connected to it by data, that can be used to monitor, predict and optimise its performance. In 2022 the concept was moving from manufacturing into construction and the built environment, and the special issue addressed what was needed to make that move: data standards, sensing, modelling, integration with BIM, and the organisational changes required for twins to be used rather than merely built.
Context and legacy
The special issue appeared in Construction Innovation, a Q1 journal, and was guest edited with Farzad Pour Rahimian, Nashwan Dawood and Amirhosein Ghaffarianhoseini, with Professors Anil Sawhney and Haijiang Li also serving as co-guest editors.
Digital twins have since become a central thread of his work: the Kaitiakitanga urban microclimate twin for Auckland, the wellbeing oriented framework for urban twins published in Cities, and his proposal for a CIB Task Group on Digital Twin Governance for the Built Asset Lifecycle. This editorial marks an early point in that trajectory.
Why it was timely
In 2022, digital twins were widely promoted in construction but loosely defined, and much of the literature described aspirations rather than working systems. A special issue focused on enabling development and implementation asked a more demanding question: what is actually required to make digital twins work in practice? That framing, from promise to implementation, has shaped the field since.