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Digital Innovations in Architecture,
Engineering and Construction

Ian Gordon
Neil Thompson

Data and
the Built
Environment
A Practical Guide to Building a Better
World Using Data
Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering
and Construction

Series Editors
Diogo Ribeiro , Department of Civil Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Porto,
Porto, Portugal
M. Z. Naser, Glenn Department of Civil Engineering, Clemson University,
Clemson, SC, USA
Rudi Stouffs, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore,
Singapore, Singapore
Marzia Bolpagni, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is experiencing
an unprecedented transformation from conventional labor-intensive activities to
automation using innovative digital technologies and processes. This new paradigm
also requires systemic changes focused on social, economic and sustainability
aspects. Within the scope of Industry 4.0, digital technologies are a key factor in
interconnecting information between the physical built environment and the digital
virtual ecosystem. The most advanced virtual ecosystems allow to simulate the built
to enable a real-time data-driven decision-making. This Book Series promotes and
expedites the dissemination of recent research, advances, and applications in the
field of digital innovations in the AEC industry. Topics of interest include but are not
limited to:
– Industrialization: digital fabrication, modularization, cobotics, lean.
– Material innovations: bio-inspired, nano and recycled materials.
– Reality capture: computer vision, photogrammetry, laser scanning, drones.
– Extended reality: augmented, virtual and mixed reality.
– Sustainability and circular building economy.
– Interoperability: building/city information modeling.
– Interactive and adaptive architecture.
– Computational design: data-driven, generative and performance-based design.
– Simulation and analysis: digital twins, virtual cities.
– Data analytics: artificial intelligence, machine/deep learning.
– Health and safety: mobile and wearable devices, QR codes, RFID.
– Big data: GIS, IoT, sensors, cloud computing.
– Smart transactions, cybersecurity, gamification, blockchain.
– Quality and project management, business models, legal prospective.
– Risk and disaster management.
Ian Gordon · Neil Thompson

Data and the Built

Environment
A Practical Guide to Building a Better World
Using Data
Ian Gordon Neil Thompson
Arup AtkinsRéalis
London, UK London, UK

ISSN 2731-7269 ISSN 2731-7277 (electronic)

Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction
ISBN 978-3-031-51007-6 ISBN 978-3-031-51008-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51008-3

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2024

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Paper in this product is recyclable.

Acknowledgements

We want to start by thanking the generous people who volunteered their time to help
edit and review this book, and in doing so contributed massively to whatever clarity
and insight that this book musters. If any mistakes or inaccuracies remain, they are
our own.
Secondly, there is a thank you to those we cannot mention directly. There are
fingerprints all over this book in terms of guidance and memorable career moments.
We would like to thank the various communities we have leant on to learn and connect
with new knowledge. This includes the carefully crafted posts on LinkedIn by Ian to
crowdsource some wisdom to place in this book. For those that interacted, we hope
you find your pearls of wisdom sown into our book.
A special mention from Neil to Ian. Ian is the driving force behind this book;
he has poured his soul into these pages, and I have done my best to sprinkle my
experience around his prose. Thank you for sharing the journey with me, I am in
your debt!
There are a number of individuals who have informed our thinking on data and the
built environment, and who’s influence is explicit and implicit throughout this book.
These include Davin Crowley-Sweet who’s thinking on data capabilities informed
and clarified our own, Will Varah, Melissa Zanocco and Mark Enzer, who’s work
at the IPA and CDBB respectively provoked us to think bigger about data’s role in
the built environment, Sarah Hayes who’s writing on helped us to see data in a new
light, Miranda Sharp and Liam McGee who helped us to see meaning in data, Jon
Jarritt who’s healthy scepticism and wry sense of humour informed our style, and
Herman Heynes who captured the value of data better than anyone. We would like to
thank the following individuals for their extensive help in editing and reviewing this
book:
• Dexter Robinson, the first person to make it through the whole manuscript, and
a source of invaluable perspective and insight which allowed us to refine our
message.
• Daniel Rossiter, the pedant’s pedant, for keeping us consistent.
• Janet Greenwood, for pointing out our copious blind spots.

v
vi Acknowledgements

• Brian Westerman, secret data ninja.

• Dr. Jo White, for being a voice of reason.
• Steven Steer, for his extremely detailed and seer comments.
• The last minute Arup proofreading gang of Samantha Haylen, Lisa Horrocks,
Beccie Drake, and Chris Dobbie.
• Jo Lucas, for activating the mycelium.
• Jon Kerbey, for constructive challenge.
• Dr. Chloe Thompson-Booth, for checking our words on psychological issues and
encouraging Neil to pull his weight.
Contents

1 Purpose and Pedantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Why This Book and Why Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Structure of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Intended Outcomes of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Building on Established Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.1 Physical Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5.2 Data, Information, Knowledge, Insight, Wisdom . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5.3 Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.5.4 Organisations and Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.5.5 Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2 The Challenge of the Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1 Data and the Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 What Makes Built Environment Data Different? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3 Designing Equity: Planning, Cartography, Geography…
and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.4 Measuring Value Through Societal Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.4.1 Delivering New Economic Infrastructure to Drive
Improved Outcomes for People and Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.4.2 Place-Based Regeneration and Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4.3 Addressing the Need for Infrastructure Using
a Platform Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.4.4 Retrofitting Existing Buildings to Achieve Net Zero
Greenhouse Gas Emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.4.5 Optimising the Environmental Performance of Our
Existing Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.4.6 A Purpose-Driven Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

vii
viii Contents

2.5 Building for Extinction: Data and Survival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

2.5.1 Lowering the Carbon Impact of Construction . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.5.2 Increasing the Operational Sustainability of the Built
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.5.3 Supporting the Decarbonisation of Transport
and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.6 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.7 Ownership and Incentives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.7.1 Public Versus Private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.7.2 Data As Scorekeeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
2.8 Data Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
2.8.1 Sharing Commercial Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
2.8.2 Location Data for Transport Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.9 Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
2.9.1 Delivering Interoperability at the Mega Scale . . . . . . . . . . . 96
2.10 Data as a Valued Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3 Background Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.1 Relevant Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.1.1 Quality Management (ISO 9001 and BS 99001) . . . . . . . . . 109
3.1.2 Design and Construction (BS 1192, ISO 19650) . . . . . . . . . 111
3.1.3 Operations, Maintenance, and Asset Management
(BS 8536, PAS 55, ISO 55000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.1.4 Heritage and Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
3.2 Relevant Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3.2.1 Transforming Infrastructure Performance
(TIP)—Roadmap 2030 (IPA, 2021) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
3.2.2 Government Soft Landings (CDBB, 2019) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3.2.3 Construction Playbook (Cabinet Office, 2020) . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3.2.4 Data for the Public Good (National Infrastructure
Commission, 2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
3.2.5 Flourishing Systems (CDBB/CSIC, 2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.2.6 Independent Review of Building Regulations
and Fire Safety: Hackitt Review (MHCLG, 2018) . . . . . . . 131
3.3 Relevant Regulation and Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.3.1 Keeping Staff Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.3.2 Keeping Occupants Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.3.3 Protecting the Natural Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.3.4 Keeping Data Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
3.3.5 Making Data Transparent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
3.3.6 Encouraging Data Best Practice Through Regulation . . . . . 138
3.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Contents ix

4 Data and Organisational Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

4.1 Introduction: Meaning in Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.2 Data Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
4.2.1 What Does It Even Mean to Make Data-Driven
Decisions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.2.2 Time and Decision-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.2.3 Case Study: Data ‘Friction’ and the Music Industry . . . . . . 157
4.3 Stakeholder Engagement and Communities of Practice . . . . . . . . . 159
4.4 Writing a Data Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
4.5 Your Data Vision Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.6 Data Principles (and Ethics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.7 Data Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.8 Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
4.9 Data Outcomes and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.9.1 Sectoral Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.9.2 Organisational Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
4.10 Data Roles and Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
4.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
5 Delivering Data Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
5.1 Data Foundations/Precursors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
5.1.1 Data Governance and Data Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
5.1.2 Pragmatic Enterprise Data Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
5.1.3 A Practical Philosophy (a Data Dogma) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5.1.4 Ontology (Common Data Models) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
5.1.5 How to Build and Use an Ontology for Construction . . . . . 213
5.1.6 Starting with an ‘Entry-Level’ Taxonomy
or Business Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.1.7 Search and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
5.1.8 Unstructured Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
5.2 Delivering Successful Data Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
5.2.1 Delivering Through Traditional IT Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
5.2.2 Working with Legacy Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
5.2.3 Working for Construction Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
5.2.4 Delivering into Operational IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
5.2.5 Working Through Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.3 Procuring Successful Data Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.3.1 Ensuring Your Scope of Work is Deliverable . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
5.3.2 Competing and Evaluating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
5.3.3 Ways of Working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
5.3.4 Managing Ecosystems and Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
x Contents

5.3.5 Making Effective Use of Terms and Conditions . . . . . . . . . . 236

5.3.6 Procuring Across the Life Cycle of a Service . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
6 Radical Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6.1 On Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6.2 On Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
6.3 Digital Construction and Building Information Modelling
(BIM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
6.3.1 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
6.3.2 Dimensions and a Data-First Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
6.3.3 Emerging Technologies: Bridging the Gap Between
Digital and Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
6.3.4 Digital Heritage: Working with old and unique assets . . . . 271
6.3.5 Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
6.4 Data Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
6.4.1 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
6.4.2 Staff and Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
6.4.3 Prototyping and Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
6.4.4 Infrastructure—Warehouses, Lakes, Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
6.4.5 Human Psychology and BI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
6.5 Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
6.5.1 The Sub-four-minute Mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
6.5.2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
6.6 Emergent Behaviour: Applying the AI Paradigm Shift
to the Built Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
6.6.1 Primer: AI, LLMs, and Software 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
6.6.2 To AI or to Automate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
6.6.3 Categorising Our Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
6.6.4 Specialist Built Environment Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
6.6.5 Predictive Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
6.6.6 Data Science on Built Environment Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
6.7 Information, Everywhere: The Paradigm Shifts of IoT
and Cloud Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
6.7.1 What Is Smart? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
6.7.2 The Drawbacks and Ethics of Smart Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
6.8 Digital Rehearsal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
6.8.1 Parametric and Generative Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
6.9 Digital Twins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
6.9.1 Smart Buildings Versus Digital Twins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
6.9.2 Industrial Digital Twins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
6.9.3 From Construction to Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
6.9.4 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
6.9.5 National Digital Twinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Contents xi

6.9.6 Digital Twinning Across Industrial Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

6.10 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
7 How to Be a Data Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
7.1 How to Be a Data Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
7.2 How to Be a Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
7.3 How to Set a Positive Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
7.4 How to Be Conscious of Your Biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
7.5 How to Be Ethical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
7.6 How to Be Open Minded and Work with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
7.7 How to Sell a Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
7.8 How to Make Product Love, and Not Be Ruled by It . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
7.9 How to Take Accountability and How to Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
7.10 How to Grow Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
7.11 How to Respect Your Own Time and Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
7.12 How to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
7.13 How to Think About Mental Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
7.14 How Not to Take It All Personally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
7.15 How to Take Sustainability Seriously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
7.16 Epilogue: Of Bytes and Bricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
About the Authors

Welcome to this journey where data meets the built environment, and innovation
intertwines with years of hard-won expertise. In the following pages, you will have
the opportunity to delve into the world of advanced analytics, digital integration, and
sustainable construction, guided by two of the field’s most ardent professionals—Ian
Gordon and Neil Thompson.
Ian Gordon is a leader in Data Advisory and Advanced Analytics at Arup and
brings with him a wealth of experience in the realm of the built environment. Ian has
applied his extensive knowledge to several critical national infrastructure projects.
His commitment to using data for societal benefit is evident in his role at Arup, where
he aims to forge better outcomes for society through innovative data techniques. Ian
has held data (and data-adjacent) leadership positions at a range of large client orga-
nizations. Highlights include stints as Head of Data Architecture and Engineering
at National Highways, Project Director for System Integration on Thames Tideway,
Interim Head of Performance at Network Rail Southeast Route, and most recently
Head of Data at the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Program. Areas of
expertise include cloud-first data strategy, data architecture, data modeling (including
taxonomies and ontologies), data quality, data governance, data valuation, and the
application of AI/ML to real-world problems. Ian is also passionate about interoper-
ability and Digital Twins where he has collaborated with the Centre for Digital Built
Britain, the Infrastructure Client Group, Innovate UK, and the Digital Twin Hub.
Neil Thompson is a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, a
Chartered Construction Manager and Member of the Data Management Association.
Neil currently serves as the director of Digital Integration & Delivery at AtkinsRealis,
bringing a unique perspective as a Chief Technology Officer in a complex defence
portfolio and a member of a major joint venture senior leadership team. Neil is also
the chair of the Built Environment for the Institution of Engineering and Technology
and an Honorary Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construc-
tion, University College London. His academic background, paired with his prac-
tical experience, has positioned him as a leading voice in the industry, contributing
significantly to industry reports and policy formation on a global scale. Neil holds
a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honours in building services engineering, a

xiii
xiv About the Authors

Master of Science in Construction Economics and Management from the Bartlett,

University College London, and a Certification in Virtual Design and Construction,
Stamford USA.
Together, Ian and Neil provide a comprehensive view of how data, technology,
and innovative practices can be harnessed to revolutionize the built environment.
Their shared vision and diverse experiences culminate in this book, offering readers
insight into the future of infrastructure, technology, and sustainable development. So,
buckle up and prepare yourself for a journey through the realms of data, innovation,
and the built environment.
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Data, information, knowledge, insight pyramid, with added

inputs and outputs, and a bit of wisdom sprinkled on top . . . . . . 13
Fig. 1.2 An illustrated taxonomy of data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Fig. 1.3 An illustration of the four types of data in practice . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Fig. 2.1 A Venn diagram illustrating how some of the different
concepts covered in this section overlap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Fig. 2.2 A simple metamodel describing how data and technology
deliver outcomes to asset-centric organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fig. 2.3 “Asks” of data to realise environmental, social, and sectoral
outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Fig. 3.1 The principal papers and standards informing this chapter . . . . . 108
Fig. 3.2 Atkins digital pathway circa 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fig. 3.3 The Digital Pathway–post-workshop output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fig. 3.4 The Digital Pathway–Business Logic Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Fig. 3.5 An expanded metamodel of the value delivered to society
by data, technology, and physical assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Fig. 3.6 An illustration of the trade-off between risk mitigation
and data sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Fig. 4.1 Relationships between a data function and the wider
organisation (business) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Fig. 4.2 The goldilocks zone of data strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Fig. 4.3 A semi-serious map of decision-making within a built
environment organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Fig. 4.4 Transactions and latency wave theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Fig. 4.5 An example four by four data capability matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Fig. 4.6 An extension of the ‘data types’ model from Chap. 1,
showing how different data types feed into indicative use
cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Fig. 4.7 Indicative data use cases—social, environmental, health
safety and quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Fig. 4.8 Indicative data use cases—project delivery, maintenance,
and operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
xv
xvi List of Figures

Fig. 4.9 Indicative data user cases—business support functions . . . . . . . . 180

Fig. 4.10 The role data plays in realising positive outcomes
for the built environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Fig. 4.11 Outcomes associated with specifying your data
requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Fig. 4.12 Outcomes associated with measuring and improving your
data quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Fig. 4.13 Outcomes associated with making your data accessible . . . . . . . 187
Fig. 4.14 Outcomes associated with deriving value from your data . . . . . . 188
Fig. 4.15 Outcomes associated with ensuring your information
security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Fig. 4.16 Indicative data role taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Fig. 4.17 Mapping of roles to data requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Fig. 5.1 AtkinsRealis—data governance model. Credit to James
Trinder and Andrew Cox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Fig. 5.2 Visualisation of an ontology using Protege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Fig. 5.3 Visualisation of an ontology using OntoPop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Fig. 5.4 Delivering successful data projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Fig. 5.5 Delivering value from data services in the context of an IT
department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Fig. 6.1 The economics of digital technology (a rough guide) . . . . . . . . . 249
Fig. 6.2 Measuring Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Fig. 6.3 A presentation slide by the Construction Leadership
Council’s BIM2050 Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Fig. 6.4 Overlapping digital construction technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Fig. 6.5 Built environment organisation data use cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Fig. 6.6 Examples of built environment use cases that require using
multiple data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Fig. 6.7 BI process—outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Fig. 6.8 BI process—as implemented . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Fig. 6.9 Axes of analytical maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Fig. 6.10 An analytical maturity journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Fig. 6.11 Pre-LLM knowledge creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Fig. 6.12 Post-LLM knowledge creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Fig. 6.13 Data science techniques through the life cycle of a built
environment project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Fig. 6.14 What the people think, what is a smart building? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Fig. 6.15 High level abstraction of Smart Building concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Fig. 6.16 Project utility function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Fig. 6.17 Hierarchy of internet platforms over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Fig. 6.18 An illustration of capabilities in a building context . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Fig. 6.19 The BIG BIM opportunity circa 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Fig. 6.20 The Digital Twin Ripple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Fig. 6.21 Components of a federated digital twin architecture . . . . . . . . . . 332
Fig. 7.1 Every origami and data project ever… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
List of Tables

Table 1.1 Data types and their practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Table 2.1 The public to private divides in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Table 4.1 Your data questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Table 6.1 Applications of technology mapped to Cynefin domains . . . . . . 244
Table 6.2 The numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Table 6.3 Knowledge and knowhow with respect to technology
applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Table 6.4 Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Table 6.5 Identification of AI snake oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

xvii
Chapter 1
Purpose and Pedantry

Abstract Our built environment is the sum of all the stuff that human beings have
built and maintained. We all use it every day. It is how we move around, how we feed
and shelter ourselves. We use it to make our lives both more rewarding and comfort-
able. We depend upon it every day and suffer when it fails. As data emerged as a
phenomenon, then as a noun, and ultimately a profession, it changed large parts of
our lived experience, but left our experience of the built environment untouched. This
book seeks to describe if and how we can use data to help make the built environment
work better for society. This chapter covers the unique challenges and opportunities
presented to data professionals working in the built environment sector. It sets out
the structure, purpose, and philosophy of the book, and begins to establish what
words like data, information, knowledge, insight, and wisdom mean in the context
of the built environment. Your authors are both built environment and data fanatics.
We have been lucky enough to work for some of the largest physical asset owners
in the UK (and beyond). In doing so we have witnessed the unique challenges and
rewards that come from trying to apply data to the benefit of the built environment.
We have also drawn upon our extensive networks of subject matter experts across
the sector to inform and critique our thinking. We want readers to finish this chapter
with a useful overview of the main considerations involved in designing, communi-
cating, and implementing data strategies and solutions in the built environment sector.
These considerations include the economic, human, and technological dimensions.
During this chapter, we also consider the distinct types of data that built environment
data roles must cover, and the different perspectives that readers might bring to this
material.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 1

I. Gordon and N. Thompson, Data and the Built Environment, Digital Innovations in
Architecture, Engineering and Construction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51008-3_1
2 1 Purpose and Pedantry

1.1 Why This Book and Why Now?

Data isn’t neutral. Like any other tool, it can cause harm when used with the wrong inten-
tions… how data and digital technology are used in the built environment impacts all of us,
and all of us have a role in deciding the outcomes we want.—CDBB, Four Futures, One
Choice.

This is a love story about the built environment and the data it produces.
Like all good love stories, there is a meet-cute, followed by a blossoming romance,
followed by betrayal and heartbreak, followed by reunion.
Will our couple live happily ever after, or pass like ships in the night?
The purpose of this book is to express clearly and categorically how data, and the
digital technologies that use data, can help the built environment sector deliver value
to society. Whilst we want to avoid being deliberately over-prescriptive, we wish to
give you enough of a methodology such that you can say “I understand what I want
to accomplish with data, how I am roughly going to get there, and how it will add
value to my work.” We have sought to write in an honest and compelling manner
that allows you to understand how the topics covered apply to challenges you might
face in this sector.
Data isn’t solely a thing that Information Technology (IT) does. It is a resource
that we use as we seek to improve the built environment. Data, and the meaningful
information that we create with data, have always been part of the work of built envi-
ronment professionals, even if data professions have only recently become elevated
as distinct roles within the built environment sector. As investment in the collection
and application of data increases across the built environment sector, and as more
client, contractor, and consultant organisations build dedicated data functions and
define their data visions and strategies, it feels like an opportune moment to take
stock of what these changes might mean for the built environment and the people
who rely upon it.
Our transition into a globalised and interconnected digital economy has seen
the recognition of data as a valued asset, and the rise of a new profession–the
data manager–to function as its custodian.1 This profession has been at the heart
of enabling these new firms (and their intangible value) to scale to unprecedented
magnitudes in terms of data flow, storage, and computation.2 In this book we want
to bridge the gap between the emergent data managers (represented by the Data
Management Association) and the established information management practice of
the built environment sector (typified by Nima, previously the UK BIM Alliance).

1 Or at least individuals who would self-identify as data owners. The built environment has a long
history of individuals compiling information to make better decisions, beginning with the likes of
Dr John Snow who we discuss later in this book.
2 Indeed, as Dexter Robinson noted on reviewing this book, one could even argue that data and

digital technologies have revealed the value of intangible assets that was always there was not easy
to measure. As he noted, “you could argue that because of data and digital systems intangible assets
are now easier to measure and therefore we now put value against them.”
1.1 Why This Book and Why Now? 3

Over the past four decades, we have witnessed a profound and invisible change
in the global economy. In 1975 ‘tangible’ assets accounted for over 80% of the
value of the S&P 500 stock market index. By 2018 this figure had fallen to less
than 20% of the total value (Visual Capitalist, 2020). The most valuable assets in the
world are no longer physical things like factories, pipelines, gold, or oil. Whilst such
assets are clearly still valuable, they are now dwarfed in value terms by ‘intangible’
assets such as brands, intellectual property, algorithms, market share, acquired rights,
and–increasingly–data.
Data is itself an intangible asset. Moreover, data allows us to capture and measure
other intangible assets. Branding and intellectual property in the form of TV adver-
tising, logos, and jingles existed long before intangible assets dominated company
valuations. Part of the difference is that more of our economy, and our lives, have
become digitised. This digitisation in turn generate data that allow us to better identify
and quantify activity and economic value.
Over this same period, the built environment sector has both underperformed and
over-polluted. Construction alone accounts for 9% of EU GDP (European Commis-
sion, n.d.) and 13% of global carbon emissions (Architecture 2030, 2023). As a
sector it usually sees only 1% annual productivity gains (McKinsey & Co., 2017),
average margins in the developed world of far less than 5% (Turner & Townsend,
2022), rework costs amounting to 5% of the average project budget (Get It Right
Initiative, 2020), and average losses of up to 20% of project time on schedule over-
runs (McKinsey & Co., 2016). The built environment sector, including construction,
accounts for almost 40% of global emissions (Architecture 2030, 2023). This is a
self-reinforcing state of both financial and environmental stagnation. One that—to
date at least—the use of data has failed to meaningfully address.
The transition to a digital economy has left the built environment sector behind.
In addition to anecdotal evidence, we can detect the traces of slow digitisation in
the built environment sector’s slow rate of productivity growth compared to other
sectors3 and the lack of executive maturity in realising the strategic value of data
(Harvey Nash & KPMG, 2018). The built environment will–and should always–
focus on tangible assets. But the sector has yet to become ‘data centric’ or ‘data
savvy’. Whilst innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) offer the
possibility of far greater data capture from physical assets, we remain in a period of
transition where the marginal cost of data in the built environment often far exceeds
the cost of data collection in other sectors.
We are now at liberty to digitise, virtualise, and measure huge parts of our lives:
socialising, shopping, exercise, health, finances, and romance. But we can’t (yet)
fully virtualise the infrastructure that meets our human needs for shelter, water, heat,
transport, power, and (in most instances) care. And our seemingly weightless digital
economy relies on huge investments in physical assets like fibre, telecoms, base
stations, and data centres.

3According to McKinsey, “Global labour-productivity growth in construction has averaged only

1% a year over the past two decades, compared with growth of 2.8% for the total world economy
and 3.6% in manufacturing.” (McKinsey & Co., 2017)
4 1 Purpose and Pedantry

However, we can’t completely digitise physical things out of existence, nor can we
wish away the impact the physical and carbon footprint of the built environment plays
in driving the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, damage from natural disasters, and
insidious economic inequality. As Jo Da Silva writes, “over the coming decades, the
combination of rapid urbanisation and climate change is set to create a ‘perfect storm’
in terms of increasing vulnerability (Da Silva, 2012). Our built environment, which
we construct to shelter and protect us, is conversely one of the greatest hazards when
natural disasters (exacerbated in frequency and severity by climate change) strike.
That might mean buildings collapsing during earthquakes, urban areas with poor
drainage increasing the impact of flooding, and other forms of loss or damage to the
infrastructure that we rely upon to support us.
In describing the risks posed from failure to adapt our built environment to
emerging climate crises, Da Silva expresses eloquently a theme that will arise
throughout this book: the impact of complexity on the societal outcomes provided by
the built environment. Complexity gives rise to what Da Silva describes as “cascading
failure due to inter-relationships between infrastructure, institutions and ecosystems,”
where “our ability to accurately predict and prevent the consequences of a disaster is
limited by our ability to understand and model the dependencies and interdependen-
cies between different parts of a system (Da Silva, 2012).” The built environment is
a complex system-of-systems, one that has only become possible due to a massive
increase in the quantity and velocity of information exchange between organisations,
locations, and people. Whilst this system-of-systems has granted billions of people,
particularly in the Western world, an unprecedented standard of living, the merits of
its complexity should not be confused with what Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes
as ‘anti-fragility’ (Taleb, 2012). Interdependencies created to improve short-term
efficiency can remove redundancy and increase the fragility of our built environment
systems.
Data has played a crucial role in enabling the hallmarks of our age such as
globalisation, distributed just-in-time manufacturing, near-instantaneous market-
making and trading, ecommerce, personalised medicine, constant connectivity, social
networks, and data harvesting. These have in turn shaped the scale and density of our
built environment. What data has yet to accomplish is helping the built environment
to sustainably accommodate the repercussions of these developments, or to reduce
fragility and increase resiliency. As the EPSRC write, the sector suffers from “slow
adoption of proven technologies, large amounts of carbon emissions… and projects
that are often over cost and over budget (EPSRC-NSF, 2023).” Modern society has
birthed a Lovecraftian ‘Shoggoth’ (New York Times, 2023) of over-development
and over-consumption without yet providing us with the tools to limit the ensuing
destruction.
This book seeks to describe in detail how we, as data professionals working on
the built environment, should seek to make effective use of the intangible ‘data
domain.’ But it doesn’t lose sight of how those working in this sector—unlike more
mature business to consumer (B2C) and intangible sectors such as retail, finance, and
consumer tech—will always be defined by how they care for our physical domain
(and the natural world that supports it). This principle informs how we think about
1.1 Why This Book and Why Now? 5

the application of data, including the unique challenges of collecting data on physical
assets, storing it in an appropriate manner, and making use of that data to drive our
actions in the physical world.
Increasingly, the problems that strike large-scale built environment projects have
their roots in data and the systems that use data. The well-documented delays to Cross-
rail (the Elizabeth Line) resulted not, as one might expect, from the civil engineering
works required to dig the enormous tunnels and cathedral-like stations. Rather,
according to insiders and reports, the delays had their root in complex information-
based problems, including incompatibilities between signalling systems and ‘silo
thinking’ across disciplines (Wired, 2019). Of course, that doesn’t mean that all that
is required to solve these kinds of challenges are people with data skills. On the
contrary, what the built environment sector needs is people with data skills who
are also engineers, project managers, designers, and other systems-based thinkers.
Organisations need a critical mass of people who are data aware and digitally minded
effecting meaningful change, and they cannot all work for IT or have the word data
in their job title. These data-augmented professionals can then add data capabilities
to their organisation’s existing subject matter expertise and ways of working. The
complexity of projects such as Crossrail demand these cross-cutting capabilities to
continue to improve delivery.
In a sector that does not yet always think in terms of data, we often attribute
data problems to human failure. Many of the issues that bedevil megaprojects have
their origin in the use of complex data processing challenges, including optimism
bias in costs estimates and benefits projects (Reuters, 2023), working around bottle-
necks in the programme (Construction News, 2020), agreeing a regulated asset base
funding model (New Civil Engineer, 2023), or monitoring and managing supplier
performance.
These examples are all—at their root—questions of how built environment clients
capture and make use of the data that is available to them.4 Used well, data can help
organisations make decisions in a manner congruent with the complexity of projects
and allow them to anticipate, identify, and respond to problems before they become
untenable. Used poorly (or disingenuously), data can become a smokescreen between
the reality on the ground, and what we report outwards.
The built environment sector has the added challenge of often arbitrary dis-
continuities in responsibility between the stages of the asset life cycle. Even the most
basic of assets (a house for example) have become complex integration projects. Done
well, the use of data will reduce the information boundaries commonly seen in the
built environment between the different asset life cycle stages and the associated loss
of knowledge/creation of rework. It will realise greater sustainability by minimising
the number of carbon-intensive real-world activities required and by allowing us to

4 As we write, Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner released an expertly constructed account of how to
get significant and complex things done. Combining the behavioural economics of Daniel Kahneman
with his own experience and data collected on project delivery. From Flyvbjerg’s point of view
we need to ‘think slowly well’ and make impact through our data and information management
strategies and implementations (Bent Flyvbjerg, 2023).
6 1 Purpose and Pedantry

track our use of carbon across our work. The built environment exists to meet soci-
eties’ needs, and data has a sizable and unrealised role to play in improving how well
it does so.
We hope that this book will appeal to readers looking to make better use of built
environment data in their work, whether data is a complementary part of a broader
role, or the entirety of their role. Data is a creative rather than prescriptive pursuit.
Methods and aesthetics will vary with the skill and inclination of users. One cannot
mandate ‘proper’ use of data any more than one can mandate proper uses of any tool.
Part of the role of a data professional is to create some norms for the use of data in
our sector, and in doing so place boundaries around what constitutes allowable and
responsible use of data. As data professionals our role is to improve data practice
within our organisations, whether this is defining strategy, recruiting talent, creating
shared meaning, deploying infrastructure, or delivering analyses. Sometimes we
will work in isolation, other times we will function as an enabler, sowing a field of
possibilities for others to harvest.

1.2 Structure of This Book

We want to reckon with both the unique challenges and opportunities presented by
the built environment, covering both the established standards that we currently work
to, and the emerging thinking around how we can do better. Over the course of this
book, we approach the question of improving the outcomes of the built environment
through better use of data from several different angles, namely:
• Establishing the problem statement that we are trying to answer for the built
environment sector, as well as useful definitions to avoid confusion with data
terminology (this chapter).
• Describing the purpose of the built environment, and what makes the application
of data to the built environment meaningful, unique, and beneficial to society and
the wider natural environment (Chap. 2).
• How the built environment sector currently thinks about the opportunities created
by data, and how industry standards inform our data use (Chap. 3).
• How to create a meaningful data vision for a built environment organisation. How
to build a positive data culture within a built environment organisation and capture
the benefits of data (Chap. 4).
• How to define, procure, and deliver data projects in built environment organisa-
tions (Chap. 5).
• Specific technologies that apply data to built environment challenges (Chap. 6).
• What it means to be a data professional working in the built environment sector
(Chap. 7).
1.3 Intended Outcomes of This Book 7

Broadly the book progresses through three themes:

• Context (this chapter, 2 and 3): What is data, how does it apply to the built
environment, and what can you learn from the existing body of knowledge in this
area?
• Meaning (Chaps. 4 and 5): What does data mean to the built environment?
What should your data vision be, and how will realising that vision help your
organisation to succeed?
• Method (Chaps. 6 and 7): What is the roadmap of investment required to realise
this vision on a built environment project or estate? How will you deploy key
technologies, and how will you set up your data projects for success? How will
your leadership approach impact your success?
To provide context, we focus on looking outwards, to understand the collective
knowledge, history, and context of data and the built environment. Built Environment
organisations do not exist in isolation, the environment itself rarely acknowledges
such arbitrary boundaries. We superimpose the human world onto the natural world,
whilst interdependencies interweave and bind infrastructure owners. And so, our
approach to data must build upon and harmonise with the approach taken by our
predecessors and peers. To use data effectively we need to learn from history and
from each other. To avoid repeating the mistakes of others we need to understand
the evolution of capability across our sector. Once we know what good data practice
looks like we can adapt it to meet the specific requirements and idiosyncrasies of our
specific roles and organisations.

1.3 Intended Outcomes of This Book

Fundamentally, our use of data should improve the outcomes that the built environ-
ment delivers to its users and society, and reduce its detrimental impact on the natural
world. We want you to feel that you have the perspective required to function as a
data professional and to understand how to deploy data techniques within and beyond
your organisation to improve its impact on the built and natural environments. There
are opportunities to use data whatever your rank in your organisational hierarchy, but
we particularly want you to feel confident in expressing the value of data to leadership
(the so-called C-suite) within your organisation and wider stakeholder environment.
We understand that there are a wide range of different data roles, perspectives, and
contexts even within the built environment niche. We have sought to write in a way
that can be adapted to fit these different contexts.
Your role might be an internal ‘client side’ one, where you are delivering infras-
tructure and management systems for your own firm. Or it might be external, where
you are advising and consulting others on how to best make the case for data invest-
ment or creating a roadmap for implementation. Perhaps you may be delivering a
project as a supply chain member, either acting as a single party up to delivering as
a partner of a JV, consortium, or any large-scale enterprise. You might even think
8 1 Purpose and Pedantry

of yourself primarily as an architect, engineer, project manager, surveyor, or asset

manager, with little oversight of data at all. In reading this book, however, you have
begun to recognise the opportunity to augment your ways of working with better use
of data.
Whatever the context of your role, we want to provide you with:
1. An analysis of the challenges that face the built environment sector and how data
can help address those challenges. This includes better meeting society’s needs
whilst reducing the harm done to the natural environment.
2. An overview of the application of data to the built environment, the unique
challenges in this space, and the body of knowledge that already exists, as well
as the tools you need to create a meaningful vision for your own data practice.
3. An understanding of the organisational challenges that you may encounter when
trying to deliver data change into a built environment organisation, particularly
people and processes as well as personal challenges.
4. An overview of the current data and technology landscape. Particularly the estab-
lished and emerging data solutions that are available to improve the construction,
maintenance, and operation of physical assets.
This book is not:
1. An academic text. However, as a vital aspect of our evidence-driven approach to
curating the contents of this book, we will provide reference points to research
that has demonstrated results in practice.
2. A prescriptive text where you need to follow our advice and procedures exactly.
Our intention is to share our experiences combined with leading practice that
will need adaptation to your specific context.
3. A vendor specific solution. We strive to provide vendor agnostic frameworks.
We appreciate it is hard to provide practical examples without the specifics of
vendor solutions. We will try to keep to functional requirements and focal points
to help you hold your technology supply chain to account.
There was some debate as to whether this book should be entitled Data and the
Built Environment or Digital and the Built Environment. Often, we use these two
terms (data, digital) interchangeably, other times they are vastly different fiefdoms
that hardly acknowledge each other. We chose to use the word ‘data’ because we
believe that it is more focused and better defined than digital. In practice the term
‘digital’ covers a wide range of practices from online comms and publishing through
the specific applications of technology. This book dives into the use of emerging
technologies, but always seeks to take a ‘built environment first’ and ‘data first’
perspective where the focus is less on the specificities or functionalities of software
solutions, and more on the change that data can enable across the built environment
sector.
1.4 Building on Established Practice 9

1.4 Building on Established Practice

Built environment organisations, like people, are unique. It is these organisations that
take responsibility for improving and renewing the built environment. This might
be through new construction (e.g., projects) or through the on-going operation and
maintenance of existing infrastructure. Every project and every organisation will
bring unique geographic, architectural, logistical, cultural, and political challenges.
And yet they will all share some common features, and this is just as true for their
application of data.
Those that work in the built environment often speak of the ‘asset life cycle’: plan,
design, construct/build, operate, maintain, renew, dispose (give or take a few words).
There are various flavours of the standard life cycle; for example, the RIBA Plan of
Work or Network Rail’s PACE (formerly GRIP) stages, as well as broader overlays
such as the election cycle, or the five-yearly regulatory cycle that many public sector
infrastructure organisations follow.
In parallel, those that work in data will talk of the information life cycle: specify,
collect, collate, use/analyse, visualise/present, archive, dispose (again, the exact
formulation varies). These life cycles—however overly-simplistic—help us to orien-
tate ourselves within our organisations and projects, as well as when we change
projects or employers. If you know, for example, that you are leading on a data colla-
tion/aggregation solution to support a project in the ‘build’ stage then you already
have a decent idea of some of the types of data you are working with (e.g., models,
schedules, costs) and some of the use cases that you might be asked to meet (e.g.,
design visualisation, scheduling, ‘earned value analysis’), as well as some of the
data technologies that might be relevant. These answers will all vary if you move to
work on a different asset or data life cycle stage. The point is that whilst every built
environment project is different, patterns and conventions do exist and are important
to recognise.
Data creates value for the built environment sector only when used to improve the
actions that we take in the physical world. It is a question of getting the right data, to
the right people, with the right skills, at the right time. So, if data is failing to create
value, then there are a few obvious causes to investigate:
• Business and information architecture: has the organisation defined what it wants
to accomplish with data? Is there a generally accepted and working theory on how
and where data will make a difference to the organisation? Does it know what data
it holds, and who should be using it? Is that data easy to access, with appropriate
controls around permissions, version control, and other hygiene factors? Are the
staff who should be using data aware of this expectation, and have they been
trained in how to do so? Have they been sold on why they should adapt their ways
of working to make better use of data?
• Data quality: Is the data provided to users inaccurate or incomplete? This could be
because a lack of data modelling means that the data requirements are not speci-
fied, or because a lack of data governance means that it’s unclear who is empow-
ered to ensure that the data is fit-for-purpose. Data quality is key to ensuring that
organisations trust their own data, and thus their own decision-making processes.
10 1 Purpose and Pedantry

There are many whizzy tools (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, or Alation) that allow
you to scan your enterprises’ entire data estate for data quality issues. However,
the quickest fix for data quality is likely to be through business change, namely
creating a culture of data ownership, and introducing data stewardship obligations
and training to existing roles.
• User interfaces: the more people using data the better the outcomes we will see,
but data can be hard to use or interpret. Often the software used in the built
environment sector does not make it easy for people to access and use data in
their work. Delivering value from data means understanding what your users are
trying to accomplish with data or where they most need data. We should then seek
out user-friendly technologies ways to make that data available, whether than is
a handheld app, a business intelligence (BI) dashboard, or a chatbot. We must
also invest in the data pipelines to ensure that the data people have access to is
complete, authoritative, and up to date.
• Training and role definition: everyone learns in their own way. Some people like to
pick up technology and learn by doing, while others need structured training and a
well-defined set of goals or responsibilities. There’s no right way of doing things,
but organisations that do not define the data roles and skills that they need, and
provide training for staff to get there, will be making life harder for themselves.
Solving these issues will go a long way towards enabling better use of data on
built environment projects, particularly if complemented by a broader effort to build
their data culture.
Once the basics are in place, there exist a range of established and emerging data-
driven solutions that can demonstrably help the built environment to deliver better
outcomes for society.
These include better approaches to:
• People.
• Process.
• Organisational culture.
As well as technologies such as:
• Digital construction.
• GIS.
• Analytics.
• BI.
• Data science and AI.
• IoT and Smart buildings.
• Digital rehearsals.
• Digital twins.
Currently within the sector, adoption is patchy (at best), but the promise is there.
What these solutions have in common is that they rely upon, and make use of, data
of far greater quantity and quality than is readily accessible to most built environ-
ment organisations today. These solutions realise a return on investment through
efficiencies in how we interact with the physical world: by reducing unnecessary or
redundant use of scarce resources (particularly labour). Examples include:
1.5 Definitions 11

• Using clash detection to correct errors in design before going to site.

• Leveraging AI and digital rehearsal to optimise the sequencing of site logistics.
• Deploying smart buildings and digital twins to move from reactive to predictive
‘just in time’ maintenance routines.
What these techniques have in common is that they allow organisations to use
human resources more effectively by reducing redundant or abortive work. Construc-
tion and maintenance resources are expensive, and most such work requires taking
assets out of service. Consequently, data solutions will best realise a return on
investment where they result in fewer, shorter, and better-sequenced interventions to
physical assets.
Every organisation presents its own unique challenges—they might be driven by
big personalities, small budgets, tight timescales, or conflicting demands—and so a
truly cookie-cutter approach will rarely work. Your use of data should draw on a body
of practice that is far larger than any one role, project, specialism, or organisation.
Your approach to themes such as cloud computing, data modelling, data governance
or business intelligence (to name but a few) should build upon effective practices
established by others facing similar challenges.
This book surveys the broad expanse of data and the built environment, identifying
lessons learned from established practice, and highlighting some of the good, the bad,
and the ugly. In doing so it seeks to set out a trajectory that can increase the speed
and reduce the risk of your use of data.

1.5 Definitions

Information is not a thing; rather, it is the arrangement of physical things. It is physical

order, like what distinguishes different shuffles of a deck of cards—Cesar Hidalgo, Why
Information Grows

Definitions are core to how we approach data. Used well, data should reduce
ambiguities within an organisation by bringing discipline to how you define your
terms and measures. Part of the fun of having a data-related role is that you have
licence to be a pedant, particularly when it concerns the meanings of words. Some
might even argue that this is core to the role. But pedantry is a double-edged sword, we
can’t expect the organisations that we work for to have a consistent and unambiguous
lexicon if we don’t first try to meet that standard ourselves.
You want your work to be legible to others, we want this book to be legible to
you. Clarity and consistency of definitions around language are crucial to avoiding
confusion whether one is selling a vision, setting out a strategy, or making the case
for investment in data.
12 1 Purpose and Pedantry

1.5.1 Physical Things

This book is about how we can use data—an intangible, weightless, digital thing—to
improve the outcomes of the real world. Throughout the writing process, we reminded
ourselves not to stray too far into the data world but to always return to the real,
physical world. Data is not a good unto itself. We care about data because of what it
can tell us about the real things that enable our lived experience. Specifically, we are
predominantly concerned with the physical assets that human beings create in the real
world to meet society’s needs. Throughout the book, we call these things physical
assets. ISO 55000 defines an asset as an “item, thing or entity that has potential or
actual value to an organisation.” Following ISO 55000, this book dives into how we
can use one type of asset (data assets), to improve the outcomes that we realise from
another type of asset (physical assets).
When referring to the collection assets that we work on, we use the phrase ‘built
environment’ as it feels that this term works best as a parent term. This parent term
may encompass construction, infrastructure, asset management, buildings, property,
facilities, operations, and so on. When using a noun to distinguish the built environ-
ment from other parts of the economy or professional fields we will use the term
‘sector’ (rather than ‘industry’). When we talk about the work of the data profession,
we will tend to use the term ‘domain.’ Following these definitions, this book is about
the intersection of the data domain and the built environment sector. When distin-
guishing between the built and natural environments, and between infrastructure and
the built environment, we will follow the excellent definitions from Transforming
Infrastructure Performance (Varah, 2021):
• Built environment: the human-made or induced surroundings that provide the
setting for human activity.
• Natural environment: all living and non-living things occurring naturally (e.g.,
not human-made).
• Infrastructure: the physical assets and services needed for the operation of human
society, a sub-set of the built environment.
Much of this book focuses on the management and interpretation of data to create
and use information, knowledge, insight, and even wisdom. None of these activities
are goods unto themselves, but things we do to improve decision-making and our
interaction with the physical world.

1.5.2 Data, Information, Knowledge, Insight, Wisdom

Human beings have lots of different words for records of things. Reference to the
DIKIW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Insight, Wisdom) pyramid (pictured below)
allows us to draw a clear distinction between terms. There is often some ambiguity
on this front within and between organisations, and so where possible we will seek to
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
others {661} cited by Cornelius à Lapide, who all teach that children
dying without baptism lead a happier life than those who are living
on the earth. Lessius writes, that although they may be said to be
damned because eternally deprived of the celestial glory for which
they were created, it is nevertheless credible that their state is far
happier and more joyful than that of any mortal man in this life.
Salmeron says, these children will rise again through Christ and
above this natural order, where they will daily advance in the
knowledge of the works of God and of separate substances, will
have angelic visits, and will be like our rustics living in the
country, so that as they are in a medium between glory and
punishment, they will also occupy an intermediate place. Suarez
says, that children will remain in their natural good and will be
content with their lot; and, together with Marsilius as quoted by
Azor, he describes to them a knowledge and love of God above
all things, and the other natural virtues. Didacus Ruiz, a theologian
of extensive reading, lays down this conclusion: Great mercy will be
mingled with the punishment of infants dying in original sin,
although not a diminution of the punishment of loss, since that is
incapable of diminution; yet in the remission of death which was the
punishment directly do to original sin, and would naturally have
endured to eternity, so that in spite of this infants will be
resuscitated at the day of judgment nevermore to die, endowed with
supernatural incorruptibility and impassibility, and they will also
supernaturally receive accidental, infused sciences, and will be
liberated from all pain, sadness, sickness, temptations, and personal
sins, which are naturally wont to arise from original sin.
Consequently, they are liberated from the punishment of hell which
they might have incurred. Albert (the Great), Alexander (de Hales),
and St. Thomas agree with this doctrine. Suarez shows that these
children obtain some benefit, in a certain way, from the merits of
Christ; and says that it pertains to the glory of Christ that he should
be adored and acknowledged as prince and supreme judge on the
day of universal judgment even by infants who died without grace.
He also considers it more probable that they will understand that
they have done neither good nor evil, and therefore receive neither
glory nor pain of sense, and also that they are deprived of glory on
account of sin (that is, original). He adds the reason of this, to wit,
that they may understand the benefit which they received, first in
Adam and afterward in Christ, and on this account may worship and
adore him. Martinonus adds: when even the demons love God in a
certain way even more than themselves as the common good of all,
according to St. Thomas, why shall not these children love Christ as
their benefactor and the author of their resurrection, and of the
benefits which they receive with it through Christ, who is the
destroyer of corporeal as well as spiritual death? He cites also what
Suarez says, that although one who should speak of the bodies of
infants in the same way as of the other damned would say nothing
improbable, since St. Thomas speaks of all indifferently, nevertheless
since those bodies will have a greater perfection and some gifts or
benefits which are not at all due to nature, therefore, in regard to
these gifts, Christ may be said to be their model. The same
Martinonus subjoins: although those words of the apostle, "In Christ
all shall be made alive," Suarez affirms, must be properly and
principally understood of the predestined, nevertheless they can
probably be applied to a certain extent to these children, inasmuch
as they will have in their risen bodies a certain special conformity
and relation to Christ, which will be much less and more imperfect in
the damned than in the predestined. Nicholas de Lyra affirms that
"infants dying without baptism do not endure any sensible
punishment, but have a more delightful {662} life than can be had in
this present life, according to all the doctors, [Footnote 185] who
speak concerning those who die in original sin alone."

[Footnote 185: This is true of the great majority, but not

of all.]

Those who die in actual sin, and the fallen angels, although in the
same state of existence with those who die in original gin only, that
is, in the Infernum, or sphere below the supernatural sphere of the
elect angels and men, have to undergo a punishment corresponding
to their individual demerits. This truth, which is clearly revealed in
the Holy Scriptures and defined by the church, is confirmed by the
analogies of this present life. The transgressions of law is punished
in this world in accordance with the sense of justice which is
universal among men. There is no reason, therefore, for supposing
that the same principle of retribution is not continued in the future
life. Moreover, there is positive proof from reason that it must
continue. There has never been a more absurd doctrine broached
than that of the Universalists. To suppose that all men are saved on
account of the merits of Christ without regard to their moral state or
personal merits, is most unreasonable; and subversive of the moral
order as well as destructive of the idea of a state of probation. It is
equally absurd to imagine that the mere fact of death can make any
change in the state of the soul, or that separation from the body
causes the soul to make a mechanical rebound from a state of sin to
a state of holiness. The soul can be made happy only from its own
intrinsic principles, and not by a mere arbitrary appointment of God,
or a bestowal of extrinsic means of enjoyment. Sin brings its own
punishment, and the state of sin is in itself a state of misery. Plato
and other heathen sages taught the doctrine of future punishment,
Mr. Alger, who has written the most elaborate work on the subject of
the history of the doctrine of a future life which has appeared in
recent times, has fully proved the universality of the doctrine of
future punishment. Other rationalistic writers of ability have also of
late years seen the impossibility of removing this doctrine from the
teaching of Christianity and from universal tradition. We have
already fully proved that God does not deprive any of his rational
creatures of the felicity which is proper to their nature by his own
act. It follows from this that it is the creature himself who is the
author of his own misery. Existence is in itself a good, a boon
conceded from love by the Creator. So far as this good is turned into
an evil, it is by a voluntary perversion of the gift of a benevolent
sovereign by the subject himself. The punishment which he must
undergo in eternity is, therefore, the necessary consequence of his
own acts, together with such positive penalties as are required by
the ends of justice and the universal good. This doctrine, which is
the doctrine of the Catholic Church, based on the clear evidence of
Scripture and ecclesiastical tradition, [Footnote 186] is also the
doctrine of calm, unbiased reason, and of the common sense of
mankind. The probation of the Angels having been finished with
their first trial, and the probation of men ending for individuals at
death, and for mankind generically at the day of judgment, the epic
of grace is closed for ever with the completion of this present cycle
of providence; and consequently the state of all angels and men is
fixed for eternity. Hell is, therefore, an eternal state out of which
there is no possibility of transition into heaven.

[Footnote 186: It is now considered by the best

authorities as fully proved that Origen and St. Gregory
Nyssen, who have been so often cited by the advocates
of the doctrine of universal salvation, did not teach
anything contrary to the Catholic doctrine of eternal
punishment.]

Heaven, or life everlasting, is the eternal state of supreme,

supernatural beatitude, to which the elect angels and men are
elevated by the grace of God, and in which they participate in the
{663} glorified and the deific state of the Incarnate Word, through
and ineffable fellowship with the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.

Man being integrally composed by the union of soul and body, and
his corporeal nature being hypostatically United with the divine
nature in the person of the Word, the resurrection of the body must
necessarily precede his complete glorification. The only difficulty
which the doctrine of the resurrection of the body presents to the
understanding relates to the principal of identity between the earthly
and celestial body. This principle of identity, or unity and continuity
of life, must be the same with that which constitutes the unity of the
body in all the stages of its natural growth; and through all the
changes of its material particles, from the instant of its conception to
its disintegration by death. It is the soul which is the form of the
body, its vivifying principle. The soul and body have an innate
correspondence with each other, not only in the generic sense, but
in the sense of an individual aptitude of each separate soul for its
own body, and each separate body for its own soul. The soul and
body act and react upon each other perpetually while the
development of both is going on, producing a specific type in each
individual which is a modification of the generic type of manhood.
The determination of the active force of the soul to the production of
this type remains with it after the separation from the body. At the
resurrection, it forms anew its own proper body in accordance with
this type which is the product of the conjoint action of the soul and
body during the earthly life. There is, therefore, the same continuity
and identity between the earthly body and the celestial body that
there is between the body of the embryo and that of the full-grown
man. The celestial body is the same that it would have been if there
had been no death intervening between the two corporeal states,
but a transformation of the earthly body into the celestial perfection
and glorification of its proper type. If this is not all which is included
in the definition of the church respecting the identity of the body in
the two states, we must believe, in addition to what has been stated
already, that there is a material monad which forms the nucleus of
the corporeal organization and is a physical principle of identity. This
physical principle must contain virtually the whole body, as the germ
does the plant; it must be preserved when the body is disintegrated;
and reunited to the soul at the resurrection, in order to become the
physical germ from which the celestial body is developed.

The natural beatitude of the glorified angels and saints, which is only
a more exalted grade of that felicity which is accorded to the inferior
intelligent creation, need not be specially noticed. It is the essential
and supreme beatitude consisting in the clear, intuitive vision of God,
which is the principal subject of the divine revelation proposed by
the creed as the object of faith.

The possibility of this divine vision will not be called in question by

any who are properly speaking theists and rationalists, and with
others we have nothing to do at present. Much less will it be
questioned by any class of believers in the divine inspiration of the
Scriptures. We have not, then, the task of laboring to show the
intrinsic reasonableness and credibility of the doctrine, but merely of
setting forth that which can be made intelligible respecting the
relation between our present state in which we are unable
to see God, and the future state in which we may be enabled
to see him. The examination of this relation includes that of the
means and method by which the soul is elevated to an immediate
intuition of that which constitutes the divine essence and personality.
It requires a statement which shall show what is the nexus between
the act which constitutes the soul in the power to exercise {664}
intelligence, and that which constitutes it in the power to behold God
immediately. It may be said, that the essence of the soul is
transformed or enlarged in such a way that it becomes able, per se,
to see God as it now perceives the creation. But this would be
equivalent to the creation of a new essence with a new personality;
which would destroy the identity of the subject who is supposed to
be elevated to this new grade of existence. Moreover, according to
the doctrine we have laid down, that supernatural grace elevates the
soul super omnem naturam creatam atque creabilem, the
supposition is impossible. We cannot go over again the principles
already discussed, but merely endeavored to state such a theory of
the mode of the beatific vision as shall be in harmony with these
principles. We, therefore, dismiss this first supposition without
further discussion. Another supposition may be made, that the
complete evolution of the idea of God which the soul possesses in
the present state in an obvolute manner bring it to that relation vis-
à-vis two God as its intelligible object, which corresponds to the
relation of the visual faculty to the visible, material object. We
cannot accept this supposition any more than the other. It
contradicts the principles we have previously laid down, and the
generally accepted maxims of Catholic theology respecting the
supernatural quality of the power conceded by God to the creature
of beholding his intimate essence, just as palpably as the first one.
We do not deny that the reason of man is to a great degree in a
obvolute condition in this life, and that it is capable of evolution in
another and higher life. In this higher life the soul may be capable of
perceiving immediately the essence of things, and spiritual
substances, after the mode of intelligence which is proper to the
angels. But the angels themselves, according to Catholic theology,
though created at the summit of the intelligent order, with the
complete exercise of intelligence in the highest possible grade, have
no natural power to see God immediately; and their natural
knowledge of him, though very perfect, is merely abstractive
contemplation like that of men. The power of seeing spiritual
substances, and the perfect evolution of the idea of God in the soul,
therefore, do not give the intuition of the essence of God which
constitutes the beatific vision. The beatific vision is supernatural, by
means of immediate light communicated by God to the intelligence,
called by theologians lumen gloriae, the light of glory. By means of
this light the intelligence perceives God by an active intuition, or a
clear, distinct act of reflective consciousness, as immediately present
to it in the creative act, the cause of its existence, the source of its
active power, the light of its reason, in whom it lives in moves and as
it's being. God presents himself to the intelligence immediately in his
concrete being, as the visible world is presented to the eye by the
light of the sun. This is not accomplished by the creation of any new
essential faculty in the soul or the addition of anything to its
substance. The very same intelligent, thinking principle, or subject,
which in this present state of existence of firms to itself the
existence of God by and intellectual judgment, behold him in the
beatific state by an intuitive vision. It must be, then, by a
concurrence of God with the same faculties of the mind by which we
think and reason and perceive, and our self-conscious, in our natural
mode of rational activity, that the intelligence is raised to this higher
power of supernatural intuition. That act which constitutes it rational
in the natural order, must be the basis and substratum of its
supernatural tuition of the divine essence. It has already been
proved that a created spirit cannot be constituted rational in the first
instance by the beatific vision of God; that is, cannot have an
essence whose intrinsic, necessary act is a clear intuition of the
divine essence, like that {665} act in which God has the eternal,
necessary intelligence of himself. The created spirit must first be
constituted a rational, intelligent subject, before it can be capable of
a supernatural illumination. It must be extrinsicated from God, made
a distinct, thinking substance, and constituted in its own finite,
rational activity; before there can be any subject, or really existing,
active force, with which God can concur; with which he can unite
himself, and to which he can communicate the power of looking
back upon himself by a distinct intuition. The created spirit must be,
therefore, in a certain sense, self-subsisting, or containing in itself its
own rational principle. It must have its own separate self-
consciousness as a thinking substance, containing within itself all the
necessary principles of thought. The necessary, the universal, the
eternal, or, in a word, the idea, cannot be contained in a created
spirit in its concrete being, but only in an abstract form, any image,
or a created word. This is identical with the intelligence itself; it is
what constitutes its intellective force and principle of activity. In
man, as we have already seen, this intellective activity needs the
concurrence of exterior, sensible objects, acting on it through the
senses and occasioning perceptions and reflections, before it can
attain distinct reflective consciousness of itself, and evolve its own
ideal formula. This reflective consciousness cannot go back of the
soul itself, where it finds the abstractive idea passively received from
concrete being. The contact of being, or of God who is alone being,
gives the apprehension of being to the soul by creating it. The
creative act, and the being who produces the creative act, are
unperceived by the soul, and lie back of its existence, which is the
terminus of the creative act. The soul's separate activity begins at
the terminus of God's activity, and is projected forward to its own
proper terminus. Its natural activity would never bring it face to face
with its creator, God, or enable it to contemplate him in any other
way than it is now able to do so, by the vividly apprehended
demonstration of his being from its own first principles and exterior
works of his hand. In order that the soul, in its reflexive acts, may
see God continually and clearly, it is necessary that he should unite
himself in a new and ineffable manner to its substance and its
faculties, and concur with them in such a way that they can look
beyond their natural limit of vision into the infinitude of the being of
God which surrounds the creation like an ocean on every side. The
soul, which is, so to speak, projected from God by creation, must
receive a movement of return, which does not arrest itself at the
mere fact of self-consciousness, but brings the soul to a
consciousness of God as immediately and personally producing its
self-consciousness. This act is most perfect in the human soul of
Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. The personality of the human and
divine natures in him being one, there is but one Ego. The human
soul, therefore, terminates its act of self-consciousness, not upon
itself, as its own subsistentia, but upon the divine Ego or person. It
is conscious of itself as a distinct substance, but not a substance
completed and brought to distinct subsistence in itself. Its
consciousness terminates in the divine person, and is referred to it,
so that Jesus Christ, in every human act, affirms himself by self-
consciousness as both God and man in one person. The union of
glorified spirits to God is similar to this hypostatic union, though not
so perfect, and not implying personal identity. The nature and mode
of this union of the created spirit with God, by which it is glorified,
beatified, and even deified—as the doctors of the church fear not to
affirm, in accordance with the declaration of the Holy Scripture—is
impenetrable to the human understanding. The Indian philosophers,
having retained a confused idea of it from the primitive revelation,
have expressed this idea in their sublime mysticism with all the
superb imagery of their luxuriant imaginations. With {666} them, it
is an absorption of all individual souls in the infinite fount of being.
Nearly all their language may, however, be adopted, in a good sense,
as expressing the Christian dogma, if clear, philosophical conceptions
are substituted for their obscure and unscientific notions of the
creative act. Without these clear conceptions and definitions, it is
impossible to escape money into pantheism. The language of
Christian mystic writers, even, is liable to misapprehension as
expressing the pantheistic notion of the identity of God and the
creatures, unless their terms are properly explained. In point of fact,
Eckhart did give expression to some propositions which implied
pantheism and were condemned by the Holy See. The mystic writers
continually affirm that the soul is made una res cum Deo, and
becomes God by participation. By this, however, they do not mean
that the soul loses its distinct substance or becomes identified with
the divine nature. They intend to signify and ineffable union between
the soul and God, in which, each remaining distinct in its own proper
essence, God communicates his own knowledge, sanctity, glory, and
beatitude to the soul; and admits it into the Fellowship of the
Blessed Trinity. This is the vanishing point of all theology, and of all
sciences, beyond which even the most illuminated eye cannot
penetrate. The return of all things which proceed from God as first
cause to God as final cause, consummated in this beatific union,
solves all the problems of time; there remains only the problem of
eternity, which eternity alone can solve.

ORIGINAL.
 MY AUNT'S WORK-BOX.

Sure, such a mess was never seen

Of white and brown and black and green!
Not Noah's Ark, Pandora's box,
Such dire confusion e'er displayed
Here's wool, shorn from the fleecy flocks
That o'er Circassian Meadows strayed,
With spools of cotton, every number;
Buttons and studs, and other lumber;
Needles of every size and kind,
The blunts and sharps, the coarse and fine;
White linen, recent wounds to bind;
And rows of pins in order to shine.
Lo! Thimbles, for each finger fit,
And yarn too darn with or to knitt.
Here's sewing-silk of every hue
From brilliant red to modest blue;
And floss, with which the maiden traces,
With all the painter's art and skill,
Flowers, landscapes, birds, and human faces,
The verdant field or purling rill.
Here every sort of thread is seen,
The jolly ball and languid skein;
And here's the ivory thing that shapes
Small eyelet-holes in caps and capes.

{667}

Look at that pair of rusty tweezers!

They must blame their many years.
Dear! what a tiny pair of scissors!
Sure, they're the twins of those huge shears.
Here's lots of crewel, which I mean
To use, someday, to work the screen.
Here are pin-cushions and emery bags,
Small shreds of lace and other rags,
Linen, calico, and crape,
And hanks of twine and bits of tape.
In short, here's every earthly thing
That thrifty wife could wish, I ween;
But I've not time to say or sing
The treasures of this magazine.

Original.
 HOW MY AUNT PILCHER FOUND THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Perhaps you don't know my aunt, Patients Pilcher? Very likely not. i
know her very well, and am going to tell you something about her.
She is my mother's sister, and was born in the town of Squankum,
Vermont, where she lived until she was over thirty years old—she
says, twenty-five, but that don't matter—when she came to New
York to see Uncle George. Well, Aunt Pilcher was mightily pleased
and surprised when she saw New York; and as she knew every
house, barn, and fence, and every lane and field in Squankum, and
to whom they belonged, she thought she must find out as much
about New York. She had no sooner taken off her bonnet and shawl
when she got to our house—I say our, because I live with Uncle
George since mother died—than she wanted to put them on again
and go out "and see the places, and find out where people lived,
and git introduced," as she said, adding that she would "hev to
begin directly, or she would never git through."

My Aunt Pilcher is a very tall, thin woman, with a very cold face, as I
found out on the first day she came to our house, when she bent
over and kissed me. She thought I wiped off her kiss, and said "Oh,
fie!" but it wasn't that, it was the cold. As I was saying, she wanted
to see all of New York, and I believe she has, too, by this time; but
she soon got disgusted with what she called "the offishness of the
Yorkers." "You don't know anybody," said she, "and nobody 'pears to
want to know you." She never tired, however, of seeing the many
beautiful buildings in the city, and among them all the churches
seem to her to be the most attractive and the most worthy of her
close investigation.
"I'm gittin 'most ashamed of our wooden meetin'-house to
Squankum," said she, one day, after returning from a visit to Trinity
Church; "we used to be kinder proud of it, though, when some of
the folks down to Rattlebog came over to spend Sabbath with us;
'cause ye know what a mis'able little country skule-house of a place
they've got over there. Then, ye've got sich a lot o' churches, my!
I'm 'most afeered never see them all, or I'll forgit abeout the first
ones afore I git through."

"What sort of churches have you seen, aunty?" I asked.

{668}

"Oh! I've seen white-marbled ones and brown-stun ones, and a sort
o' speckled mixed ones like Washin'ton cake, ye know, a streak o'
jelly and a streak o' cake. Then agin, I've seen all kinds o' styles;
Grecian, Beshantem, Gothys, high-steepled style, low-steepled style,
and no-steepled style. But I haint seeing a green winder-shutter one
like ours to Squankum yit. I s'pose the taste in architectur here in
York don't run that 'a way."

But I was not thinking of the outside of the churches when I asked
her the question, but of their inside. The truth was that Uncle
George and I had been two or three times to see Mass and Vespers
in the Catholic Church, and I was so full of all I had seen and heard
there that I was nearly dying to talk with some one about it. But
Uncle George had told me that he thought Aunt Jane—that is, Uncle
George's sister who keeps house for him and me—might possibly
disapprove of our going again if I happened to mention it, and so I
took care to say nothing about it. I was very anxious to find out if
Aunt Pilcher had seeing a Catholic Church, so I asked her if she
happened to see any boys in the churches she had been to.

"Boys!" said she. "Why boys? Of course boys. Shouldn't boys go to

meetin' as well as girls?"

"But boys dressed up," said I.

"Dressed up! Laws yes, in their best Sunday-go-to-meetin', as they
ort to be."

"In long red coats, perhaps, down to their heels," I suggested, in

spite of Uncle George's frown; "with nice white lace jackets over that
again, and carrying torch-lights and censers, and going up and down
and all around?" I added, eager to describe all I had seen.

"Why! what's come to the boy?" exclaimed Aunt Pilcher, raising up

her hands in astonishment. "He ain't right," meaning in my head."'

"Oh! yes, he is!" said Uncle George, "that's the way the Catholics go
on in their churches, and I suppose that Fred must have seen it
somewhere."

"Catholics!" ejaculated Aunt Pilcher, in a tone of horror, and half

looking over her shoulder as if some ghost of one might come in at
the sound of the word. "Ye don't mean them papists and other
Jesuits that call themselves Catholics! It's enough to make a body
hate the name."

"That won't do, you know, sister Pilcher," said Uncle George,
"because it is in the Apostles' Creed."

"I know it," returned Aunt Pilcher, "but I'd like to know what the
Holy Catholic Church in the Apostles' Creed has got to do with them
ignorant idolaters, the Catholics, the Roman papists, I mean?"

"It's the same name, that's all," said Uncle George, with a sly twinkle
in his eye; "and they say it's the same thing."

"Which in course is nonsense!" ejaculated my aunt.

"Oh! of course it is," rejoined Uncle George. "We are the real and
true Catholic Church, and if some one wanted to come to our true
and real Holy Catholic Church we would just tell him to ask for the
Catholic church and anybody would show him."
"Well, they ort to, that's all I got to say," said Aunt Pilcher doubtfully.

"Certainly," continued Uncle George, "and I've no doubt now, sister

Pilcher, that if you were to go out and ask people in the street here
to point you to a Catholic church that they would show you our
Protestant churches directly."

Aunt Pilcher looked very hard at Uncle George, as if she feared he

might be making game of her; but he looked so solemn and sedate
that she didn't suspect, but I did, and I got a crick in the back of my
neck trying to keep from laughing. She seemed to think that she was
bantered by my uncle, and said:

"Well, I never sot eout to do a thing yit that I didn't do it, and I'm
going to do that."

"Hurrah! Aunt Pilcher," I shouted, "I would too, if I were you." And
that confirmed her in her engagement, {669} for the very next
morning she put on her bonnet and shawl, and hung her reticule on
her arm, without which she never went out of doors, and off she
started. She was gone all day and did not return until tea-time,
appearing completely fagged out and exhausted. She was not in the
best of humors either, to judge of the way she pulled off her out-
door additions to her ordinary dress, and bade me "carry them
things up-stairs, for people dead a'most and starved can't always be
expected to wait on theirselves." But not a word did she say about
the object of her long day's journey. I was all curiosity to know
where, she had been and what she had seen; and when we had
nearly got through tea, that is, Uncle George, Aunt Jane, Aunt
Pilcher, I, and Bub Thompson, who had come to play with me in the
afternoon, and said he smelt short-cake, and wondered whether
Aunt Jane could make it nice, and so got invited to try them—then I
could stand it no longer, and said I, "See anything nice to-day, Aunt
Pilcher?"
"I didn't particularly see anything, my dear, but I heered something
I shan't forgit, I can tell you, if hearin' a thing a hundred and ninety-
nine times over is enough to' make a body remember it."

"What did you hear, aunt?" asked everybody at once.

"Hear!" exclaimed she. "These Yorkers never knows anything if a

body asks them a perlite question abeout who lives in any house, or
which is the way to somewhere; but to-day I do think they was all
possessed, for everybody 'peared to know only one church, when,
dear knows, they ort to know their own churches, I should think,
and not be a' directin' everybody everlastin'ly to St. Peter's."

"How was that, aunt?" asked every one again.

"Well," said she, "I told you what I was goin' eout for, and I went.
Neow I always do things in order: commence at the beginnin', I say,
and then ye'll know when ye git to the eend. So I went clean deown
to the battery, and then I turns reound and comes up. Not wishin' to
ask questions of people too fur off (for these Yorkers don't know
where anythin' is ef it ain't right deown under their nose), I walked
on till I got pretty near Trinity Church, belongin' to the Episcopals,
and says I to a knowledgable lookin' man, says I, 'Couldn't ye pint
me eout, neow, a Catholic church?' 'I can't precisely pint ye to it,'
says he, which I thort was queer, with a Christian church right afore
his eyes, 'but I can tell you where one is: in Barclay street, right up
Broadway, ma'am, Saint Peter's church,' and off he went like a shot.
These Yorkers air in sich a hurry, they won't stop to hear a body
eout. Well, on I walks, and I saw another church, Saint Paul's in
Broadway, similarly belongin' to the Episcopals; and this time I got
straight in front of it. The folks 'peared to be in sich an orful hurry
jist here that I thort somebody must be dead; or somebody's house
had ketch't afire, and I couldn't git eout the first word afore the
person I spoke to was a whole block off, and I got kind o' bewildered
like. At last, I tried a lady—for I give the men folks up—and says I to
her:
"'Is this a meetin'-house of the Holy Catholic Church, ma'am?'

"'No, ma'am,' says she rather short, 'ef you want to go there, you
had better go deown Barclay street, next street above, St. Peter's on
the left,' and off she went. Well; I goes deown Barclay street, jist to
see this St. Peter's, and do you believe, I found eout it was one of
them papist churches.'

"That was rather strange," interrupted Uncle George.

"I thort it was a leetle so myself," said Aunt Pilcher, "and I began to
conceit people took me for a papist or a Jesuit, so I made up my
mind to say so to once; and on I walks agin till I come to Broome
street, deown which I went till I found a nice look-in' church, and
says I to a minister-lookin' gentleman, says I:

{670}

"'I'm not a Jesuit, sir.'

"'Glad to hear it, ma'am,' says he, 'there are concealed Jesuits all
over.'

"'I'm a Protestant,' says I, 'pre-haps you can show me a meetin'-

house that believes in the Holy Catholic Church; is that one there?'

"I am grieved,' says he, 'that anybody should wish to know anythin'
abeout the Catholic Church, and I hope you have no intention of
goin' to sich a place of abomination.'

"He didn't 'pear to know my mean-in', so says I, 'I mean the real
Catholic Church.'

"'Ma'am,' says he, 'real or unreal, it is always the same thing; always
was and always will be. That is a Baptist church, ma'am, before you,
and not a Catholic mass house. There is one of them, called St.
Peter's, in Barclay street, I believe,' and off he walked without sayin'
another word. 'Patience,' says I to myself, 'be true to your name,'
for, to tell the truth, I was gettin' a leetle bit flustrated. I walks on,
turnin' corners and reound and reound, and at last I got into a street
called Bedford street. There I saw a meetin'-house with a sign over
the door tellin' it was a Methodist. Says I to a man that was jist then
sweepin reound the door—thinkin' to begin right this time—says 'I:

"'My Christian friend, the apostles believed in the Holy Catholic

Church.'

'"Not a bit of it,' says he.

"'Oh! yes,' says I, 'they did; it is in the Apostles' Creed.'

"'Is it?' says he.

"'Yes, it is, and what's more, you ort to know it,' says I, gettin'
bothered with sich ignorance.

"'None o' yer impudence,' says he.

"'Why, good lands!' says I, almost swearin', 'they believe in the Holy
Catholic Church in this meetin'-house, don't they?'

"'No, they don't, and don't want to,' says he, and slammed the door
in my face. Then I wanders reound and seen lots of churches, but I
didn't see anybody, to speak to till I got ever so fur off in the Fifth
avenue, where I saw a handsome brick church with a tall steeple,
and there I saw some people goin' in. I asked what was goin' on,
and they said it was a prayer—meetin". I should liked to have jined
in a York prayer-meetin', but I wasn't in a fit state jist then—in sich a
twitter as I was—so I ups and speaks to a young lady who looked
like a Sabbath school teacher, and says I:

"'The real Catholic Church in the Apostles' Creed is where the gospil
is preached.' She kinder opened her eyes at me, and says she:
"'The gospil is preached here, ma'am; but this is not a Catholic
church; this is a Presbyterian church.'

"'But,' says I agin,' where the gospil is preached is the true Catholic
Church.'

"'I guess not,' says she, 'the gospil is not preached in the Catholic
Church.'

"'Well, ma'am,' says I, feelin' considerably riled, 'I guess I larnt my

catechism, not afore you was born, but abeout the same time, I
should say; and I'm jist lookin' for somebody else that knows it, and
if anybody in York knows what and where the Holy Catholic Church
is;' and do you believe she actually turned 'reound to another gal
and said I was crazy, and had run away from a 'sylum. I went away
disgusted and tried agin, one plase and another. I even tried the
Washin'ton cake church in the Fourth avenue, but not a soul would
own up to what they ort to believe. You wouldn't get papists sendin'
you to their St. Peter's, I'll be bound, if you asked them for a
Protestant church."

"Of course not," said Uncle George, "and what conclusion have you
come to, sister Pilcher?"

"I've come to the conclusion," said Aunt Pilcher, "that these Yorkers
don't know the Apostles' Creed."

"I should say," said Bub Thompson, "that those folks you 'saw didn't
believe it."

{671}

"Boy!" exclaimed Aunt Pilcher, with an awful expression of

countenance, "speak when you air spoken to."

"How is it when you're spoken about?" asked Bub; "'cause I'm a

Catholic, a papist as you say, and you've been speaking about my
church."

"My! I never!" ejaculated Aunt Pilcher, looking first at one and then
at another for explanation.

"Sister Pilcher," said Uncle George, "the truth is, it is no use for us
Protestants to call ourselves Catholics, for we are not. You see how
everybody denied it. Of course you could never get a Protestant to
own to the name of 'Catholic,' either here in New York or anywhere
else, any more than you could persuade any one to give us the
name; and it seems to me that where the name is, and always has
been, the reality is likely to be. As for your experiment to-day, it is
just what would have happened thirteen hundred years ago; for I
read in a book that Bub Thompson's father lent me, that St.
Augustine said, speaking about the sects that tried to call
themselves 'Catholics' in his time: 'The very name of Catholic
detains me in the Catholic Church, which that church has alone, and
not without cause, obtained among so many heretics, in such a way
as that while all heretics wish to be called Catholics, nevertheless not
one of them will dare to point out his basilica or house to a stranger
inquiring for a place of Catholic worship." [Footnote 187]

[Footnote 187: Epist. contra Manich. I. 5, 6.]

"Well! sakes alive! live and larn," exclaimed Aunt Pilcher, "but it's
enough to make a body think they never knowed anythin' when they
find oat some things!"

Translated from Le Contemporain.

 A PORTRAIT OF FRA ANGELICO.

BY EDMOND LAFONDE.

At dawn of a summer's day in the year of grace 1453, a Dominican

monk set out from his convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, at
Rome. He was an old man, but the brightness of youth still shown in
his aged countenance, attributable, perhaps, to the shadowless
sanctity of his life, and the purity of a soul which had never known
wrinkles. He walked slowly in his dress of white woolen covered with
a black scapular, his shaven head bared to the sun, his eyes cast
down, and his hands employed in rolling the beads of the Rosary of
St. Dominic. He traversed the square of the Pantheon, and was
going to cross the bridge of St. Angelo, when, in passing the prison
of the Tor di Nona, he saw coming out of it a funeral cortége; a
condemned person, led to death in the usual place of execution, the
piazza della Bocca Verità. A man nearly forty years of age, of noble
and proud figure, but seemingly worn out by vice or grief; his
costume curious, and wholly oriental; clothed in red silk, with a
turban ornamented with gold and ermine. A Franciscan accompanied
him, but endeavored in vain to direct his thoughts to heaven, and
make him kiss the crucifix, from which he turned away his lips in
discussed. The crowd that followed, becoming infuriated, exhorted
him to penitence, crying out, "Amico, pensa a salvar l'anima." "My
friend, think of saving thy soul."

{672}

As soon as the Franciscans saw a brother priest, he called to him,

saying: "Ah! Fra Giovanni, in the name of the holy friendship which
united our two glorious patriarchs, St. Dominic and St. Francis, come
to my aid. You see this unhappy man. He is one of the Greeks just
come from Italy, since the taking of Constantinople. His name is
Argyropoulos. He has murdered a Roman woman; is doomed to die,
and will not reconcile himself with God. He is not merely
schismatical, but pagan. Try if you can be more successful than I."
At a sign from the chief of the guard the cortége stopped—for in
Rome, since the earliest age, pontifical justice does not wish to kill
the soul, and makes every effort to save it while sacrificing the guilty
body. Fra Giovanni tried to speak to the Greek, but was met with
repulse and blasphemy. With tears rolling down his cheeks he
whispered a few words to the Franciscan, who, elevating his voice,
thus addressed the chief of the guard: "This son of St. Dominic," he
said, "is Fra Giovanni of Fiesole, the favorite painter of his holiness.
He is going to the Vatican, and will ask the Holy Father a delay of
one day, in order to try once more to induce the sinner to repent."
The people applauded, and the captain of the guard declared himself
willing to assume the responsibility of suspending the execution
while awaiting a new order from the sovereign pontiff. The
condemned man, who remained apparently immovable during this
debate, was re-conducted into the prison of Tor di Nona, where still
later were to be enclosed the guilty family of Cenci, and the
Franciscan entered with him. The crowd remained a long time before
the door, losing none of its interest or curiosity. Fra Giovanni again
pursued his way to the Vatican, his soul, so calm ordinarily, deeply
agitated and troubled by the unfortunate event. Arrived at the
square of St. Peter, he kneeled by the obelisk which contains a piece
of the true cross; then passing the guards, who were daily
accustomed to see him, entered without difficulty into the pontifical
palace. He repaired immediately to the new chapel, which Pope
Nicholas V. had just finished, and charged him to decorate; for it is
time to say that Fra Giovanni was the painter-monk of Fiesole,
whose purity of genius and sanctity of life had surnamed him Beato
(blessed) or Fra Angelico (the angelical brother), under which latter
name he is most generally known, and which is equally appropriate
to his beauty of soul and to his works. The great Pope Nicholas V.,
who had known him at Florence, and watched the budding of these
marvellous products of his pencil in the convent of St. Mark, had just
called him to Rome, where Eugene IV. had already bid him come, to
enthrone in his own person Christian art in the Vatican. Nicholas V.
had built in his palace a small chapel, in which he desired the
painter-monk to retrace for him the story of St. Lawrence and St.
Stephen, reuniting them in the same poetical commemoration; as
had been the custom of the faithful to invoke them, since their
bones had lain united outside the walls in the ancient basilica of St.
Lawrence. This chapel being very small is lighted by a single arched
window; happily it has been preserved, and is one of the sanctuaries
where the friends of Christian art love to make a pilgrimage. Below
the window is now placed the altar which formerly faced it. On the
three other sides Fra Angelico has painted two series of
compositions, one above the other; in the arches of the upper part is
represented, in six compartments, the history of St. Stephen, and in
the lower that of St. Lawrence. On entering the chapel Fra Angelico
fell on his knees to pray God to guide his pencil, then commenced to
paint the scene where St. Stephen was led to martyrdom. He there
represented an enraged Jew, who conducts the saint outside of
Jerusalem, while others pushed and pursued him with stones in their
hands. While painting the violence of the Jews Fra Angelico {673}
thought deeply of the Greek whose execution he had arrested, and
awaited with pious impatience the arrival of the Pope, who never
failed daily to visit the works of his favorite painter. The Dominican
interrupted his work now and then to rest, reposing his mind with
prayer and singing occasionally a stanza of Dante, who was then for
mystical painters an unfailing source of religious inspiration. He
recited the exquisite passage where Dante paints the glorious
martyrdom of St. Stephen:

"Poi vidi genti accese in fuoco d'ira

Con pietre un giovinetto ancider, forte
Gridando a se pur; Martira, martira, ect."
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