Seven Metaphors to Understand Digital Twins of Built Assets

Digital twins have raised the attention of practitioners in the fields of Architecture, Engineering and Construction, and Facilities Management (AEC/FM). The term broadly refers to the cyber part of cyber-physical systems used for representing and managing real-world assets. This qualitative study explores how Finnish AEC/FM practitioners describe digital twins of assets in the built environment. Our findings are primarily derived from the interpretive analysis of semi-structured interviews with project managers and C-level executives during 2018 and 2019. The results of this analysis are discussed within the existing literature about digital twins, complex software ecosystems, and Service-Dominant (S-D) logic. We observed that digital twins were often explained using simple metaphors that could be easily understood by practitioners. We identified seven of such metaphors, each associated with a key attribute of digital twins. We argue that digital twins are the basis of complex software ecosystems, resulting from the increased expectations of AEC/FM stakeholders about the role of Building Information Modeling and other software solutions in their daily operations. Under an S-D logic perspective, digital twins are a resource applied by multiple interdependent actors to integrate information, co-create value for their entire network, and jointly deliver new products or services.