Sortal Structures: Supporting RepresentationalFlexibility for Building Domain Processes

We present a formal approach to representational flexibility, sorts, to support alternative representations of an entity. The approach is constructive, based on a part relation on elements within a sort, which enables the recognition of emergent information. The use of data functions as a sort provides for the embedding of data queries within a representational structure. We discuss the application of sorts to supporting alternative data views, illustrating this through a case study in building construction.