> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.akenza.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.akenza.io/data-fusion-layer/types.md). # Types The types of the Data Fusion Layer model, what each one may contain, the properties it carries, and the sub-types available for zones, rooms and assets. Every object in the Data Fusion Layer carries one or more **types**. The type states what the object is, a floor, a meeting room, a desk, a door. The type also determines where the object may sit in the hierarchy, which properties it carries, and how a question about "the meeting rooms on the second floor" resolves to a set of data points. Types come from a tailored subset of the [Brick Schema](https://brickschema.org/) ontology, narrowed down to the entities that occur in facility management and extended where a building operator needs distinctions that Brick leaves open. An object usually carries several types at once, because the specific type implies the general one. A room typed **Standard Meeting Room** is also a **Meeting Room** and a **Room**, so it answers a question about meeting rooms and a question about rooms, without anyone maintaining those groupings by hand. ## The four families Every type belongs to one of four families: | Family | Types | What it represents | | ---------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Region** | Region | An organizational grouping of sites, by geography, ownership, or operating structure. | | **Space** | Site, Building, Level, Zone, Room | Physical space, from a campus down to a single room. | | **Asset** | Asset | A physical thing inside a space: equipment, furniture, or a structural element. | | **Point** | Point | A measurable aspect of a space or an asset, bound to one data key of one device. | ## What each type may contain The hierarchy is not free-form. Each type accepts a fixed set of child types: | Type | May contain | | ------------ | --------------------------------- | | **Region** | Region, Site | | **Site** | Building, Asset, Point | | **Building** | Level, Zone, Asset, Point | | **Level** | Zone, Room, Asset, Point | | **Zone** | Room, Asset, Point | | **Room** | Asset, Point | | **Asset** | Point | | **Point** | nothing, a point is always a leaf | Read downwards, that gives the familiar chain of region, site, building, level, zone, room, asset, point. Read across, it gives the shortcuts that make real buildings modelable: * **Region is the only type that nests into itself.** A country region can hold city regions, which hold the sites. Every other type appears once in the chain. * **Zones may attach to a building directly**, not only to a level, which is what lets a zone span several floors. A department spread over three floors is one zone on the building. * **Assets do not need a room.** A photovoltaic panel belongs to the building, a fire extinguisher to a level, a charging station to a site. Anything from a site downwards can carry assets. * **Points may attach at any level of the hierarchy** except to a region. A people counter at the main entrance is a point on the building, without a room ever being modeled for the lobby. ``` Region └── Region └── Site └── Building ├── Level │ ├── Zone │ │ └── Room │ └── Room └── Zone every space can additionally carry Assets, and every space and asset can carry Points ``` {% hint style="info" %} Model only what you need to ask questions about. A model that mirrors the floor plan down to the last cupboard is not more useful than one that stops at the rooms and desks that carry sensors, and it is considerably more work to keep current. {% endhint %} ## Categories and sub-types Some types are categories rather than choices. **Zone**, **Room** and **Asset** are never assigned directly: an object under a level is not "a room", it is a meeting room, a toilet, or a workshop. The same applies one level further down, where **Meeting Room**, **Personal Hygiene**, **Lounge**, **Food Handling Room**, **Equipment**, **Furniture**, **Architectural Asset**, **Barrier Asset**, **Desk** and **Focus Room** are categories that group the types you actually pick. The rest are assignable as they stand, and any sub-types they have are optional refinements. **Level** is a type in its own right, and **Roof Level** or **Warehouse Level** narrow it where the distinction matters. The same holds for **Toilet**, **Shower Room**, **Locker Room**, **Loading Bay**, **Conference Room**, **Open Office** and **Parking Space**. Assigning the most specific type that fits costs nothing and keeps the general ones available, since they come with it. Where no sub-type is right, the category's assignable parent is the honest choice, and a refinement can be added later. **Point** is the exception in both directions. It has no sub-types and is not picked from a list at all: a point comes into being when you bind a data key of a device to an object. ## Properties ### Common properties Three properties recur across nearly every type: | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | What it is | | ------------- | ------ | -------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 characters | How the object appears in the model, in dashboards, and in answers from Genio. This is what "meeting room Zurich" matches against, so it is worth naming consistently. | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 characters | Your own identifier for the object, as it is known in the system the model was built from, such as a CAFM, BIM, or floor plan tool. Regions have no `objectId`. | | `description` | string | no | up to 1024 characters, 255 for buildings and levels | Free text. | ### Region | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------ | -------- | ----------- | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 1024 | ### Site | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------ | -------- | ------------------------ | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 1024 | | `address` | string | no | up to 255 | | `workspaceId` | string | yes | a 16 character akenza ID | `workspaceId` binds the site to a [workspace](/general/workspace-context.md). That is the link between the semantic model and the devices: the points below a site resolve against the devices in that workspace. ### Building | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------- | -------- | ------------ | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 255 | | `address` | string | yes | up to 255 | | `capacity` | integer | no | 1 or greater | ### Level | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------- | -------- | -------------- | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 255 | | `levelNumber` | integer | yes | -10 to 100 | | `area` | number | no | 0.1 or greater | | `capacity` | integer | no | 1 or greater | `levelNumber` is what orders the levels of a building, and it is signed, so basements are negative. The name stays free for whatever the building itself calls that floor. ### Zone and Room Zones and rooms carry the same properties. | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------- | -------- | -------------- | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 1024 | | `area` | number | no | 0.1 or greater | | `capacity` | integer | no | 1 or greater | `capacity` is the number of people or workplaces the space is designed for, and `area` its floor area. They are what turn a count of occupied desks into a utilization figure, so a space whose occupancy you report on is worth filling in. See [Occupancy monitoring](/analytics-use-cases/occupancy-monitoring.md) for how capacity is used. ### Asset | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ------------- | ------ | -------- | ----------- | | `name` | string | yes | 1 to 255 | | `objectId` | string | no | up to 255 | | `description` | string | no | up to 1024 | ### Point | Property | Type | Required | Constraints | | ---------------- | ------ | -------- | ------------------------ | | `akenzaDeviceId` | string | yes | a 16 character akenza ID | | `topic` | string | yes | at least 2 characters | | `dataKey` | string | yes | at least 1 character | A point is one value, not one device. A multi-sensor reporting temperature, humidity, and CO₂ becomes three points, and they need not sit on the same object: the CO₂ reading can describe the room while a door contact on the same device describes the door. The three properties are the binding itself. `akenzaDeviceId` names the device, `topic` and `dataKey` name the value inside its samples, exactly as they appear in the message logs on the device detail page. See [Querying device data](/reference/api-documentation/querying-device-data.md) for how topics and data keys are structured. ## Sub-type reference ### Level | Sub-type | What it is | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Mezzanine Level | An intermediate floor, open to the floor below or covering only part of it. | | Manufacturing Level | A level given over to production, fabrication, or assembly. | | Workshop Level | A level for craftsmanship, maintenance, prototyping, or repair work. | | Warehouse Level | A level for storage, staging, inventory, and distribution. | | Roof Level | The uppermost level, often carrying outdoor plant, solar, or environmental sensors. | ### Zone | Sub-type | What it is | | ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Open Office | A broad, shared office workspace. Contains **Working Places**, individual desks or cubicles. | | Open Space | A broad, shared space for work or leisure. | | Event Space | A flexible area for gatherings, conferences, or social functions. | | Parking Space | A demarcated area for one vehicle. Refined by **EV Parking Space**, which typically also carries a charger. | | Outdoor Seating | An exterior area for seating and gathering. | | Auditorium | A large venue for an audience, lectures, or performances. | | Forum | An open gathering space for assembly, events, or informal collaboration. | | Garden | An indoor or outdoor space for planting, green space, or recreation. | | Informal Collaboration Space | An open area for spontaneous teamwork, with no reservation required. | | Living Zone | A domestic-style area for relaxation, socializing, or flexible work. | | Mindfulness Zone | An area for mental well-being, meditation, and stress reduction. | | Visitor Waiting Area | A space near an entrance or reception where guests wait. | | Quiet Space | A low-noise environment for silent tasks, reading, or rest. | | Innovation Hub | A multi-disciplinary space for research, experimentation, and prototyping. | | Restaurant | Commercial food service, covering both preparation and dining. | | Café | Casual food and beverage consumption, with a counter, barista station, or vending. | | Fitness Zone | Physical exercise and conditioning, including the wet rooms that serve it. | ### Room Rooms carry the largest set of sub-types. The categories in bold are not assignable themselves, you pick one of the types below them. | Category / type | Types you can assign | | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Meeting Room** | Standard Meeting Room, Phone Booth, Customer Meeting Room, Huddle Room, Collaboration Room, Meeting Pod, Meeting Point, Workshop Room, Team Room, Board Room, and under the **Focus Room** category, Focus Box and Standard Focus Room | | **Personal Hygiene** | Toilet, and below it Washroom with WC F, WC M, WC Unisex and WC Disabled; Shower Room with Shower Room F, Shower Room M and Shower Room Disabled; Sauna | | **Lounge** | Service Lounge, Lounge Area, Visitor Lounge | | **Food Handling Room** | Cafeteria, Dining Room, Cooking Room, Pantry, Walk-in Fridge, Kitchenette | | Conference Room | Assignable, refined by Video Conference Room | | Locker Room | Assignable, refined by Locker Room F, Locker Room M, Locker Room Disabled | | Loading Bay | Assignable, refined by Loading & Receiving Room | | Office | A workspace for professional, administrative, or commercial activity | | Workshop | Manual labor, fabrication, maintenance, or repair | | Service Room | Mechanical plant, maintenance equipment, or storage | | Electricity Room | Breaker panels and power distribution | | Quiet Room | Deep focus, meditation, or mental restoration | | Exercise Room | Fitness training and workout equipment | | First Aid Room | Treatment of minor injuries, or holding until transfer | | Multipurpose Room | Reconfigurable for meetings, training, events, or collaboration | | Retail Room | Display and sale of goods and services | | Warehouse | Storage, staging, and management of inventory or bulk materials | | Disposition | Storage, handling, removal, or recycling of waste and decommissioned assets | | Other Workplace | A functional area that fits none of the standard workspace classifications | ### Asset | Category | Types you can assign | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Equipment** | Fridge, Fire Extinguisher, AED (Automated External Defibrillator), Photovoltaic Panel, Waste Meter | | **Furniture** | Chair, Art, Other Workplace, and under the **Desk** category, Standard Desk, Hot Desk, Allocated Desk, Quiet Desk | | **Architectural Asset** | Under the **Barrier Asset** category, Door | Several asset types exist because of the sensor that usually accompanies them. A fire extinguisher, an AED, or a piece of art carries a presence sensor that raises an alert when the item is removed. A door carries a reed contact that counts openings or reports its current state. A desk or chair carries an occupancy sensor. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation by asking a question. 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