One of the main specifically tailored benchmarks on which the territory configuration effort must be based is the development of ontological introductory concepts: the deployment of skills, the creation of a processing environment for the family of operating tools allowing the formulation of a consistent and robust conceptual model of territory with its different dimensional scales - from the overall environment, with "natural" areas more or less affected by human factors, to an urban-patterned environment with buildings and structural-functional parts.

The recent progress in modeling technologies, based on interoperability, to be primarily installed among the knowledge systems, opens new scenarios based on the integration of cognitive systems in a reading pattern with well-known crossroad nodes, which can explain the reasons of environmental and economical phenomena, generated by the “families of interactions” unfolding among heterogeneous, yet interfering, dimensional scales.

An important contribution to this aim is offered by the progressive integration of technologies for geographical and territorial representation with the recent object-oriented 3D parametrical modeling of buildings and their parts of work, down to the required detail level.

Industry Foundation Classes is a Open Source Standard language – freely shared by export users – property of International Alliance for Interoperability – Building Smart, an international non-profit organization of researchers, public administrations, software companies, enterprises, professional, experts and universities. The IFC developing standard is already recognized as ISO PAS 16739 – 2005.

The models representation technology based on the standard IFC code and IFG (Industry Foundation Geographic) guarantees the interoperability of the represented objects, through the whole information sets’ exchange, in both systems, and the whole merging of the models from the original software context.
To the digital simulation environment in order to preview its working behavior under real conditions.

The Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy is leading the implementation of these standards within the institutional educational framework. For several years held a series of basic courses, advanced training, integrated courses and design workshops which are based on the new concept of design with interoperable instruments.

From a conceptual point of view, academic results were quite surprising, with the identification of a new modality of the architectural design morphologically complex, with regard to 3D integrated and multidisciplinary modelling, compared to the technological and scientific components that are typical of the interoperability practice for the architectural executive design.

The Piacenza Campus is assumed as the case study in the Master of Science titled “Sustainable Architecture of Large Buildings and Urban Design” has attempted, through the application of new DM 509/99 to organize an entire biannual study courses convergent to the use and application within the teaching of these technologies through a rethinking and a strong interdisciplinary approach.

The innovative leap, although very large, is a logical evolutionary consequence of the course offered in previous academic years who have given excellent results of participation and interest from the students.