This image showsDiellza Elshani

Diellza Elshani

M. Sc., B. Arch.

Research Group Leader | AI for Building Design Representation & Generation
2021 - Current

Contact

+49 711 685 81935
Business card (VCF)

Keplerstraße 11
70174 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Room: 10.32

Subject

Diellza Elshani is a Research Group Leader for AI for Building Design Representation & Generation and a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), Department for Computing in Architecture (ICD/CA), at the University of Stuttgart.

She holds an MSc in Integrated Urban Development & Design from Bauhaus University Weimar and a Bachelor of Architecture from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. Prior to joining ICD, she was a researcher at the City Intelligence Lab (CIL) at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), focusing on cognitive urban design computing.

Her research lies at the intersection of Symbolic Artificial Intelligence and Building Information Modeling (BIM), with a focus on knowledge graphs, semantic web technologies, and AI-driven reasoning for multidisciplinary building co-design. She has led and contributed to projects such as InterReas, Semantic Building, and RP20: Knowledge Representation for Multi-Disciplinary Co-Design of Buildings, as well as other IntCDC projects centered on knowledge representation, and is involved in the Large-Scale Construction Robotics Laboratory (LCRL).

She teaches courses on AI for buildings and semantic digital twins, supervises graduate theses, and has presented her work at international conferences including CAAD Futures, LDAC, and ESWC. She has also secured competitive research funding and serves as a peer reviewer for leading conferences and journals.

 

Key words: Symbolic AI, Semantic Web Technologies, and Knowledge Graphs for Multi-disciplinary Building Co-design and Building Information Modeling.

2026

geof3D: SPARQL geometric functions for co-designing buildings
Elshani, D., Hernandez, D., Nakhaee, A., Arrascue, A., Staab, S., & Wortmann, T.
Advanced Engineering Informatics (Article)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2025.104261 View article (ScienceDirect)

Dataset for geof3D: 3D SPARQL Geometry Functions, Test Artefacts, Queries, and Evaluation Results
Elshani, D., Hernandez, D., Nakhaee, A., Arrascue Ayala, V., Staab, S., & Wortmann, T.
DaRUS (Dataset / repository)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18419/DARUS-5535 Access dataset (DaRUS)

Capturing and Modeling of Existing Buildings from Point Clouds Under the Application of Stochastic Information
Abolhasani, S., Balangé, L., Zhang, L., Reß, V., Haala, N., Elshani, D., Wortmann, T., Sörgel, U., & Schwieger, V.
Springer Nature Switzerland (Conference paper) 

2025

Linked Urban Data: Leveraging the Capabilities of Urban Data Analytics Using Knowledge Graphs
Peng, X., Elshani, D., Svatoš-Ražnjević, H., Menges, A., & Wortmann, T.
(Conference paper) doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2025.2.385

Training and Evaluating a Co-pilot Tool Using Graph Neural Networks for Generating Non-Orthogonal Building Typologies in Architectural Autocompletion
Renner, M., Hornung, M., Elshani, D., Niepert, M., & Wortmann, T.
International Journal of Architectural Computing (SAGE), doi.org/10.1177/14780771251354914

Linked RDF Graphs of an Architectural and Structural Representation of a Timber Structure
Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Hernández, D., Staab, S., Fisher, A., & Wortmann, T.
(Entry / dataset-type publication)  doi:10.18419/DARUS-4360

Building Knowledge Representation for Computer Scientists: Insights from Teaching
Elshani, D., Hernandez, D., Staab, S., & Wortmann, T.
In: Proceedings of the 36th Forum Bauinformatik (Aachen, 2025), pp. 49–56, DOI: doi.org/10.18154/RWTH-CONV-254895

Comparative Analysis of Approaches for Geometric Data Representation in RDF
Elshani, D., Nakhaee, A., Arrascue, A., Isakovic, H., Hedayati, N., Karlapudi, J., & Wortmann, T.
(Conference paper)

AEC Co-design Workflow for Cross-Domain Querying and Reasoning Using Semantic Web Technologies
Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Hernandez, D., Staab, S., Fisher, A., & Wortmann, T.
Automation in Construction (Elsevier), 2025. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2025.106226

Augmenting IFC-Based BIM Models for Graph Neural Network Training of Non-Orthogonal Spatial Typologies: A Context-Informed Design Methodology
Hornung, M., Renner, M., Elshani, D., Niepert, M., & Wortmann, T.
In: CAAD Futures 2025 – Catalytic Interfaces: Conference Proceedings (Volume II), pp. 869–883, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong, 2025  DOI: https://doi.org/10.25442/hku.29365832

 

2024

An Ontology for the Reuse and Tracking of Prefabricated Building Components
Elshani, D., Dervishaj, A., Hernández, D., Gudmundsson, K., Staab, S., & Wortmann, T.
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (Conference paper)

A Vision for Automated Building Code Compliance Checking by Unifying Hybrid Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models
Nakhaee, A., Elshani, D., & Wortmann, T.
Springer (Conference paper)

Learning and Generating Spatial Concepts of Modernist Architecture via Graph Machine Learning
Bauscher, E., Dai, A., Elshani, D., & Wortmann, T.
CAADRIA (Conference paper)

2023

BHoM to bhOWL Converter
Elshani, D.
(Software / tool) 10.18419/DARUS-3364

Building Information Validation and Reasoning Using Semantic Web Technologies
Elshani, D., Hernandez, D., Lombardi, A., Siriwardena, L., Schwinn, T., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Menges, A., & Wortmann, T.  In: Computer-Aided Architectural Design – INTERCONNECTIONS: Co-computing Beyond Boundaries (pp. 470–484). Springer Nature Switzerland DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-37189-9_31

2022

Towards Better Co-Design with Disciplinary Ontologies: Review and Evaluation of Data Interoperability in the AEC Industry
Elshani, D., Wortmann, T., & Staab, S.
LDAC 2022 – Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop

Knowledge Graphs for Multidisciplinary Co-Design: Introducing RDF to BHoM
Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Hernández, D., & Wortmann, T.
LDAC 2022 – Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop, Hersonissos, Greece

Inferential Reasoning in Co-Design Using Semantic Web Standards alongside BHoM
Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Hernández, D., & Wortmann, T.
33rd Forum Bauinformatik, TU München

2021

Measuring Sustainability and Urban Data Operationalization: An Integrated Computational Framework to Evaluate and Interpret Urban Form Performance
Elshani, D., Koenig, R., Duering, S., Schneider, S., & Chronis, A.
CAADRIA, Hong Kong

2020

Rural Urban Transformation: Parametric Approach on Metabolism-Based Planning Strategies in Ethiopia
Elshani, D., Vititneva, E., Gilmanov, A., Koenig, R., Schneider, S., et al.
SimAUD – Symposium on Simulation for Architecture & Urban Design, Vienna

 

2019

Tirana: Architecture as a Political Actor
Blasius, B., Beenen, P., Brandt, M., Elshani, D., et al.
Bauhaus University Weimar

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Thesis:

 

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Research & Projects:

 

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Invited Lectures:

 

Scientific Peer-Review:

  • 2026: European Conference on Computing in Construction (EC3 2026) — Program Committee Reviewer.
  • 2023-current: Resources, Conservation and Recycling Journal, ScienceDirect.
  • 2023-2025: Linked Data in Architecture and Construction (LDAC), CEUR Workshop Proceedings.
  • 2023-current: NLP4KGC Workshop of SEMANTiCS 2024 Conference.

 

Awards

  1. First place in Linked Building Data Hackathon 2022.
  2. Best Graduate Award 2020/2021 - IUDD Bauhaus University Weimar.
  3. Second place in Bratislava Climate Hackathon Vienna Online 2020.
  4. DAAD scholarship recipient for architecture study.
  5. Erasmus+ scholarship recipient.
  6. Turkiye Burslari Scholarship recipient.
  7. Best Thesis Projects - Psychiatric Hospital 2017.
  8. 4th Place Mathematics Olympiads in Kosovo 2011.
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