ReBuild Ukraine · 2026
REBUILD
UKRAINE
Warsaw
Construction & Energy
GIS · BIM · data
01 · Why we are there
Reconstruction is also an information problem.
Rebuilding infrastructure means working with information at many different levels. There are locations, buildings, roads, networks, technical installations, survey measurements, planning documents, BIM models, material information, project data and many other sources that have to be understood in relation to each other.
The physical reconstruction is the visible part. Behind it sits an information system that has to support planning, coordination, documentation, prioritisation and decisions.
That does not necessarily mean building a large software platform. In many cases, the first useful step is much more concrete: understand the available data, structure it, validate it, connect it and make a specific process more reliable.
How can technical and spatial information be turned into a repeatable process that people can actually use?
This question connects the two areas in which we work. Nicolas approaches it from surveying, GIS, BIM and technical data processing. Svetlana approaches it from business, digitalisation, process design and organisational implementation.
02 · Nicolas Kohnert
From surveying to data pipelines.
Nicolas’ starting point is surveying. His professional background includes construction setting-out, height determination and the fundamentals of surveying, together with experience in automated surveying workflows and training for surveyors.
This gives his current work with digital data a very practical starting point. Coordinates are not abstract numbers. They describe physical objects and places. A building model is not only a digital file. It contains information about components, geometry and materials. A GIS layer is not only a visual map. It can describe relationships between infrastructure, terrain and other spatial objects.
Over the past months, Nicolas has been developing this technical side further through Python, data processing, GIS automation and BIM/IFC work.
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01
Python & data processing Python with pandas, GeoPandas, Shapely and NumPy, together with logging, requests and XML data processing.
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Geospatial data Good working knowledge of QGIS, basic ArcGIS Pro, GeoPackage, raster and vector data, WMS, WFS and basic geoprocessing such as intersections and spatial relationships.
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03
BIM & IFC Working with IFC data, including extraction of components, geometry and materials, adding information through property sets and handling coordinates and coordinate transformations.
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04
APIs & external data Working with data sources such as Norwegian weather, elevation and traffic APIs and building-material data.
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05
Structured data Basic SQL and SQLite for storing and processing structured information.
Surveying knowledge provides an understanding of the physical world. GIS and BIM provide ways to represent it digitally. Python and data pipelines provide ways to process information repeatedly instead of treating every task as a manual one-off.
03 · Technical approach
The information layer behind the map.
A typical technical workflow does not start with a finished dashboard. It starts with raw information and a question.
Where is the object? What information belongs to it? Which source is authoritative? Can two datasets be compared? Are the coordinates compatible? Is information missing? Which assumptions are being made before a result is produced?
They are deliberately small. They test whether a specific technical principle works before it is considered as part of a larger production workflow.
04 · The challenge
Reconstruction needs more than information.
Reconstruction projects generate and depend on enormous amounts of information: about buildings, infrastructure, land, materials, utilities, transport, costs, ownership, damage and planned measures.
Much of this information already exists. It may simply exist in different systems, formats and organisations, with different levels of detail and different assumptions behind it.
The challenge is therefore not necessarily the absence of data. It is making relevant information understandable, connected and usable within the processes that depend on it.
For us, this makes reconstruction an interesting digitalisation question: how can complex technical information support the people and organisations responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing reconstruction?
05 · The information layer
Different systems describe different parts of the same reality.
A geographic information system can describe where an asset is. A BIM model can describe its components and properties. A database can structure relationships between records. External services can provide additional information. Documents and spreadsheets may contain information that is not available anywhere else.
These representations are useful for different purposes, but the underlying reality is connected.
This is where geospatial data, BIM and data engineering become relevant to reconstruction. Information can be transformed, connected and analysed without losing sight of the physical assets and places it describes.
The objective is not to turn every piece of information into one giant system. It is to establish useful connections where they improve understanding or make a process more reliable.
06 · Digitalisation
Technology is only useful when it fits the work.
Digitalisation is often described through software, platforms and data. In practice, the difficult part is frequently somewhere else: understanding how work is actually organised.
Information passes between people, departments, companies and public authorities. Decisions are made at different stages. Requirements change. Data is updated. Responsibilities move from one organisation to another.
A useful digital process has to account for this reality.
That means looking not only at what can technically be automated, but also at what information is needed, who uses it, where a process starts and ends, and where human judgement remains necessary.
For complex reconstruction programmes, this connection between technical information and organisational processes is particularly important.
07 · Our perspective
Two perspectives, one information problem.
At tolic, we work at the intersection of digitalisation, geospatial information, BIM and process architecture.
This gives us two complementary ways of looking at complex projects. One starts with the technical information: spatial data, models, structures, relationships and the ways in which information can be processed.
The other starts with the organisation: processes, responsibilities, decisions and the practical conditions under which information has to be used.
We are interested in the point where these perspectives meet. Not in replacing professional judgement with software, but in making information and processes structured enough to support better work.
08 · ReBuild Ukraine
Why we are going to Warsaw.
ReBuild Ukraine brings together organisations working on the reconstruction of infrastructure, housing, energy, industry and other parts of the built environment.
We are attending to understand where the practical digitalisation challenges are, how information is currently handled across reconstruction projects, and where our combination of geospatial, BIM, automation and process expertise can be useful.
We are particularly interested in the information layer behind reconstruction: how data moves between organisations, how technical information becomes usable in processes, and where better structures can reduce unnecessary manual work or make decisions more traceable.
We do not arrive with a predefined reconstruction platform or a finished answer. We are going to Warsaw to engage with the actual challenges and understand where we can contribute.
09 · Participation
We are attending ReBuild Ukraine.
ReBuild Ukraine takes place in Warsaw on 12–13 November 2026. The event brings together organisations involved in the reconstruction of Ukraine across construction, infrastructure, energy, housing, transport, technology and related fields.
We are participating as tolic as, with a particular interest in the digital and information structures behind reconstruction projects. Our focus is on where geospatial information, BIM, automation and organisational processes can work together.
The matchmaking platform is one way we are approaching the event. It gives us a practical way to see who is working on which parts of reconstruction and where there may be a meaningful technical or organisational connection.
10 · The lab
Our technical work keeps moving.
We are developing and testing ideas continuously. Some of this work is exploratory, some of it is deliberately small, and some of it will develop into more substantial technical work.
Rather than turning every experiment into a permanent project page, we keep the current technical work in our lab. It is the place where we can show what we are currently testing, changing and learning.
That distinction matters. A prototype is a point in a process, not necessarily a product or a finished solution.
The lab will therefore change over time. This page does not attempt to document every technical experiment. It describes the broader questions that connect our work to reconstruction and digitalisation.
11 · Ukraine
Ukraine is personal.
For Svetlana, participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine has a personal dimension.
That does not make her a reconstruction or energy specialist. It simply makes the question of contribution personal.
For tolic, the practical question is where our actual experience can be useful: in digitalisation, information structures, geospatial data, BIM, automation and the processes around them.
Stable environments depend on infrastructure that works and on organisations that can work with the information they have. Contributing to that, where our capabilities are relevant, is why ReBuild Ukraine matters to us.
ReBuild Ukraine · Warsaw · 2026
Infrastructure needs information.
Information needs structure.
We are looking forward to seeing the practical challenges, technologies and projects shaping the next stages of reconstruction.