Maybe the best way to do this for IFC2x3 and IFC4 is to have one stakeholder/designer create a simple file that has the basic structure for the project (possibly including some placeholder objects/geometry) and then exporting the file to IFC for others to import. This is part of what the Model Setup IDM addresses (mainly focused on geo-referencing using this process). More info is in the Standards Library. Look at the “Geo-referencing in IFC” materials under “Technical Reports”.
For the future (IFC5?), one could suppose to use the same file as a “project setup basis” to reference the data into other systems and models. That would be an interesting use case to test.