A method of constructing a representation of an object having at least one property includes identifying at least one property group associated with the object which has been chosen to represent the object. At least one property of the object belongs to each property group identified as being associated with the object. The method further includes identifying any other object that the object references within a property of an identified property group. An object representation engine retrieves data corresponding to each of the properties belonging to the at least one property group. The engine then represents the object using the retrieved data.