Performance-inspired building representations for computacional design

A major goal in computer-aided design research has been the development of integrated design for convenient generation and evaluation of evolving designs. Despite progress in the development of integrated performance simulation systems, a number of usability issues have not been addressed effectively. These include support for the convenient manipulation of geometric and semantic building information. This paper explores the potential for the integration of simulation with existing representations as they are implemented in commercial or research drafting systems. We first establish informational requirements for simulation, and then evaluate the appropriateness of three existing representations with regard to simulation. Based on the evaluation, we outline the elements of a building representation that takes into account these requirements.