methodology

The aim of this paper is to develop a new concept of sketch tools for the very steps of the design process. The originality lies in the use of optimization to define a global design of the building, the energy system and the control strategy. Therefore, an adapted model of the building has been realized, not directly using fine dynamic models (like those that can be found in tools TRNSYS, DOE2.2 and EnergyPlus...), but more coarse equations adapted to the sketch design phase. Those models are based on static and macroscopic equations investigating energetic and financial balances.

The present paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between building designers and simulationists by proposing a common framework for discussion. It is a positional paper written from a building designer’s viewpoint that basically agrees with the proposition that design is no longer dominated by physical structure thinking but by performance and system based concerns.

In 2005, the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS) program approved the start of a new four-year research project on building commissioning. Annex 47, on “Cost-Effecti