Performance Simulation as a Front-end Tool For "Integrative" Conceptual Design Evaluation

The building design process, with all its inherent complexities, is still by and large regarded and conducted as a series of rather discrete sequential operations. The architect is responsible for generating the initial design concept which is then passed onto to the various engineering professionals for detail technical implementation. This fragmentized approach has often created solutions that only serve a limited range of specific requirements without due consideration for the integral programmatic and performance related implications of the project. Conflicts invariably arise and compromising resolutions are made under pressurized conditions in the management of the project. The role of building simulation, if at all considered, is often relegated to the "back-end" of the design process merely as a confirmation step to gain a quantifiable measure of the performance of the "designed" facility. The data is then used to justify the necessary technologies to ensure that the building works, sometimes even at the expense of unduly high energy consumption. It is well established that the key to influencing the building costs and its performance standards lie at the beginning stages of a project's life-cycle. Therefore, this paper argues that systematic "front-end" feasibility studies through the use of computer simulation to aid preliminary design decision making is essential to augment the often used thumb-rules derived from past experiences. In the past, cost and availability of computing facilities were barriers that would have made the proposal economically undesirable. But advances in computer hardware and software technology have changed that scenario dramatically. A conceptual framework for fundamental and comprehensive building simulation studies will first be presented, based on the human ecological understanding of environmental issues and the concept of integrative building performance. Descriptions of a number of research activities and case studies will demonstrate some significant aspects of the authors contribution to the approach at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University towards an integrative framework for front-end performance simulation.