PERFORMANCE SIMULATION AS A FRONT-END TOOL FOR 'INTEGRATIVE' CONCEPTUAL DESIGN EVALUATION

摘要

The building design process, with all its inherent complexities,rnis still by and large regarded and conducted as a series of ratherrndiscrete sequential operations. The architect is responsible forrngenerating the initial design concept which is then passed onto tornthe various engineering professionals for detail technicalrnimplementation. This fragmentized approach has often createdrnsolutions that only serve a limited range of specific requirementsrnwithout due consideration for the integral programmatic andrnperformance related implications of the project. Conflictsrninvariably arise and compromising resolutions are made underrnpressurized conditions in the management of the project.rnThe role of building simulation, if at all considered, is oftenrnrelegated to the "back-end" of the design process merely as arnconfirmation step to gain a quantifiable measure of thernperformance of the "designed" facility. The data is then used tornjustify the necessary technologies to ensure that the buildingrnworks, sometimes even at the expense of unduly high energyrnconsumption.rnIt is well established that the key to influencing the buildingrncosts and its performance standards lie at the beginning stages of arnproject's life-cycle. Therefore, this paper argues that systematicrn"front-end" feasibility studies through the use of computerrnsimulation to aid preliminary design decision making is essential tornaugment the often used thumb-rules derived from pastrnexperiences. In the past, cost and availability of computingrnfacilities were barriers that would have made the proposalrneconomically undesirable. But advances in computer hardware andrnsoftware technology have changed that scenario dramatically.rnA conceptual framework for fundamental and comprehensivebuilding simulation studies will first be presented, based on thernhuman ecological understanding of environmental issues and thernconcept of integrative building performance. Descriptions of arnnumber of research activities and case studies will demonstraternsome significant aspects of the authors' contribution to theapproach at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnosticsrnat Carnegie Mellon University towards an integrative frameworkrnfor front-end performance simulation.