A simulation-based procedure for the holistic resilience testing of building performance

Abstract

The design of an energy efficient urban environment is a formidable task because the underlying processes are complex, coupled and time varying. Competing objectives from a variety of stakeholders relating to occupant wellbeing, fuel poverty alleviation, improved air quality, low energy use, emissions reduction, and legislative compliance then act to confound the attainment of operational quality and resilience of particular design solutions. This gives rise to a persistent and growing gap between design intent (in both new build and retrofit contexts) and the operational reality. Unfortunately, there are no current standards for building performance appraisal and operational resilience testing so that such assessments, where undertaken, are ad hoc and implemented as an arbitrary function of the particular project context. The result is that it is impossible to compare alternative proposals in terms of the performance that is likely to be delivered in practice. This paper reports recent developments in automating the application of building performance simulation as a means to address this deficiency.