The Increasing Importance of Advanced Building Simulations in a New Building Design Paradigm

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the increasing importance of advanced building simulations in the design of high performance buildings. A changing building design industry increasingly requires simulations to achieve high energy efficiency and sustainability, while safeguarding occupant comfort, for the built environment. The paper introduces two main numerical design tools, energy simulations (ES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Much of the building industry and even many academic architecture programs have not yet embraced advanced simulations as indispensable tools of the design process and building operation, as well as an important educational focus for the next generation of architects. The paper discusses how a successful implementation of the new design paradigms based on advanced simulation tools in academia and the building industry are hampered by technology and human barriers. The paper proposes several measures to successful overcome these barriers. Several important of application of advanced simulation are discussed such as building energy consumption;natural ventilation, dispersion of pollutants in and around buildings and occupant comfort performance.