High-Performance Green Building Design Process Modeling and Integrated Use of Visualization Tools

High-performance green buildings require close integration of building systems with a special focus on energy, daylighting, and material analysis during their design processes. Design process modeling and use of visualization tools can facilitate better communication and collaboration between team members; hence better integration in the design process. This paper presents a case study of the integrated design process of an Early Childhood Learning Center as performed by a team of university students and faculty. A process modeling approach of key decisions, required consultants, and virtual prototypes of the building was used during the design development stages of the case study. This case illustrates the use of process modeling and visualization tools to provide an accurate building information system for integrated teams. Through this experience, process modeling and visualization tools were found to be useful mechanisms to achieve high performance design goals and minimize design process waste.     

Integrated Computational Life-Cycle Assessment of Buildings

A computational tool has been developed for the environmental evaluation of building designs. Construction and operation of buildings is a major cause of resource depletion and environmental pollution. Computational performance evaluation tools can support the decision making in the area of environmentally responsive building design and play an important role in environmental impact assessment, especially when a life-cycle assessment approach is used. For comprehensive environmental impact analysis to be realized in a computational support tool for the building design domain, such tools must have the following three characteristics: (1) An analysis method that considers the life cycle of building construction, operation, and decommissioning; (2) a representation that is able to accommodate the data and computability requirements of the analysis method and tool; and (3) be integrated within a multiaspect design analysis environment that can provide data on environmentally relevant building operation criteria. This paper describes a computational tool, ECOLOGUE, developed in response to these requirements. However, limitations remain in terms of data availability and the precision of the environmental impact assessment methods.     

Parametric Coordinator for Engineering Design

Coordination of design information is essential for the design team to provide accurate technical documents for the actual construction. Design changes are inevitable during any ordinary building project. If the design changes are not properly managed, design conflicts will be created, which will result in more expensive design or even failure in the design-construction process. However, little research has been done to address the issue and thereby provide tools for the management of design changes. This paper presents a novel approach that can facilitate the coordination of design information through managing design changes with the help of a parametric coordinator. Design changes of dimensions between different building components are specially discussed. The proposed parametric coordinator provides each building component with the linking knowledge that is described as a dimensional property and a reference property. A group design method is applied to check the design consistency. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed parametric approach for design change management.     

Mobile Ad Hoc Network-Enabled Collaboration Framework Supporting Civil Engineering Emergency Response Operations

This paper presents an information-technology-based collaboration framework that facilitates disaster response operations. The collaboration framework incorporates a web collaboration service, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, a building blackbox system (BBS), a geo-database, and a geographic information system (GIS). Through the integration of these technologies, the framework provides a collaboration medium for first responders, including civil engineers, to cohesively respond to disasters. Access to critical building information, such as construction documents, through the BBS supports assessments of building integrity during disaster response. Building assessment information is stored on RFID tags, which are accessible to first responders through digital devices via a wireless ad hoc network. With on-site assessment information shown on a digital map, decision makers locate, collect, and distribute critical resources through the GIS to first responders. In addition, the decision makers at distributed locations evaluate the incident through discussion sessions, hosted by the web collaboration environment, for integrated decision making. Test-bed simulations for the framework have been carried out with encouraging results at the training ground of the Illinois Fire Service Institute.     

Best Practices for Integrating the Concurrent Engineering Environment into Multipartner Project Management

The use of the Internet, e-mail, and other technologies has been steadily filtering into the building process, creating a concurrent engineering (CE) environment, and enabling collaborative efforts in the building process. The concurrent engineering environment is established by a variety of tools, including internet accessible servers, e-mail, mobile telephones, and many other existing CE tools. Organizations involved in the construction process recognize the need for assessment of benefits resulting from CE tools, but find the evaluation of these benefits difficult and complicated. The project presented in this paper, “project management and organization in the concurrent engineering environment (ProCE),” is applicable to both researchers and practitioners. The ProCE project developed a measuring model, which may be used by future researchers in this area, attempted to measure benefits derived from using the CE environment in construction design and project management routines, and developed guidelines for best practice implementation by practitioners, based on four case studies. The project included the measurement of both the quantitative and qualitative benefit of CE environment implementation in building construction projects using tools that were readily available through application service providers. Measurement of cost and other quantifiable benefits have been extensively studied. Therefore, the majority of the discussion in the current paper will address the ProCE project’s measurement of qualitative benefits.     

Improving Design Coordination for Building Projects. I: Information Model

Detailed design of building projects is a complex multidisciplinary process highly dependent upon effective aggregation of individual designs to produce a coherent set of final design documents. Throughout the detailed design process, changes are frequently introduced and need to be properly managed among the various members of the design team. This paper presents an information model for storing design information, recording design rationale, and managing design changes. The proposed model is built around a central library of generalized building components that can be used to describe a complete building project hierarchy. Each component allows the designer to store desired performance criteria and related design rationale. Each component is also sensitive to its own changes and automatically communicates such changes to affected parties through preset communication paths. The model, as such, provides improved design coordination and control over changes, thus helping to increase the consistency and productivity of the overall design process. Conceptual details of the model are described in this paper, and model implementation into a collaborative design system is presented in a companion paper.     

Collaborative Planning and Scheduling of Interrelated Design Changes

During the detailed design stage of a building project, a vast amount of mostly interrelated design information is generated and communicated among specialists from several disciplines. Changes in some design information are inevitable due to the iterative nature of the design process. In many cases, when the design of a building component is modified by one discipline, this change affects the design of many related building components that are the responsibility of several other design disciplines. Commitment and resources are needed to accommodate such design changes to maintain compatibility among all the design information. Otherwise, incompatibility errors become embedded in the design information leading to numerous problems during the construction of the project. This paper presents a computer-assisted methodology that helps design managers in planning and scheduling changes with interrelated effects on the design information.     

Exchange Model and Exchange Object Concepts for Implementation of National BIM Standards

The industry foundation class (IFC) standard building model schema is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving full interoperability between building information modeling (BIM) tools. Unless each information exchange within construction project workflows has its specific contents and level of detail defined, the breadth and flexibility of the IFC schema leaves room for errors. The national BIM standard approach for resolving the ambiguities of information exchange is based on “use cases,” which precisely define the data required in each information exchange between disciplines in engineering workflows. In this paper, we define specific procedures for developing information delivery manuals (IDM), which capture the use cases and the precise information to be exchanged. We also identify some of the data semantics we found problematic that require workflow specification. We further propose details of the information capture that allow the IDM to serve as a specification for later implementation and testing. The procedures are illustrated using examples from an IDM specification developed for the domain of architectural precast concrete.     

Automated Code Compliance Checking for Building Envelope Design

Automating the checking of building envelope design according to design regulations is a complex process because these regulations consist of complicated logic sentences covering multiple functions. Existing mechanisms of building code computer-aided checking have some limitations dealing with design regulations. This paper presents a new integrated approach to automated code compliance checking for building envelope design based on simulation results and building codes. In this approach, building codes and simulation results are seamlessly linked with the compliance checking software. A hierarchical object-based representation of simulation results is proposed as an extended building information model (EBIM) to describe the attributes of a building and its subsystems. A representation of building codes based on decision tables and compatible with the EBIM is also proposed so that users can check the building envelope design against building codes based on the standardized simulation results. A prototype system is developed and a case study gives an example of evaluating the hygrothermal performance of an exterior wall.     

Managing Design Changes for Multiview Models

Coordination of design changes is important because, if the design changes are not properly managed, design conflicts will result in more expensive design or even failure in the design-construction process. Geometric modification has been a routine for design activities. However, the facility of existing systems for managing changes in multiview models is still inadequate. This paper presents a novel parametric approach using a knowledge-based constraint solving method to incorporate the projection knowledge and graphic inference to address the issue of design changes for multiview models. A corresponding multiview constraint solver has been developed. This knowledge-based constraint solver can be combined with the linking knowledge between building components to facilitate the coordination of design information for multiview models. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed parametric approach for design change management.     

Design and Construction Challenges of a Federal Laboratory Building: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study regarding design and construction challenges of a federal laboratory building. The case study illustrates the successful collaboration of two federal agencies, General Services Administration (GSA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Creative methods were used to resolve complex design, construction, and budgetary issues. This paper describes lessons learned from a specific laboratory project on issues such as: A master plan and its role in locating secure laboratory buildings, site planning issues, contracting mechanisms, building security, energy, project development, design and construction excellence, and funding. Although CDC and GSA approved the release of this paper, the authors offer a disclaimer that the opinions and conclusions drawn in the papers are those of the authors, and are not necessarily shared by the CDC and GSA.     

Promise and Barriers to Technology Enabled and Open Project Team Collaboration

In today’s world, construction projects require the collaboration of several parties who work independently for a shared purpose, sometimes across space and time, and most of the time across organizational boundaries. Working with a wide diversity of knowledge and skills brings a broad range of viewpoints and expertise to the construction projects. In design and construction, organizations depend on information technology to execute their specific well-defined tasks to make construction projects possible. Technology is used either for executing these tasks more efficiently, or for doing things that were not possible before. Nevertheless, despite the potential positive contribution of these tools to the design and construction processes and organizations, barriers still exist for achieving success. This paper presents potential benefits of technology enabled and open project team collaboration with a case study example and outlines cultural and legal barriers to its widespread adoption by the construction industry.     

IFC-Based Framework for Evaluating Total Performance of Building Envelopes

Evaluating the overall performance of buildings has emerged as a trend in building engineering in recent years. Several programs that evaluate building performance have been developed or are being developed in different regions of the world. The building envelope performance assessment tool was initiated at Concordia University based on the feedback received from manufacturers. After briefly introducing the development of the tool, this paper presents an integrated framework which applies information technology and the international standard Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to ensure that the building envelope satisfies energy requirements as well as other requirements such as moisture and thermal performance, concurrently. The framework is designed to extract geometric and material layers’ data of a house from computer-aided design (CAD) drawings in IFC data model, link to performance evaluation applications, such as HOT2000 and MOIST3.0, and compare evaluation results with a set of criteria. To demonstrate the functionalities of this framework, a prototype system has been developed including a preprocessor that imports the building model from an IFC-compatible CAD application, an application integrator, and a postprocessor. Finally, a case study, which aims to validate this prototype system, is discussed in detail.     

An Ontology for Relating Features with Activities to Calculate Costs

It is the cost estimator’s task to determine how the building design influences construction costs. Estimators must recognize the design conditions that effect construction costs and adjust the project’s activities, resources, and resource productivity rates accordingly to create a cost estimate for a particular design. Current tools and methodologies help estimators to establish relationships between product and cost information to calculate quantities automatically. However, they do not provide a common vocabulary to represent estimators’ rationale for relating product and cost information. This paper presents the ontology we formalized to represent estimators’ rationale for relating features of building product models to construction activities and associated construction resources to calculate construction costs. A software prototype that implements the ontology enables estimators to generate activities that know what feature requires their execution, what resources are being used and why, and how much the activities’ execution costs. Validation studies of use of the prototype system provide evidence that the ontology enabled estimators to generate and maintain construction cost estimates more completely, consistently, and expeditiously than traditional tools.     

RFID+4D CAD for Progress Management of Structural Steel Works in High-Rise Buildings

This research presents a strategy and information system to manage the logistics and progress control of structural steel works under the integrated environment of radio frequency identification and four-dimensional computer-aided design (4D CAD). Considering the characteristics of the manufacturing and erection processes of structural steel works in high-rise building construction from a practical point of view, this research has developed a strategy to support successful application of these two state-of-the-art technologies and has developed an information system to support the logistics and progress management based on this strategy. The results of this research have been validated and verified through real-world applications in two high-rise building construction projects considering realistic constraints. Time study has been conducted to verify the efficiency of the proposed information system. In addition, lessons learned and issues identified through these real-world applications are described and discussed in this paper.     

Facility Maintenance Performance Perspective to Target Strategic Organizational Objectives

While facility design is increasingly playing a role addressing strategic organizational objectives, issues pertaining to facility maintenance have typically been left out of the decision-making process. Reasons include the traditional disconnection between facility design and facility maintenance, mainly originating from the lack of a modality to meaningfully represent facility maintenance information during design decision making. This paper discusses two sets of facility maintenance indicators that have the potential to bridge this traditional divide. The objective of this paper is threefold: (1) to illustrate how maintenance performance indicators can support higher-level decision making; (2) to explain how the methodology could be mapped across building sectors; and (3) to show how facility maintenance could play a crucial role in informing strategic decision making. Two types of indicators are introduced based on: (1) normative models in biophysics and physiology and (2) empiricist models of environment-behavior studies. Using examples from hospital, courthouse, and office building design, the paper articulates the manner in which facility performance indicators could be developed and used to support organizational strategic decision making. The paper demonstrates that facility maintenance indicators could be developed for all types of buildings and could be meaningfully represented for consideration during strategic decision making. Moreover, using an example of a healthcare setting, the paper emphasizes how facility maintenance strategies have an impact on higher-level organizational objectives, and vice versa, thereby underscoring the importance to consider maintenance performance during strategic decision making. The paper shows how the two sets of key performance indicators—the hard and the soft—are designed to address different scales of decision making, thereby allowing facility maintenance performance to be considered at all phases of a procurement cycle.     

Assessing the Relevance of Media Synchronicity Theory to the Use of Communication Media in the AECO Industry

Recent developments in technology, such as building information models (BIMs), immersive displays, and mobile computing tools, have enabled changes in the means and locations of communication throughout the building architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study regarding the planning of physical media for effective communication in conjunction with the developments in BIM use. While literature shows that there has been noticeable impact of physical media on communication, there has been little evidence of consistent and thorough planning and evaluation of media for investment or project level planning. The exploratory study identifies media synchronicity theory as a starting point for identifying the media needs by task for more effective planning of communication, as well as potential considerations unique to the AECO industry. The paper concludes with studies which have begun for planning more specific applications for BIM and media within AECO.     

Problem-Solving Base Building under Uncertainty and Ambiguity: Multiple-Case Study on an Airport Expansion Program

This multiple-case study induces alternative strategies to coordinate the overlap of tasks to detail and physically execute base building with tasks to conceptualize the business-critical fit out. Base-building subsystems provide service space for occupancy, whereas fit-out subsystems make the space functional. Our empirical findings on problem-solving base-building design under uncertainty and ambiguity stem from a number of projects in an airport expansion program. They suggest that base-building subsystems show low sensitivity to incremental changes in fit out as their definitions are seldom optimized to eliminate slack. Yet, base-building subsystems show high sensitivity to radical changes in fit out when the architectures of the two subsystems are integral to one another. Three strategies for problem-solving base building stand out: (1) iterate design when preliminary information about fit out is ambiguous, or precise but unstable; (2) physically decouple the architectures of base building and fit out; and (3) design buffers in base building when preliminary information about fit out lacks precision but it is not ambiguous. These buffers can be designed out if uncertainties in fit out resolve favorably before starting the physical execution for base building.     

Feasibility Study of an Automated Tool for Identifying the Implications of Changes in Construction Projects

Because of the fragmented nature of project information, decisions on changes in construction projects are usually based on project design instead of project requirements. This research proposes a new approach for coping with changes in construction projects: A change control tool (CCT) that will identify implications of a change as soon as it is proposed. The tool will ensure that the stakeholders involved in the decision process in which change proposals are evaluated will know in advance if a change could cause the project to stray from its original goals, as expressed in the requirements. The proposed CCT uses the building program as a link between client requirements and the building design and traces the different relationships that exist between the requirements in the project. The relationships are traced using requirement traceability capabilities on the level of a specific space in the project and on the level of the entire project. A preliminary CCT model was developed and pilot studies implementing the model have been conducted. The pilot studies have given positive results, indicating that the CCT could identify the scope of the proposed changes’ implications.