An introduction to the Numerical Simulation Laboratory at the University of Texas

The Numerical Simulation Laboratory (NSL) was started in 1971 in order to address a fundamental problem facing both practicing design professionals and architecture students. That is, that although architects are aware that their design decisions influence the energy demand of buildings; there was, and still is, little information available which can be used to help determine the precise quantitative significance that each architectural decision has on energy demand.The original purpose of the NSL was to address this problem within the academic context. Since then most of the analytical capabilities developed have also been used as research as well as design aids.