ITcon Vol. 25, pg. 212-232, http://www.itcon.org/2020/13

Consistent management and evaluation of building models in the early design stages

DOI:10.36680/j.itcon.2020.013
submitted:March 2019
revised:December 2019
published:March 2020
editor(s):Amor R.
authors:Jimmy Abualdenien, M.Sc.,
Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
jimmy.abualdenien@tum.de

Patricia Schneider-Marin, Dipl.-Ing.,
Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
patricia.schneider@tum.de

Ata Zahedi, M.Sc.,
Chair of Architectural Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
ata.zahedi@tum.de

Hannes Harter, M.Sc.,
Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
hannes.harter@tum.de

Hannah Exner, M.Sc.,
Chair of Computing in Engineering, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany;
hannah.exner@rub.de

Daniel Steiner, M.Sc.,
Institute for Structural Concrete, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany;
daniel.steiner@uni-due.de

Manav Mahan Singh, M.Tech.,
Architectural Engineering, Department of Architecture, KU Leuven, Belgium;
manavmahan.singh@kuleuven.be

André Borrmann, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
andre.borrmann@tum.de

Werner Lang, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
w.lang@tum.de

Frank Petzold, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Chair of Architectural Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
petzold@tum.de

Markus König, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Chair of Computing in Engineering, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany;
koenig@inf.bi.rub.de

Philipp Geyer, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Digital Architecture and Sustainability, Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin, Germany;
geyer@tu-berlin.de

Martina Schnellenbach-Held, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Institute for Structural Concrete, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany;
massivbau@uni-due.de
summary:The early stages of building design involve the consideration of different design variants and their assessment regarding various performance criteria including energy consumption and costs. During the design process, the involved experts from different disciplines frequently exchange building information to develop a design that satisfies the project’s requirements and objectives. In the course of this iterative process, the building design evolves throughout multiple refinement stages. At the same time, different variants are developed. In BIM-based projects, the maturity of the design information provided by the model is expressed by the notion of Level of development (LOD). So far, however, there is no method to formally define the information requirements of a LOD. In particular, there are no means for expressing the uncertainty involved with the provided information. By contrast, despite the insufficient information available in early design stages, a BIM model appears precise and certain. This situation leads to false assumptions and model evaluations, for example, in the case of energy efficiency calculations or structural analysis. Hence, this paper presents an overview of a set of approaches that were developed to alleviate and preserve the consistency of the designed solutions. The approach includes the development of a multi-LOD meta-model, which allows one to explicitly describe the LOD requirements of each building component type incorporating the possible uncertainties, e.g. concerning the building dimensions. On the basis of this multi-LOD model, methods for evaluating a building design’s performance regarding the building’s structure and life cycle energy performance are proposed that take the defined uncertainties into account. To support the management of design variants in one consistent model, a graph-based approach is introduced. Finally, a minimized communication protocol is described to facilitate the workflow and communicate the evaluation results for supporting the decision-making process.
keywords:Building Information Modeling (BIM), Level Of Development (LOD), Multi-LOD, Exchange Requirements (ER), Early Design Stages, Meta-model, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Energy Assessment (LCEA), Operational Energy Assessment, Embedded Energy Assessment, Sustainable Building Design, Design Variant, Design Management
full text: (PDF file, 1.885 MB)
citation:Abualdenien J, Schneider-Marin P, Zahedi A, Harter H, Exner H, Steiner D, Mahan Singh M, Borrmann A, Lang W, Petzold F, König M, Geyer P, Schnellenbach-Held M (2020). Consistent management and evaluation of building models in the early design stages, ITcon Vol. 25, pg. 212-232, https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.013
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