Application of Information Technologies in Building Design Decisions

This paper is about research and development efforts on the use of information technologies to assist in building design decisions. Theoretical models of the design and decision-making processes are described along with their implementation for the development of the Building Design Advisor (BDA), a software environment designed to facilitate informed decisions from the early schematic phases of building design to the detailed specification of building components and systems. To do that, the BDA supports the integrated, concurrent use of multiple simulation tools and databases, and makes their output available in forms that support multicriterion judgment. The BDA data structures and algorithms for data management and process control are presented along with its graphical user interface and the simulation processes linked to its initial version. Finally, plans for future work are described, aimed at the expansion of the BDA software to link to additional tools and databases, and address the data needs of the whole building life cycle, from design, through contruction and commissioning, to operation and demolition.