Integrated data and process control during BIM design - focused on integrated design of energy and indoor climate conditions

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) orientated work processes is gaining more and more momentum in the construction industry worldwide. At the same time, the demand for energy efficient and well climatised buildings increases. Using an integrated design process within the design team is seen as one of the best ways to achieve better performance of buildings during the design stage. The aim for this project is to define how an integrated design process can be improved by using BIM orientated work processes. The hypothesis is that BIM work processes can create an improved and controlled information flow and a faster and more qualified basis for decisions during integrated design. This should ultimately lead to better energy and indoor climate conditions for buildings. The project will focus on analysing input and output data during comfort and energy simulations in order to define the exchange requirements for such simulations. Combining research on BIM technology with the exchange requirements, the idea is to sketch an ideal process of how to use comfort and energy simulations during integrated design facilitated by BIM work processes. The IFC format is used as the shared file format throughout the process in order to create a standardised process which is independent of software products. The entire process is controlled by a change management concept inspired by the airplane and software industry in order to improve the information exchange and, hence, the integrated design process. Part of the process defined in the project will be tested using real life project data combined with software developed to support the selected parts of the process.