My original Module 8 Assignment Part 1 document is uploaded to my Module 8 ACC folder and linked here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I1LNCDI0xhzLG7jU4uK3hLxsuHcSxj-Gy433LRlB_ag/edit?usp=sharing.
Intended users
My tool will serve as a design assistant providing feedback in BIM on important BSA criteria. BSAs are most beneficial in preliminary project phases so that sustainable design can be efficient and cost-effective. To that end, design-phase BIM has proven useful in obtaining many common BSA metrics. Intended users of my tool will therefore be architects and other project personnel performing pre-construction design in BIM.
Need you’re trying to provide a solution or support for
The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is responsible for significant portions of global energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste generation. This cultivated societal interest in lessening the environmental impact of buildings, in turn giving rise to Building Sustainability Assessments (BSAs) to evaluate building sustainability from the early stages of a project onwards. BSAs often incorporate many criteria to consider all facets of sustainability and local context. Such comprehensive evaluations are informative but time-consuming, hindering BSAs within tight design deadlines and discouraging subsequent sustainability improvements since BSAs would have to be repeated. Integrating BSAs with Building Information Modeling (BIM) presents an opportunity to expedite and enhance BSAs due to BIM's computational capabilities and prevalence in modern design workflows, thereby orienting AEC towards a high-tech green future.
Inputs
Input to my tool is a building model in the BIM platform Autodesk Revit. Input models must specify building materials, floor plan dimensions, and site location in addition to representing other characteristics (i.e. envelope surface area and windows).
Underlying logic of the model you’ll implement
Some common BSA criteria can be directly assessed from information available in Revit while others can be approximated, but addressing the remainder would require external tools, information beyond the building boundaries, or user intervention. My tool will encapsulate pertinent sustainability criteria that can be assessed directly or by proxy. These include embodied environmental impact of materials, site area, heat island effect, renewable energy potential, indoor air quality, and natural lighting. Criteria will be computed with data extracted from the input model, then compared to best practice sustainability benchmarks based on building type (i.e. residential or commercial) and perhaps region. Users can then visualize how the sustainability of their design fares against industry standards and make corresponding alterations (i.e. decrease building footprint, swap out materials, increase window size, etc.). Benchmark data for various building types in different regions should be publicly available. Embodied environmental impacts can hopefully be estimated with a tool like SimaPro based on the volume and type of building materials. Remaining criteria should be directly measurable from the input model.
Outputs
Criteria values for benchmarks and the input model will be overlaid on a radar chart and provided to the user in an external spreadsheet or if possible directly in Revit.
Sources
- Carvalho et al. "Optimising building sustainability assessment using BIM." Automation in Construction, vol. 102, 2019, pp. 170-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.021