Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

All join hands,new software helpsstreamline buildingThe EU now boasts the largest single economy in the world, buttough economic times and stiff competition mean companies,including builders, must keep costs low and productivity high inorder to survive. More can still be done to streamline the buildingprocess and, ultimately, to make it more environmentally friendly –from early design phases straight through to construction andmaintenance.‘Computer-aided simulation in the construction industry is usedincreasingly by building physicists, and heating, ventilating andair-conditioning professionals,’ explains Roman Rabenseifer ofthe Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. ‘Here at theDepartment of Building Structures in the Civil Engineering Faculty’,he says, ‘we have experts with knowledge that could make a bigdifference in the building industry.’ But powerful tools like computermodels and simulation software, he adds, are still largely ignoredby architects and designers in the initial phases of building design,when many of the most important decisions are made.Getting architects to use the latest software-based tools couldmake a big difference in the construction industry as a whole,allowing time and cost savings, and increasing overall Europeancompetitiveness.Helping architects to help themselvesUnder the ‘Computer-aided building physical modelling’ project,the Marie Curie programme funded eight Fellows working to createnew software tools that would help in the application of existingknowledge to the renovation of buildings.‘We wanted to take the kind of information generated by verytechnically oriented people, such as thermal physicists, and putit in the hands of architects and designers who tend to work in amore intuitive way,’ says Dr Rabenseifer. ‘Doing so would providea strong boost in terms of knowledge transfer, helping theseimportant communities understand each other and workmore in concert.’Visualisation of the interior and the exterior of the one-zone simulation model125