Advanced Building Simulation

Developments in interoperability 203
in such a system approach. The following sections will introduce a framework for a new
type of interoperability platform for building performance analysis tools in the design
process.
8.3.1 A closer look at design analysis integration
Design analysis integration focuses on the effective use of existing and emerging
building performance analysis tools in design analysis scenarios, with the participation
of a team of designers and consultants. Some of the longer-term objectives are
better functional embedding of simulation tools in the design process, increased quality
control for building analysis efforts, and exploitation of the opportunities provided
by the Internet. The latter refers to the possibilities for collaboration in loosely
coupled teams where the execution of specific building performance analysis tasks is
delegated to (remote) domain experts. It is obvious that in such teams process coordination
is the critical factor with interoperability as a “support act” rather than the
main objective.
Design analysis is performed through the complex interplay between design
activities and analysis efforts by experts with an arsenal of simulation tools, testing
procedures, expert skills, judgment, and experience. Different paradigms of expert
intervention in the design processes are described in Chen (2003). The scope of our
treatment of design analysis integration is limited to the assumption that the design
team generates specific design analysis requests, leading to an invocation of the input
of (a team of) analysis experts (Figure 8.9).
This suggests that analysis requests may be generated by a specific design activity
and linked to a specific design actor responsibility. In the more generic case, the
requested analysis may have ties to more than one concurrent design activity, in
which case the design analysis becomes an integral part of the overall design process.
In that case the analysis process cannot easily be disentangled from the complexity of
other design interactions.
Figure 8.10 shows a typical situation where analysis activities become themselves
an integral part of design evolution obeying design process logic while adding its own
analysis logic.
Design actors
Analysis actors
Design
analysis
interaction
Figure 8.9 Design analysis interaction defined at specific interaction moments generated by the design
team.
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