Page 23 - European Energy Innovation - Winter 2016 publication

eeBIM LAB – Towards A
Coherent Green Building Design Process
By Romy Guruz, Peter Katranuschkov & Raimar Scherer (Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of
construction informatics)
eeEmbedded is an European FP7 industry-driven
project established under Call “Optimised design
methodologies for energy-efficient buildings
integrated in the neighbourhood energy
systems”. The project runs from 01.10.2013-30.09.2017, the
consortium features 15 partners from 9 European countries.
It develops an open BIM-based holistic collaborative
design and simulation platform, a related holistic design
methodology, an energy system information model and
an integrated information management framework for
designing energy-efficient buildings and their optimal
energetic embedding in the neighbourhood of surrounding
buildings and energy systems. A new design control
and monitoring system will support the complex design
collaboration process. Knowledge-based detailing
templates will allow energy simulations as soon as in the
early design phase and BIM-enabled interoperability will
provide for a seamless design process with distributed
experts. The main developed results after three years project
running are:
KEY POINT DRIVEN MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DESIGN
METHOD
Key Points guide the design process by providing building
requirements and design criteria in form of target values,
checked after all major design steps. They are categorized
in Decision Values (DV), representing the preferences
of decision makers related to the project goals, Key
Performance Indicators (KPI), providing numeric metrics
of the building energy performance, and Key Design
Parameters (KDP) representing mandatory building
properties in terms of allowed value ranges as explained in
the results of the first period.
DECISION LEVEL SUPPORT
The developed method supports decision-making in
four clearly structured decision levels corresponding
to respective process and data views. The Setup view
addresses the translation of requirements to Key Points and
their use to setup individual design tasks. The Designer View
comprises the tasks related to the evolution and evaluation
of the design based on the set KDPs. The Analyst View
regards the energy and cost analysis and evaluation of
proposed design alternatives based on the computed KPIs
and the Decision Maker View regards the evaluation of the
design alternatives based on the weighted Decision Values.
INTEROPERABLE SERVICE ORIENTED ICT PLATFORM
The developed conceptual approach is technically enabled
by a layered service-oriented platform. It comprises a User
Layer including the actual value-add expert applications of
the end users, a Virtual Lab Layer covering the functionalities
on user side developed generically and configured
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
Winter 2016 European Energy Innovation 23
COMMUNICATION
specifically for each domain view, a Communication Layer
providing a BCF-based Service Bus inter-connecting all
the distributed component services and tools, a Service
Layer providing services for all needed model, variant and
simulation management functions, and a Repository Layer
representing the common project-wide information storage.
MULTI-MODEL FRAMEWORK
The developed platform tools and services are supported
by a coherent multi-model framework based on standard
BIM/IFC4, a set of interoperable data access APIs and a
novel Link Model approach enabling the flexible integration
of distributed heterogeneous (non-BIM) information
resources such as climate data etc. The relevant domain
models encompass the Architectural Model and a new
Energy System Information Model (ESIM), which provide the
backbone of the framework , as well as BACS, HVAC, Energy
Simulation, LCC, and LCA models. Data consistency is
ensured by an overarching lean ontology, which provides for
a uniform representation of the important multi-model inter-
relationships also enabling data exchange requirements,
KDP and KPI checks thereby ensuring high model and
data quality.
VIRTUAL EEBIM LAB TOOLS
The Virtual Lab comprises two tools common for all actors -
the developed Multi-Model Navigator (MMNav) and the Key
Point Analysis (KPA) tool. MMNav enables visualizing the 3D
BIM model, linking its components with external data, and
can also show the results of the analysis/simulation tools
and the performed model checks. The KPA tool provides a
decision maker perspective by summarizing and configuring
KPI results from all analysed variants into easy to understand
and decide upon diagrams. Each Lab is also configured
to include local or cloud-enabled design, analysis and
simulation tools as appropriate for the respective
actor profile.
COLLABORATION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
SERVICES
The developed Scenario Manager coordinates a structured
project setup (based on IDM), supports each design step
and manages data validation and data sharing. Additional
services like Job Matrix, Model Combiner etc. are
developed as resource management services and support
the idea of intelligent BIM processes. l
Contact details:
More results and a download section containing all
public materials issued so far can be found on the
project’s Web Site: http://eeEmbedded.eu