Performance-based building design and retrofit optimization: The SEMERGY approach
This contribution reports on the development of a computational environment for performance-based building design and retrofit optimization. The underlying technologies for this environment were developed within the framework of the research project SEMERGY. One of the key objectives of this research project was to explore…
SEMERGY – automatically identifying and optimizing energy-efficient building designs
A central goal of European and national climate and energy programs is to reduce the greenhouse gas emission of buildings. SEMERGY is a web-based optimization environment, which supports users in decision-making regarding energy-efficient building designs. Taking the user-specified criteria investment costs, final energy demand of…
Efficient Building Design Model Generation and Evaluation: The SEMERGY Approach
The discordance of the available Building Performance Evaluation Tools with the capabilities and expectations of the design community and complexities related to data availability and accessibility are among the most important technical barriers against sufficient adoption of such tools to support and guide design decisions….
Recent advances in SEMERGY: A semantically enriched optimization environment for performance-guided building design and refurbishment
The SEMERGY project explores the utility of semantic web technologies toward populating the required input data for performance based building design optimization. A major portion of the required information (e.g. material properties, climatic data and standards, etc.) exists on the internet in extensive, yet ill-structured…
A comprehensive building model for performance-guided decision support
This paper reports on a specific effort within the ongoing research and development project SEMERGY. This project is geared toward the development of a performance-guided decision making environment for building design and retrofit. A multi-objective optimization environment requires a dynamic representation of the building, which…
An ontology-aided optimization approach to eco-efficient building design
Despite the advances in development of building performance simulation tools, their potential for performance-guided design has not been sufficiently exploited within the design community. This is in part due to the complexity of data accumulation for simulation purposes and the elaborate data entry modalities of…
Multi-objective optimization in the SEMERGY environment for sustainable building design and retrofit
This paper reports on a specific effort (optimization procedure) within the on-going research and development project SEMERGY. This project is geared towards the development of a decision making environment for performance-guided building design and retrofit. The present contribution illustrates advances towards the creation of a…
Improving The Usability Of Energy Simulation Applications In Processing Common Building Performance Inquiries
Building performance simulation tools must be supplied with large amounts of information. Conventional approaches to gathering such information are often cumbersome and time-consuming. Hence, opportunities for in-depth simulation-supported exploration of design and retrofit options may not be optimally exploited. Thus, efforts are necessary to support…
Exploring the Utility of Semantic Web Technology in Building Performance Simulation
The simulation-based assessment and evaluation of alternative building design and retrofit options requires large amounts of information. Thus, efforts are necessary to support the process of data search and collection, such that building models for performance evaluation routines and applications could be efficiently populated. The…
SEMERGY: Semantic Web Technology Support for Comprehensive Building Design Assessment
This paper explores developmental opportunities toward effective evaluation environments for comparative assessment of alternative building design and retrofit options. Such options are to be benchmarked in view of their functional, ecological, and economical performance. Thereby, multiple use cases are to be accommodated, involving a) novice…