Integrated Decision-Making: the Building Design Advisor

In this paper we describe an integrated decision-making environment that brings together several different building simulation tools, and provides the data management and process control required for their integrated use, from the initial, schematic phases of building design. The output of one tool is easily used as input to another, either directly, or after appropriate manipulation to ensure compatibility, which makes the whole integrated environment more than the sum of its parts. A simple graphical user interface, common to all simulation tools, allows access to all building parameters and supports multicriterion judegment by allowing side-by-side comparison of multiple alternative designs with respect to multiple performance parameters