Collaboration challenges for detailed design and optimisation via building performance simulation

At the present time, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has become a standard practice in the AEC industry. However, with this wide embrace from the industry, new problems and challenges are appearing. The largest of these issues is the interoperability, which hinders the BIM adoption through the whole lifecycle of building projects. The interoperability had been more developed in areas such design coordination, in detriment of other areas such as Building Performance Simulation (BPS). This lack of interoperability in BPS had discouraged the early collaboration in design, and then simulations are carried out as late as possible to minimize the number of information exchanged. Considering the existing conditions, this research aims to solve the collaboration issue at early design by providing information exchange guidance between various BIM tools used by designers. The methods to achieve the aim include: literature review focused on describing the project communication; challenges to achieve an integrated approach (interoperability issues and the state of the art for BIM servers); development of a business process model for early design by Information Delivery Manual (IDM). These research findings will encourage early collaboration for performance analysis by enabling information exchange between stakeholders. Besides, the development of a guideline can be used by the BIM vendors to improve their BIM tools for successful interoperability. The outputs will reflect on the design process, with increased flexibility such as development and review different design alternatives and addressing the building performance challenges at early design successfull