Expectations, reality and perspectives in using bim for the green building design

Abstract

In the late 1970s when the first programs for building energy consumption simulation appeared, architectural practice was based on paper documentation and 2D drafting programs were considered as state of the art technologies. The requirement for 3D building models for computer-based energy simulation minimized the use of this technology in everyday practice. With the appearance of BIM applications that enable creation of information rich 3D building models, everyone expected that this technology can easily provide all data necessary for energy consumption simulation. Today, the market is full of different BIM related applications that are advertised as solutions for the green building design. The paper gives an overview of energy consumption simulation tools and their connection to two BIM applications - ArchiCAD and Revit and demonstrates that recent development of both technologies does not fully meet expectations. The paper indicates means to avoid overoptimistic expectations from software tools that can help designers to achieve better comprehension of the real merits that BIM can bring to green building design. The paper addresses usability of using BIM for sustainable refurbishment. The paper concludes with the analysis of the Semantic Web technologies which can contribute to a better understanding of simulation results, and can provide more information about energy efficiency of the components used in BIM applications' libraries.