Automation of sustainability assessment processes in the construction industry: ph.d.-project

Complexity related to creating an early design for a building capable of achieving the best possible mark related to building sustainability assessment (BSA) methods like DGNB or similar creates many issues related to project organizations. A myriad of information and communication technology (ICT) based solutions like building information modelling (BIM) and building performance simulation (BPS) has been provided to support this development; however, the architectual engineering and construction (AEC) industry is still utilizing very basic methods to achieve the required score to satisfy stakeholders. This results in a process where decision-making is based on heuristics and each project group member’s ability to handle this vast complexity, which may lead to less satisfactory design decisions. When an analysis is performed on a building design, it is often done after the major decisions are made. This leads to a process where the performance of the design is only verified because project scope often restrict the possibilities to adjust design based in the analysis, only to verify performance. Research concepts and developed ICT solutions made by software providers set to improve these issues are often done with little focus on supporting industry practice, and they suffer from low levels of usability where only highly specialized individuals are able to perform the desired activities related to obtaining credits of a BSA based building design. This paper looks into the context of the main activities related to this and looks critically into a suggestion of research area to continue research so as to increase the BSA performance of early building design.