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Much knowledge in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is experience-based and tacit. Nevertheless, the typical strategy for knowledge management is focused on computer-based approaches for capturing and disseminating explicit knowledge. AEC firms have been successful at collecting and storing explicit information in enterprise databases, but they are poor at knowledge retrieval and exchange. Consequently, AEC professionals find it difficult to reuse core experts'' knowledge for highly knowledge-intensive AEC activities. This situation calls for a method for disseminating tacit knowledge from experts'' brains to achieve higher quality AEC projects.The primary purpose of this paper is to set a theoretical foundation for clarifying the contribution of experts'' tacit knowledge in the AEC industry. The secondary purpose is to describe the concept for prototype software, Dynamic Knowledge Map, that can assist in the reuse of experts'' tacit knowledge. Dynamic Knowledge Map is a Web-based knowledge navigator that searches for experts and facilitates communication with those experts by using internet technology. Higher performance levels theoretically can be achieved while accelerating the knowledge transfer processes. Future research will test the suitability of Dynamic Knowledge Map for tacit knowledge utilization in AEC organizations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Evaluates the substantive literature relating to the Delphi procedure, provides a rationale for its use and describes the distinctive features. Derivation of the term `Delphi'; How to use the Delphi technique; Selection of expertise.

• Method of performance evaluation for climate-adaptive building envelopes. • Integration of CABE behavior generation and performance simulation using a BEM. • Improvement of the validity of CABE performance. • Assessment of alternative complex three-dimensional CABE geometries. • Assessment of alternative patterns of a CABE's adaptive operation. This research presents a new method for evaluating the energy performance of climate-adaptive building envelopes (CABEs) called parametric behavior maps (PBMs). There are three main challenges when evaluating a CABE for energy performance that are not overcome by the currently accepted process: (1) representing complex three-dimensional dynamic geometry; (2) generating various candidate CABE control scenarios by integrating environmental factors and their thresholds; and (3) representing a CABE's time-varying behavior within a single building energy model (BEM). To overcome these challenges, the PBM method was developed. This method makes two key contributions to the field of performance-driven building design. First, it is capable of generating hourly CABE operation scenarios to evaluate CABE performance using a single BEM, regardless of dynamic operation and any geometric complexity. Second, the PBM method is superior at handling the effects of thermal energy storage with dynamic operations than is the currently accepted process. The reliability of the PBM method was validated by comparing indoor temperature profiles obtained from a PBM and the existing method. The new method enables designers to integrate the energy performance of a CABE system with multiple control scenarios, ultimately improving the building design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article emphasizes the need to renew the city of New Orleans, Louisiana following the devastation of hurricane Katrina in 2005. The concept of renewal architecture is summarized by scientific, sustainable, comprehensive, holistic and innovative principles. Architectural solutions must respect a bottom line of environmental, social and economic viability. Renewing the city requires people involved in it to think about the individual as well as the community.

Insufficient interoperability resulting from complex data exchange between architectural design and building energy simulation prevents the efficient use of energy performance analyses in the early design stage. This paper presents the development of a Modelica library for Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based building energy simulation (ModelicaBIM library) using an Object-Oriented Physical Modeling (OOPM) approach and Modelica, an equation-based OOPM language. By using the ModelicaBIM library, our project investigates system interfaces between BIM and energy simulation, which can perform semi-automatic translation from the building models in BIM to building energy modeling (BEM) using a BIM's authoring tool's Application Programming Interface (API). The ModelicaBIM library consists of OOPM-based BIM classes and OOPM-based BIM structure. OOPM-based BIM classes represent building component information. OOPM-based BIM structure consists of test case models that demonstrate (i) how building information in BIM can be transformed to OOPM and (ii) how design operations in BIM, such as changing a building geometry and editing building components, can be translated into BEM. A case study for simulation result comparisons has been conducted using (i) OOPM-based BIM models in the ModelicaBIM library and (ii) LBNL Modelica Buildings library (a Modelica-based building thermal simulation library developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). Our implementation shows that the ModelicaBIM library enables (i) objects in BIM to be translated into the OOPM-based energy models and (ii) existing OOPM library to be utilized as a simulation solver for BIM-based energy simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daylighting is an important aspect in designing high performance buildings. Many simulation tools have been developed to study the daylighting performance of buildings. These tools primarily use CAD environments for creating architectural models, which are then converted into daylighting models to run on the daylighting simulation engines. Once the architect defines the architectural model in CAD, a simulation expert creates the simulation input file to perform daylighting analysis. Each tool has its own rules that the architect and the engineer have to follow to prepare the simulation input files, and the complexity depends on the tools. Currently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is widely used in the AECO industries and BIM models are used as a means of exchanging data among different professionals involved in the design and construction of buildings. The present paper discusses the use of BIM for building performance simulations and mainly focuses on how daylighting analysis can be incorporated into a BIM environment, and what challenges and benefits exist in the process of integrating BIM with daylighting simulation tools. The paper presents the development and validation of a prototype to integrate the BIM tool, Revit with the daylighting simulation tools, Radiance and DAYSIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an empirical study that tested the usefulness of Web-based four-dimensional (4D) construction visualization in collaborative construction planning and scheduling. Several recent construction projects have employed 4D visualization to better understand the construction schedule and make proactive decisions to prevent logical errors in the construction sequence. Other groups have shown that construction information management with asynchronous Web-based communication can improve decision making among dispersed industry practitioners. It seems reasonable to anticipate that combining 4D visualization with Web-based information management would facilitate dispersed industry practitioners to make collaborative decisions for construction planning and scheduling. The empirical study presented here reports how experiment participants at separate locations collaboratively detected logical errors in a construction schedule when the 4D visualization model of the schedule was represented on the Web browser. Our results show that teams using 4D models detected logical errors more frequently, faster, with fewer mistakes, and with less team communication, than teams using 2D drawings and bar charts. These findings show industry practitioners empirical evidence that Web-based 4D construction visualization can improve team collaboration on construction planning and scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial layout planning in architecture requires a deep understanding of topological spatial relationships, yet the process remains repetitive and laborious for designers. However, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) offer new perspectives through automated spatial layout planning (ASLP), diverging from traditional human-centered approaches. This paper employs quantitative and qualitative analyses, reviewing 589 journal articles from the past decade, to gain a comprehensive understanding of ASLP+AI. It also proposes future research directions, exploring image-based, graph-based, performance-based, and agent-based approaches. Contributions to the existing body of knowledge include advancing ASLP through AI methodologies while preserving architects as curators, with a broader impact on academia and industry in promoting AI applications for spatial layout planning. [Display omitted] • Explores the potential of machine learning in automated spatial layout planning. • Reviews 589 articles to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field. • Categorizes into image-based, graph-based, performance-based, and agent-based. • Proposes future research directions across four distinct categories. • Emphasizes the importance of keeping architects as curators in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]