An exploration of the role of design uncertainties in BIM to BEM workflows in the design of energy efficient and low carbon buildings

Objectif

Buildings consume 40% of Europe's total energy, with 80% used for heating, cooling, and hot water. Reducing building energy use is essential for climate change mitigation, while extreme weather events require buildings to maintain acceptable indoor conditions.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Building Energy Modelling (BEM) have transformed the collaborative building design processes. However, existing approaches and workflows do not account for design uncertainties, exacerbating existing software interoperability problems and challenges to use in real frontline industry practice.

This proposal addresses four research objectives: (1) exploring interoperability challenges between BIM and dynamic simulations, (2) evaluating uncertainties in BIM-based design processes and their impact on decision-making, (3) assessing energy performance gap risks in design, and (4) transferring developed uncertainty methods to open-source software and integrating them into commercial design software through non-academic placement for broad adoption in building design practice. The proposed research will be conducted using real-world cases from multiple design companies and evaluated alongside commercial design software to ensure practical relevance.

The proposal enables two-way knowledge transfer: the fellow contributes BIM-to-simulation expertise while the multi-professional supervisors share their experience in energy performance gaps, uncertainty analysis, and current building practices. This training prepares the fellow for a future (academic) career in a highly interdisciplinary field.

Impact: This research will make dynamic building simulations more accessible and reliable in building practice, supporting Europe's climate goals through better building energy performance and reduced performance gaps between design predictions and actual building operation.