Architectural simulation for sustainability

Abstract

For more than a decade simulation programs have been readily available for architectural designers. Prediction of the energy or climatic response on built structures has become faster and more reliable. New monitoring procedures integrated with intelligent instrumentation allow for a plethora of new design solutions. Sustainability is finally an electronic and technical factor of any architectural repertoire. However, the issue is still widely neglected by both professionals and politicians, which in our opinion can result in negative consequences. The co-writers of this paper have even gone so far as to define the current situation as a “spirit of tragedy”. The implications of architectural simulation are far reaching, its costs almost negligible. From the lack of prediction of indoor climate within architectural spaces only errors and waste of energy can be expected in a contemporary building market, where no tradition of environmental concern coming from builders or future inhabitants seems to prevail. Furthermore, architectural competitions which are mainly based on old schemes that do not require any demonstration of the energy or environmental output of the proposals, increasingly resemble fashion shows or acte de foi, since no commitment is expected or demanded between the designers and the final users of the architectural product. Moreover, very often foreign firms get commissions without any experience of local weather or ecological problems, often referring to their projects as “groundbreaking” and “provocative”. We firmly believe that we should not provoke nature and instead we ought to search for symbiosis with natural environments in an intelligible way, so that every layman could understand and even check this aim, and this is called simulation in science. The adoption of this preventive attitude in the decision-making process is urgent, lest we want to be too late to produce real sustainability in the town-planning and building sector. This is what we would like to stress with our contribution.