The architect as performer of energy simulation in the early design stage

Despite the software developments intended to facilitate the use of energy simulation programs by architects in the early design stage, a very limited guidance is available, leading to a limited uptake. This paper investigates ways to better inform architects about energy simulation, firstly by enabling them to identify and translate the design inquiries into simulation tasks for deriving productive decision support and secondly by familiarizing them with the concepts and processes involved in energy simulation. The authors propose the development of a simulation tool independent framework to achieve the first objective. The framework will correlate simulation tasks with the performance parameters and the architectural elements to be evaluated using these parameters.