INFORMATION MODELING AND SIMULATION TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

The transformation process towards sustainable construction will be greatly improved by the adoption of Information Modelling combined with simulation capabilities. Indeed, the impacts of the built environment upon global climate change as well as associated economic and political issues represent complex and multidisciplinary challenges to which the construction industry must respond through the implementation of innovative business processes as well as systems integration both facilitated by information technologies. In particular, the coupling of BIM (Building Information Model) with information about environmental dimensions of building materials and components (e.g. carbon footprint, energy performance …) allows simulation packages to predict the effects of using different materials / components in various conditions. This will produce significant advantages to the designer by allowing to take into account the environmental impact of the building over its lifecycle. Many factors can then be considered such as the use of potentially lower carbon footprint materials and their energy performances along with trade off’s associated with the cost implication and the use of renewable energies. In that context, the paper will address R&D conducted by CSTB and aiming to develop a BIM based prescription tool coupled with environmental assessment functionalities. This tool allows to import a BIM / IFC coming from the architect and then, depending on the performances to achieve (e.g. the annual energy consumption), will search the industrial catalogues and then propose to the user relevant systems adapted to his project and the performances he wants to achieve. The quantity take off for materials and building products used for the construction are then automatically calculated and used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the building using Elodie, the building LCA tool developed by CSTB.