A DIGITAL BRIDGE FOR PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN Simulation of building physics in the digital world

The augmentation of digital design representation with programmed analysis capabilities can result in a shift from structure- based to performance-based designing. This paper presents a system to translate a simple digital structure representation into information about the multi-dimensional highly integrated and dynamic physical behavior of the design object. The user interface uses an object- oriented representation familiar to the designer, while the physical behavior is calculated internally with an abstract and space-based model formulated in form of a constructive language. The system is intended to serve as a "digital bridge" in the circle of design activities to enable performance-based designing.