Advances in it for building design

Abstract

The use of computers in building design analysis has included extensive developments in structural analysis as well as programs for the analysis of the HVAC and environmental performance of buildings. Recently, more sophisticated analyses of environmental behavior and the behavior of building users have been developed and implemented. The innovative commercial computer-aided drafting systems (CAD) systems are used at various stages in the building design process and are integrated with analysis tools. This chapter briefly traces several current researches on IT for building design that has the potential to impact the way buildings will be designed in the future. One of the researches deals with virtual environments for designing and designing virtual environments. In virtual environments the focus moves away from documents to models and from a virtual building model on a designer's computer that is then sent to other members of the design team to a building model in a virtual environment that is accessible by any authorized member of the design team anywhere at any time. Another research deals with new ways of carrying out simulations of the behavior of the building users rather than the behavior of the building. The chapter finally discusses the researches dealing with novel computational agent technologies and examines the potential of their use in building design.