23rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Perth, Australia - 2015

Complexity in Designing Energy Efficient Buildings: Towards Understanding Decision Networks in Design

Ergo Pikas1, Lauri Koskela2, Martin Thalfeldt3, Bhargav Dave4 & Jarek Kurnitski5

1Doctoral Student, Aalto University, School of Engineering, Otakaari 4, 00076 AALTO, Finland and Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia., +372 56 455 953, [email protected].
2Aalto University, School of Engineering, Otakaari 4, 00076 AALTO, Finland.
3Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn.
4Aalto University, School of Engineering, Otakaari 4, 00076 AALTO, Finland.
5Aalto University, School of Engineering, Otakaari 4, 00076 AALTO, Finland. Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn.

Abstract

Most important decisions for designing energy efficient buildings are made in the early stages of design. Designing is a complex interdisciplinary task, and energy efficiency requirements are pushing boundaries even further. This study analyzes the level of complexity for energy efficient building design and possible remedies for managing or reducing the complexity. Methodologically, we used the design structure matrix for mapping the current design tasks and hierarchical decomposition of lifecycle analysis for visualizing the interdependency of the design tasks and design disciplines and how changes propagate throughout the system, tasks and disciplines. We have visualized the interdependency of design tasks and design disciplines and how changes propagate throughout the system. Current design of energy efficiency building is a linear and one-shot approach without iterations planned into the process. Broken management techniques do not help to reduce the complexity.

Keywords

Design structure matrix, design process, process models and modelling, complexity.

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Reference

Pikas, E. , Koskela, L. , Thalfeldt, M. , Dave, B. & Kurnitski, J. 2015. Complexity in Designing Energy Efficient Buildings: Towards Understanding Decision Networks in Design, 23rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 213-222. doi.org/

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Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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