REQUIREMENTS MANAGEMENT FOR THE DESIGN OF ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS

Buildings are designed to fulfil the multiple and, often, contradictory requirements of users, clients and society. Energy aspects are often not considered before the detailed design phase and a systematic way of analysing the energy performance of solutions throughout the design phase is lacking. A suggested framework, based on engineering design theories of requirements management, was applied to a case study of the design of an energy-efficient building in a real construction project. The case study provided qualitative insights into how the proposed framework can contribute to a more structured requirements management of a construction project with a focus on the energy-efficient design of buildings. It can be seen that the proposed framework for requirements management of energy performance provides a structure for designers to consider and apply energy performance criteria in the early design stages and visualize the consequences of alternative design solutions for clients, engineers, contractors and suppliers. The use of a requirements structure enables the transparency of different design alternatives against the established functional requirements of energy performance for the stakeholders in the design process. The use of BIM to support the proposed requirements framework needs to be studied further and connected to national and international construction classification schemas and ontology frameworks.