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Articles & Guides

Explore the entanglement between Building performance and Image performance .

Building Performance

Most drawing software and modeling software have a relatively positive impact on this aspect. In modeling software, a building model is composed of objects, and pieces of computer code that carry geometric definitions and relative data (parametric) and rules. On the one hand, accurate data reduces errors and improves efficiency, and on the other hand, assigning certain values to the objects can facilitate cost control and calculation.
Platforms like BIM make it possible to make performance-based choices, and monitor and control costs at all stages of the design process by casting all building information in the form of computable data, and efficient exchange of information also ensures the economic efficiency of architectural design and production.
This also meets people's expectations of how computer technology can help and support the construction industry.

IEQ includs factors such as air quality, thermal comfort, lighting quality, and acoustics. Corresponding to these aspects, there are many simulation software based on thermal simulation, lighting simulation, acoustical simulation, and airflow simulation.

Thermal simulation _SimScale

Acoustic simulation_ODEON

Airflow simulation_Revit

Lighting simulation_GBF

Thermal simulation_QuickField

Acoustic simulation_COMSOL Multiphysics,

Airflow simulation_SimScale CFD

Lighting simulation_Honeybee

Building performance is also measured in terms of occupant satisfaction, health, and productivity. Although this aspect cannot be directly computerized simulated, presenting the results in the form of a survey. Many articles and surveys have emphasized the relationship between IEQ and Occupant Satisfaction and Productivity, the former can be regarded as a necessary and insufficient condition for the latter

CFD simulations for evaluating occupant thermal comfort_SimScale

This aspect is about how effectively a building uses energy for heating, cooling, lighting, and powering its systems. Factors influencing energy efficiency include insulation, air sealing, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, lighting systems, etc., and it can be enhanced by many active and passive design strategies. In fact, there is no such term as energy efficiency simulation. Energy efficiency assessors are based on Building Energy Modeling (BEM) and the various simulations mentioned above.

APACHE Simulation in IESVE

Building energy modelling

From Wikipedia to chat-GPT, the definition of “building performance” includes sustainability, but let's go back to the initial definition of the concept of building performance, an attribute of a building that expresses how well that building carries out its functions. The juxtaposition of sustainability with energy consumption, indoor air quality, etc., the accommodation of this term which contains certain values or ideology as a necessary part of "function", this twist precisely shows that the overall concept of "building performance" becomes part of the eco-green image.
This can also explain another phenomenon. Although some people have tried to include more abstract contents such as architectural aesthetics into building performance, it can be said that it is not so successful or has universal practical significance. On the one hand, as described above, the term building performance regards architecture as a system and tends to evaluate quantitative and technical contents. On the other hand, the concept itself has tended to be a set of established images and established aesthetics, and cannot accommodate more aesthetical/abstract contents.
This brings me to the content of the next chapter, Performed by images.

The concept of building performance can be traced back to the publication of ‘Building Performance’ by Markus et al in 1972, and with the development of simulation technology and building science as a discipline, there have been a lot of research and practices around it. Based on previous literature, Pieter de Wilde summarized the definition of building performance as "a concept that allows quantifying how well a building fulfills its functions. ". Wikipedia gives a similar definition“, an attribute of a building that expresses how well that building carries out its functions”.

Building performance simulation is one of the main building performance analysis approaches, is a field within the wider realm of scientific simulation, using a computer-based, mathematical model analog aspects of building performance. In the following, I will briefly describe various aspects of building performance and their influences or relationships with simulation technologies.

Image Performance

This agenda is most obvious in the propaganda of BIM software companies, like Revit, Vectorworks, and archiCAD, tools are associated with words such as anti-bureaucracy, efficiency, and professionalism, as well as citing star architects and famous architectural projects. The logic of advanced working methods and better building performance in propagandas turns the tool into an image that predict the quality of the outputs.

The presentation and dissemination of building performance analysis also rely on images.. The result of BPS is a bunch of data, and data visualization is a natural requirement. According to the visualization of various simulation software shown above, it is not difficult to see a specific aesthetic style that originated from scientific heat maps and other mapping methods developed. Furthermore, it's also used in architecture images that are not based on scientific simulation or data visualization, but as illustrations and aesthetic expressions..

Diagrams that do not include concrete quantitative data but explain how it may work through abstract arrows or hatches are also used to try to play the same role. While the abstraction of such images can make it easy to understand the relationship between design and building performance, but they are also used to create an image of professionalism, rationality or science, as a substitute for data visualization in scientific simulations

With the development of building performance discipline, many design strategies that help improve building performance have been summarized and proposed. They can be divided into passive strategies and active strategies according to whether they rely on technology and equipment, or visible strategies and non-visible strategies from the perspective of Image performance.

Non-visible does not mean invisible, but only less conspicuous/noticeable to the public, such as building orientation, window positioning, interior space with better airflow, solar shading, and thermal insulation. Although these designs have a certain impact on building performance, visible strategies have higher high Image-performance. Visible strategies include but are not limited to green roofs, plant walls, solar panels, double roofs, wind turbines, facades of vernacular or recycled material, etc.

Another impact of the shift in the concept of building performance mentioned above is this subtle binding of building performance to sustainable-eco-green-building, which is reflected in these eco-blings.

Although there are various rendering engines that can achieve realistic effects, renderings are not about pursuing realism, but about surpassing realism. Everything in a rendering is designed as carefully as architecture, from the angle of the "camera", the focal length, the position of the "sun", the adjustment of the texture, the placement and choice of furniture, and cut-out people.
With the abundance of green symbols and their corresponding images, "realize" building performance through renderings becomes more easy.

Following the development of building performance simulation, from around the 1990s to now, there has been an emergence of certifications around building performance introduced by grassroots or governmental organizations in different countries or regions. In practice, however, the actual performance of certificated buildings is questionable. Many developers strive for certification, motivated by lower operating costs promised by certification organizations, requirements or rewards from the government, clients brought by the title, as well as branding. The authority of the certification body and extensive media publicity give the promise of higher building performance.

However, the actual performance of certificated buildings is questionable. The inherent reductiveness and qualitative weaknesses of the system can lead to designers trying to get the most points rather than designing the best-performing building.

Take the widely used LEED(Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) as an example. In 1993, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was founded, and create LEED New Construction (NC) v1.0 in 1998, and by Feb. 2024, there were more than 111,857 LEED-certified projects in 186 countries and more than 205,000 LEED Professionals around the world.

Instead of a performance-measurement tool that measures actual energy consumption, LEED is a design tool focusing on energy modeling rather than actual energy consumption. Buildings certified under LEED do not have to prove energy or water efficiency in practice to receive LEED certification points.

A review of USA TODAY review on 7,100 LEED-certified commercial buildings reveals that designers often prioritize the most accessible and cost-effective green points, the actual performance of the entire building is unknown. These include using standard building materials, offering preferred parking for EVs, installing bike racks and showers, and displaying educational materials about the building, providing entertainment room for workers, hiring an LEED Accredited Professional in the design team, etc.

By examining the requirements of all LEED credits, it can be seen that many points can be obtained in non-design ways, such as by purchasing certain building products that have passed other specific certifications, installing certain equipment (which is more expensive), choosing the right site, etc.

The emphasis on building performance is obvious in its value and economy. However, as the overall economy changes from real to virtual, architectural images are increasing in value, and the media is developing and chaotic, "images" are more efficient in terms of direct or simple profit.

Regarding the profitability of images and architectural projects, although different types of construction markets are different, from fast-moving commercial buildings and speculative projects that rely on cash flow; to public buildings dedicated to landscape and symbolization; to architectural competitions adding value to the company's influential, in the current era of attention economy and visual culture, "image" plays more significant role than ever before. Building performance is gradually being represented, simulated, and predicted by images.

stefano-boeri-architetti-reveals-design-for-the-international-forest-stadium-in-milan-italy_1.jpg

& Simulation &

SUMMARY

Jonh May explained in his book that BIM subtly but profoundly changes the nature of the services architects offer from drawings and specifications to information in a database; The design problem is transformed into a performant one, and the architect's goal becomes to establish and meet the performance criteria. It can be seen that as the integration of different BPS in BIM increases, all the building performance content that can obtain quantitative data can be centralized into BIM, and performance-driven design will be more adapted in actual projects.

Based on the review of Building performance, a more accurate description of building performance may be, a result of scientific simulation that proves how well that database (building) meets its goals.

At the same time, the overall sustainable/Environmental Impact included in the concept of Building Performance also illustrates the building performance turning into part of an image of a green building(symbol). Based on this trend towards image referring to performance, I would like to propose the term Image performance, an attribute of an architecture that expresses how well this symbol system simulates an experience.
Although image performance aims to describe buildings designed in simulations of a broad sense, this project will focus on pan-green buildings (including but not limited to green buildings, sustainable buildings, ecological buildings, etc.).

CONCLUSION

The concept of building performance is inherently multidisciplinary and highly practical, especially for buildings with specific functions. Although it contains both qualitative and quantitative content, due to its basis in scientific simulation and the technical bias of the concept itself, quantitative content occupies the main part of the concept that is perceived, and qualitative issues are quantified or quantifiable content is used instead of qualitative content for analysis in many projects.

In communication and consumption, building performance relies on images, simulated, and predicted by images, and becomes part of Image performance itself. Operation tools to improve building performance from the perspective of information exchange has become a kind of image under the propaganda of software companies for “efficient tools, better output”; the data visualization of scientific simulation has developed into images in a special aesthetic style that can be used to represent the excellent building performance of the building; and visible design strategies subjectively or passively become images, complete the perception mode of “green symbols (like solar panels, green roofs) = green building = better building performance", that is, building performance overall become an image; at the same time, the simulation technology for renderings provide great convenience to such design. Based on the research of building performance certification-LEED, we can see that in addition to the attention economy, visual culture, and image dissemination in digital media, there are government developers, organizations, architects, and material suppliers involved in the process, binding building performance to green. For LEED, however, most green points can be obtained by purchasing or installing certain products and equipment, and the evaluation is based on energy modeling that is not directly related to the actual operation of the building, for which documentation is all that is required for certification.

Based on this research and the phenomena of greenwash that I experienced during my two years of master's degree in Europe, I have narrowed the focus of image performance

to eco-green-sustainable buildings. The project is intended to respond to the above thoughts, but unfortunately, not all of them can be expressed visually or reflected by design. The project consists of a progressive development of drawings that respond to the process from representation to simulation to prediction, and the architectural images in the “support” section of the LIID website that respond to the fragmented and structured architectural design in the broader means of simulation, as well as to the final hyperreality scene.

Image performance itself is a broader topic, from the Instagram photo context, architectural wonders in developing countries, the race of high-rise luxury, etc., all of these reflect the pursuit of image performance, and this project only discusses a small part of it. But overall, looking back at the whole project, I think I can say that under these trends, for building performance, content that is not data and is not computerized is gradually becoming invisible. And for Image performance, the content in architecture that is not an image, that cannot be consumed and sold, is also dying out. At last, let me conclude with a quote from Jorge Luis Borges In his one-paragraph short story “On Exactitude in Science”, which inspired and stayed in my mind throughout the process.

“...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.”