Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Buildings account for one-third of global energy consumption and nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. As a consequence, national, provincial, regional and local governments, institutions, and corporations have adopted aggressive economic, environmental and social sustainability targets. The increasing transition towards `smart' or `net zero' buildings is a key component of meeting these targets. Despite these goals, building construction projects continue to be delivered in traditional ways, often with significant cost and schedule over-runs; and buildings continue to underperform, particularly in terms of meeting energy performance goals. The digitization of building information has the potential to address these challenges by providing a virtual representation of a facility that can be used to not only optimize the design and construction process, but to serve as the `digital twin' of a building to support its operation. The long-term goal of my research program is to enable efficient delivery of sustainable building projects through better coordinated and integrated digital building information and related processes.  Research over the next five years will focus on four critical components of this digital environment: (1) the project delivery approaches that will influence the adoption of innovative technologies and practices; (2) the computational design methods that will allow construction and maintenance knowledge to be incorporated into the design process; (3) the data and visual analytics that will allow project teams to better understand the performance of the design and construction process; and (4) the quality control methods that will evaluate the digital deliverables of the facility. This type of research requires a multi-disciplinary and applied approach, which will be accomplished through continued collaborations with faculty researchers in computer science and architecture and with industry partners. The results of the proposed research will lead to a deeper understanding of the knowledge, processes, and tools needed to support the digital delivery of sustainable building projects. These advancements will significantly enhance our understanding about how to create the digital infrastructure necessary for the creation of `smart' buildings and cities. For practitioners, this research will enable project teams to make more informed, data-driven decisions, and better utilize building information to optimize the delivery and operation of sustainable buildings. By providing better support for a digital and collaborative project delivery process, we will have a significant impact on the resulting end product, including higher quality, more sustainable buildings that perform better at reduced cost.