The role of building operational emulation in realizing a resilient built environment

Building performance simulation provides a means to assess the performance of a proposed design under dynamic operating conditions and in terms of performance criteria relating to wellbeing, environmental impact and energy use. While adoption of the technology has led to an improvement in design intent by supporting understanding and innovation, it has exacerbated the gap between this intent and the operational reality by encouraging more complex schemes that are proving to be less resilient. This paper describes the source of this resilience problem and outlines a proposed solution that is the subject of a current industry/ academic feasibility study in the UK.