Application of fuzzy techniques to develop an assessment framework for building design eco-drivers

Sustainable building design dynamism is a complex process which involves various design eco-indicators. Consideration of different aspects such as environment, economy and society in addition to design characteristics makes the process of design even more complex. Also the subjectivity in design decisions makes the process of ecological assessment quite vague and difficult. Fuzzy logic techniques could help to compensate for the lack of full knowledge and subjectivity of design parameters. Hence, a fuzzy methodology is proposed in this paper for modelling and representing eco-building design indicators. The model is based on three linguistic variables. The developed model is able to indicate the low eco-efficient and high eco-efficient bands of a particular building design based on a set of eco-design indicators. The process, findings and implication of the proposed model are presented in this paper. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.