Developing an integrated, intelligent and innovative framework for green retrofit design of commercial buildings

Abstract

The value for retrofitting existing buildings is both been recognized by both the academic field and the industry. Green retrofit design (GRD) in the building stock is worth investigation as it aims to improve energy efficiency and provide a better environment. Building sector takes 40% of overall energy consumption in general. Workflow and process model in the decision support system for integration in the future for existing buildings need to solve multi-disciplinary, multi-objective, multi-constraint problems. This thesis first reviews the process of green retrofit design (GRD) and parametric tools in the GRD process, then investigates methodologies which provide service for the owner-driven design for GRD as a tool. The approach to be adopted in this thesis is the improvement for BIM-facilitated green retrofit design process comes with a form of framework. In the methodology part, the thesis presents a qualitative approach to green retrofit process development, aiming to analysis the factors and link the significance of the factors in the process. Then the steps of the conjoint analysis take HOQ as a method example are presented in detail with the accompanying hypothetical design. The objectives of this research are: (1) to identify the components of a conceptual I3-GRD framework for commercial buildings, (2) to analyse the critical factors in the I3-GRD for commercial buildings, (3) to develop an I3-GRD framework for commercial buildings. Both empirical and hypothetical studies are included in the thesis. Questionnaires are designed for the empirical study in the industry to get their point of view of the incentives in the GRD process. This is a quantitative study to adjust the framework and also get the results to compare with the current self-validation system in the industry. Factors are analyzed from ANOVA and Pearson test for significance. These results are collected from both industry and academic institutions for comparison. The current situation in the GRD research field faced a challenge in the coming economic development especial in China for the 13th Five-year plan. The contributions from this research would be: 1 The typology of approaches and systematic framework can be used as a reference for systematic consideration by all the sectors involved in GRD. 2 The build-up framework and collection of grouped factors can be used as an assessment tool to evaluate the quality of GRD. 3 The results of the quantitative analysis of the factors can help designers and owners become more aware of their focus. 4 The obtained results are suggestions which could support the future big data of interactive research in GRD