Bridging the gap between Systems Controls and Architectural Design

Abstract

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The research presented in this paper pursues a two-fold objective: One objective is document and present an innovative approach to support the design and configuration of buildings' technical (environmental control) systems. The currently prevailing practices in this area may be argued to display a number of shortcomings. Specifically, the logic behind a number of decisions along the system design and configuration process are not sufficiently explicated. Such decisions pertain, for example, to the types, number, and locations of device terminals, associated control zones, and zone state sensors. To add clarity and transparency to this process, we developed a building systems control schema that can be automatically generated based on a limited set of design input data (mainly the associative links between projected device terminals and their intended spatial impact zones). The second objective is to demonstrate the usability of the control schema generation method both for architects and engineers and, ideally, as a communication and collaboration platform for both groups. To test and evaluate this usability, we considered a number of possibilities. In one effort, we worked with a number of architecture and engineering students who were introduced to the method and actively deployed it to assess and evaluate the design and configurations of environmental control systems (for heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting) in existing architectural spaces. Another effort involved extensive interviews with experienced professionals in both architecture and engineering fields to obtain not only general insights about the interface areas of architectural and mechanical design, but also receive specific feedback concerning the scope and potential of the aforementioned method for the automated generation of building control schemas. Given this background, the paper includes the details of the schema generation method as well as the results of usability tests and professional evaluations and feedback.