RESEARCH ARTICLE

The application of building performance simulation in the writing of architectural history: Analysing climatic design in 1960s Israel

  • Or Aleksandrowicza , 1 ,
  • Ardeshir Mahdavi , 2
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  • 1. Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel
  • 2. Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, TU Wien, Karlsplatz 13,1040 Vienna, Austria

Received date: 18 Jul 2017

Revised date: 02 Jun 2018

Accepted date: 10 Jun 2018

Published date: 22 Oct 2018

Copyright

2018 2018 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hostingby Elsevier B.V.on behalf of KeAi.This is an open access article under the CCBY-NC-ND license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

This article presents a methodology for the integration of building performance simulation (BPS) into the writing of architectural history. While BPS tools have been developed mainly for design purposes, their current maturity enables to reliably apply them in simulating the performance of past buildings, even when these buildings have been significantly modified or demolished. The possibility to virtually reconstruct the performance of past buildings can help us to overcome the existing knowledge gap in the understanding of the role played by building performance and building performance research through the history of architecture and can therefore promote the intelligent and successful application of environmental features in contemporary architecture. The potential of the proposed methodology is presented here using a historical case study from 1960s Israel (a university building in Tel Aviv), in which climatic considerations were anexplicit part of the entire design process. The original thermal performance of the building was analysed by employing the EnergyPlus simulation engine, and the simulation results were used for evaluating the climatic impact of certain design decisions, comparing them with the proclaimed design goals and the original intentions of the architects.

Cite this article

Or Aleksandrowicza , Ardeshir Mahdavi . The application of building performance simulation in the writing of architectural history: Analysing climatic design in 1960s Israel[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2018 , 7(3) : 367 -382 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2018.06.003

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