The Environmental Evaluation of Buildings: A Worked Example and Technical Specification

This paper describes work at the centre for Land Use and Built Form Studies (LUBFS) in the University of Cambridge, England, on the construction and application of a computer model to perform room-by-room environmental evaluations of building designs. In this context the definition of the "environment" is limited to the quantifiable components of the visual, thermal and acoustical conditions within buildings. One of the principle attributes of the model is that its application is not restricted to any particular building type or form. In addition, the data collection and input effort required is not excessive and, within the Cambridge TITAN/ATLAS computer system which it uses, it is possible to make substantial and useful changes to any design by means of the on-line editing facilities. The process of translating a conventional architectural description of a building into the required data is described and the output produced by the computer is illustrated.