A New Knowledge Structure for Designing Net-Zero Energy Buildings

The researchers aim to generate, test and publish an integrated knowledge structure for net zero energy design that will help designers choose families of design strategies and thereby broaden the number of designers and improve the sophistication of their designs.

This project organizes much of the knowledge of net zero energy building preliminary design. The researchers developed three methods: 1) The Design Strategy Map method, which allows mapping over a hundred existing design strategies, 2) Strategy Bundles, which reveals the ‘horizontal interrelationships’ among the issues, and 3) Net-Zero Decision Charts, which uses a design question-driven method for selecting design strategies and linking them together into Strategy Bundles.