Studies into the use of building thermal physics to inform design decision making

This paper describes an experiment in which building designers were trained to use building thermal physics to inform design decision making. Designers were presented with a task specifically tailored to facilitate the extraction of what they consider useful parameters, indices, diagrammatic and multimodal ways of representing results as well as possibilities of undertaking design changes when building thermal physics was embedded in their design decisions. The experiment generated design journals with all the steps these designers undertook in solving a design problem which included thermal comfort, energy efficiency targets and the testing of passive design strategies. A qualitative research method, from social sciences, was used to analyze these design journals. Examples extracted from the analysis are useful information to thermal simulation tool software researchers who are rarely provided with adequate examples about how to connect time-series graphs and tables containing temperatures and loads with building elements designers manipulate.