Developments in environmental performance simulation

Performance simulation in architectural design has been rapidly evolving over the past decade. Simulation tools have become widely available and this has had a measurable influence on the way in which buildings are being designed, analyzed and constructed. Several new approaches for the development of these tools are emerging, some of which evolved through many years of work based on the area of building simulation. This paper reviews these developments in environmental digital performance simulation as it relates to architectural design. It describes the recent research, development and use of these environments as well as some of the challenges that exist.