Multi-criteria assessment of building performance: theory and implementation

This paper presents the development of a building performance assessment methodology and tool that is intended to assist the design process. The methodology is based on a multi-criteria decision-making approach where the performance of the building is always compared to a reference building. This approach allows the designer to test design strategies against different sets of criteria. The methodology is implemented into an assessment tool whose features include a module for automatically generating the reference building, changeable databases, validated calculation engine, and a user-accessible assessment-criteria module. A case study is presented to explain the operation and implications of this tool.