ABSTRACT
The architects’ view of buildings is drastically changing because of technical progress, especially in control and facility management. This chapter aims to develop a formal building model that integrates the domains of building structures, service systems, control systems, functional units, and user activities. It introduces a graphical modeling notation that they call Message/Transition Charts and show how these diagrams can semi-automatically be transformed into executable code. The chapter discusses these contributions to the modeling of building systems and to transforming the models into simulators prove that architects, building users, and facility managers can efficiently be supported during the full life-cycle of buildings. From the augmented building system model, tabular documents are created by the simulator developers. These documents, which are part of software development method PROBAnD, contain the formal specification of the structure, the behavior as well as the messages that are exchanged.
