ABSTRACT
Buildings involve both predominantly static features such as building construction, fabric, and envelope, as well as dynamically operating environmental control systems. The optimal lifetime performance of buildings depends arguably on a well-coordinated design and configuration of these two aspects. However, the communication and collaboration between primary building designers and building service engineers in the design process is frequently sub-optimal. In the present contribution, we address these issues in two ways. First, we report on the results of an inquiry into the mind-set of both primary building designers and building systems specialists regarding building systems integration issues and their mutual roles in the corresponding process. Second, we briefly describe a possible comprehensive workflow process for the systemic generation and assessment of building systems configurations that are tightly integrated with primary (spatial) building designs.
