ITcon Vol. 20, pg. 107-120, http://www.itcon.org/2015/8

SEMERGY: Application of semantic web technologies in performance-guided building design optimization

submitted:November 2014
revised:December 2014
published:January 2015
editor(s):Mahdavi A., Martens B.
authors:Ulrich J. Pont
Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, Vienna University of Technology;
ulrich.pont@tuwien.ac.at

Neda Ghiassi
Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, Vienna University of Technology;
neda.ghiassi@tuwien.ac.at

Stefan Fenz
Information and Software Engineering Group, Vienna University of Technology;
stefan.fenz@tuwien.ac.at

Johannes Heurix
Information and Software Engineering Group, Vienna University of Technology;
johannes.heurix@tuwien.ac.at

Ardeshir Mahdavi
Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, Vienna University of Technology;
bpi@tuwien.ac.at
summary:This contribution presents a comprehensive summary of the first phase of the research project SEMERGY, aimed towards exploring the potential of Semantic Web Technologies to accommodate and support building performance assessment and optimization. Previous research on the adoption of performance assessment tools by the design community suggested that the extensive amount of time, effort and expertise required to accumulate and provide input information for various performance evaluations, limits the application of such tools for improvement of building design in early stages. Even the most rudimentary performance inquiries require large quantities of data regarding the properties of incorporated building materials and systems, climatic conditions, building codes, etc. Much of this data is available on the internet, yet its use is severely hampered by lack of appropriate structure and format. The SEMERGY research and development project was conceived with the aim of acquiring and utilizing the abundant, yet ill-structured building-related data available on the World Wide Web, through implementation of Semantic Web Technologies. This web-based data is utilized within a flexible, multi-objective design optimization environment, incorporating various performance assessment applications. The present contribution describes some of the major challenges of the project, discusses the adopted approaches, and presents SEMERGY's main features.
keywords:Semantic Web, Building Performance Modelling, Decision Support Systems, Thermal retrofit
full text: (PDF file, 0.779 MB)
citation:Pont UJ, Ghiassi N, Fenz S, Heurix J, Mahdavi A (2015). SEMERGY: Application of semantic web technologies in performance-guided building design optimization, ITcon Vol. 20, Special issue ECPPM 2014 - 10th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, pg. 107-120, https://www.itcon.org/2015/8