Definitions of BIM
Building information modelling (BIM) is a technology for building design, optimization and simulation to attain higher energy and cost savings in engineering applications (Gerrish et al., 2017).
The broad utilization of BIM tools in assessing the holistic energy impact and other applications has been impacted by inconsistencies between the projected and measured building performance.
The performance gap in commercial applications has been partly resolved through the incorporation of appropriate BIM tools such as the Autodesk Revit (Spiridigliozzi et al., 2019), ArchiCAD, Vectorworks Architect, and among others Navisworks.
The scope of this inquiry is specific to the use of BIM tools in addressing holistic energy impact of building structures in the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Recent studies suggest there are notable financial benefits associated with the incorporation of BIM tools. For example, energy saving related cost savings translated to 22,601 $/year (Taha, Hatem and Jasim, 2020), which is significant over the long-term.
Beyond the direct cost savings, there are other notable benefits associated with BIM tools including better collaboration between the design principles, decrease in performance disparities, accurate comparison of different design alternatives, and targeted energy savings (BIMcert Project, 2020).
Based on the positive assessment of BIM by BIMCert Project (2020) and Taha et al. (2020) among other researchers, there are valid grounds for using BIM tools to understand the energy requirements in standard UK and KSA residential houses in different climates and building typologies and link between building construction materials, retrofitting and energy demand, embodied energy, and thermal comfort during summer and winter.
Aim
• To contribute to the understanding of the holistic energy impact of typical residential buildings in different climates and building typologies in the UK and KSA.
Objectives
1. To understand the energy requirements in standard UK and KSA residential houses in different climates and building typologies.
2. To evaluate the link between building construction materials, retrofitting and energy demand, embodied energy, and thermal comfort during summer and winter.
3. To determine the impact of integrating BIM in the design phase on the project’s life cycle and energy use.
Research Questions
1. What are the states of BIM adoption in the UK and the KSA construction sectors?
2. What are the cost benefits of BIM in the analysis of the energy impact of traditional buildings?
