7D BIM for Sustainability Assessment in Design Processes: a Case Study of Design of Alternatives in Severe Climate and Heavy Use Conditions

Introduction: the emerging of energy and environmental thread has fostered a new cultural design approach to Sustainable Architecture that aims to conceive and implement buildings with a low environmental impact. In this context the role of Building Information Modelling (BIM), as a support tool for sustainable integrated design, acquires great relevance. The purpose of this study is to investigate BIM potential in both addressing preliminary design choices and supporting complex analysis during the advanced design phase, within the whole sustainable design process. A technological rail building is assumed as a case study: the Operation Control Centre for the new Oman Railway, whose preliminary project was elaborated by the Italian engineering society Italferr s.p.a. Methods: The BIM approach is used to identify possible problems and deficiencies in the preliminary project, which may represent a good basis for a next design improvements proposal. The next phase consists in investigating and experimenting BIM tools potential in supporting the Conceptual Design, by using Autodesk® Revit® and IES VE® software suites, for the modelling and the energy analysis of different conceptual design solutions. Once the optimal building shape is established, the study focuses on the evaluation of sustainability effects brought by the structural building component, in particular for what concerns its materials environmental impact. Results and discussion: The analysis of the preliminary project shows the potential of BIM in the control of many performance parameters of a building in the design phase, revealing all the design problems associated to the lack of an integral multi-disciplinary approach during the initial phases of the process. The possibility of looking into a series of solutions in a quick and in-depth manner permits an accurate assessment of the most adequate form for a building based on the place in which it is set, thus joining current technological design methods to traditional bio-climatic methods, reinstating the strong and inevitable link between site and building.