Opportunities and pitfalls of using building performance simulation in explorative R&D contexts

One of the promising use cases of building performance simulation (BPS) is its role as a virtual laboratory in research and development (R&D) projects that aim to bring innovative building components from initial idea towards market introduction. By facilitating what-if explorations and whole-building insights, BPS can create complementary value, alongside actual experiments. However, explorative R&D projects tend to be rather erratic and are more ill-defined than typical BPS tasks. This raises several issues concerning application, interpretation and communication of BPS-based performance predictions in explorative contexts. The aim of this paper is to highlight opportunities and potential pitfalls of the use of BPS in this application domain. First, the characteristic properties of exploration-driven R&D projects are contrasted with more conventional BPS projects using a systematic requirements engineering approach. Then, the process and outcomes of three R&D projects of innovative façade systems are discussed. Finally, the lessons learned from these studies are presented.