Enabling cumulative improvement of buildings-in-use by revealing their performance gaps

Abstract

The thesis presents an innovative approach to development and proposal of solutions based on their value added to buildings. The approach is inspired by the ongoing DIGIBUILD project, which promotes the idea to reveal a performance gap by integrating and continuously comparing the actual and the intended performances of facilities. Such approach requires a shift towards a performance-focused business model. Consequently, value-based development of products and services enables cumulative improvement of a building ecosystem and enhances sustainability aspects.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a roadmap of the performance gap revealing process, that is, to describe tasks, outcome, challenges and implementation practices. The study discusses such processes as performance monitoring and modeling, performance evaluation and benchmarking, as well as concerns critical drivers towards a performance-focused business model including procurement, value-based sales and performance-based contracting.

Generally, the study is conducted as an exploratory research, namely a design science approach. The literature and the analysis of three EU projects (PERFECTION, LinkedDesign, and TOPAs) contribute to the findings of research. While the literature facilitates the initial understanding on the performance gap-revealing problem, EU projects present the implementation cases and enable the evaluation against the DIGIBUILD concepts.