A Standard Design Process for Sustainable Design.

This exploratory research examined the degree of adoption and impact of the concepts of Building Information Model (BIM), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Integrated Design Process (IDP) and Building Energy Simulation (BES) on the design processes of advanced architectural firms when executing sustainable design. Six offices identified by the press and peers’ recognition for a strong commitment to sustainable design and influence in the design of high performance buildings were selected. In semi-standardized interviews, these firms presented their perceptions of the influence of BIM, BES, and IPD/IDP. The results show that a generalization of sustainable design processes is possible. A design process for sustainability (DEPROSU) model was created by collecting best practices from data gathered from the interviews and the critical literature review. This research provides evidence of commonalities found in the design processes of the selected firms. These commonalities represented in the DEPROSU model can potentially be validated as protocols or standards for sustainable design, providing architectural design practices with concrete patterns for improvement and or validation of their design methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]