Applicability of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Sustainable Design of Commercial and Office Buildings. A Case Study from Tehran, Iran

Preventing energy loss in commercial and office buildings can increase economic benefits, and will help protect the environment by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. The mentioned parameters are among the main pillars of sustainability and are also the most important items emphasized in EU 2030 sustainability goals. Accordingly, governments and researchers have paid enormous attention to find effective ways to manage and sustain the energy use in such buildings. In this regard, energy analysis tools have been widely used by designers to enhance energy efficiency of buildings. Building Information Modeling (BIM) enables users to evaluate different design alternatives and select the best critical energy strategies and systems in the conceptual design phase of any proposed projects. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the application of the BIM in assessing the effect of different methods on reducing e nergy consumption, energy loss, and greenhouse gas emissions in the early stages of the building design process. Indeed, BIM can offer t he best option(s) prior to make the decisions about how to construct buildings by analyzing various methods to obtain the required information. Results indicated that in the project under study, the application of inside insulators can reduce the consumption of electricity and gas by 4.76% and 11.06%, respectively, as well as the CO2 emissions by 10.75%. The use of outside insulation was also illustrated to be able to reduce electricity and gas consumption by 7.17% and 30.48%, respectively and CO2 emissions by 29.31%.