Combine: HVAC - Design Prototype Specification

In recent years, there has been much discussion about the need for improvement in the quality of building design software. One area of design software improvement which has received much attention is that of information integration. Such integration is recognised as both desirable in its own right and necessary for advances in other areas of building design research. Advanced functions such as project management, intelligent design interfaces and complex building thermal performance simulation all depend to some extent on the free interchange of information. An approach to this problem of information, interchange which has gained much support is the concept of "product modelling" promoted by the CIM research community. The COMBINE project has a twofold objective in this regard: (a) to develop a building product model and (b) to demonstrate, by means of prototypes, how such a model may be applied to the building design process. In the context of the COMBINE project, the DTP-2 HVAC-Design prototype demonstrates the product modelling approach to the process of HVAC design. At this stage of the project, the DTP-2 team have produced a functional specification of the prototype detailing how the prototype will support the process of HVAC design and the interaction between the building product model and the design tools incorporated in the prototype.