Book announcements
Building Performance Analysis Building Performance Analysis is the go-to resource for those who want to have a deep understanding of what building performance is, before moving on to simulate it. Building Performance Analysis is endorsed by IBPSA. Obviously, the key topic of the book is building performance. While a lot has been published on the subject of simulation, the application area is often taken for granted within the IBPSA community. Yet to do meaningful simulations, one of the hardest challenges is to define the question that is to be answered. The answer to deep questions about building performance may be gained by simulation, but there are other approaches available as well, especially in the realm of physical measurement. These are also covered in the book; hence the use of the word analysis in the title. Building Performance Analysis offers a comprehensive and systematic overview of the concept of building performance analysis, bringing together many existing notions and ideas in one single title. It consists of three main parts. Part I deals with the foundations of building performance, Part II deals with performance assessment, and Part III with the impact of applying of building performance analysis throughout the building life cycle. The book concludes with an epilogue that presents an emerging theory of building performance analysis. Building Performance Analysis is a substantial book: it has 11 chapters, 600 pages, and includes over 1600 references. Building Performance Analysis is written for the building science community, both from industry and academia. Amongst others, it aims to make the following contributions to the field: 1 2 3
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It reviews the significant body of knowledge on building performance that already exists, offering a point of entry to this complex subject matter for those who are new to the field. The book emphasizes the fact that building performance deals with a wide variety of performance aspects. In doing so it challenges the community to address some of the aspects that get less prominence in the literature. The book goes beyond simulation as a tool for building performance analysis: it also discusses physical measurement approaches, expert judgment, and stakeholder evaluation. It offers a review of the many analysis approaches available in each of these categories. The emergent theory in the epilogue is intended as a key resource for those wishing to do further work in the field and needing to develop research questions and hypotheses. The emergent theory is very much intended as subject matter for discussion, debate, and deeper exploration.
ibpsaNEWS
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volume 32 number 1