A review of Building Information Modeling research for green building design through building performance analysis

The strength of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in achieving sustainable buildings is well recognized by the global construction industry. However, current understanding of the state-of-the-art green BIM research is still limited. In particular, a focus study on how BIM contribute to green building design through building performance analysis (BPA) is not available. This paper aims to provide systematic and comprehensive insights on current trends and future potentials of green BIM research by analyzing the existing literature with their research features (i.e. research backgrounds, goals, methods and outputs). In total, 80 publications have been collected, analyzed and discussed. The results show that among ten main BPA types, energy & thermal analysis, green building rating analysis, and cost and benefit analysis are the most studied. However, wind & ventilation analysis, acoustic analysis, and water efficiency analysis receive little attention. Moreover, more research focusing on integrated design analysis should be carried out for optimal design outcome. In addition, most of the collected literature research on the capability of data integration and analysis of green BIM tools, while their capability of visualization and documentation has limited examination. Furthermore, most researchers utilized one main software package while utilization of information exchange formats (IEF) is limited. To increase interoperability of green BIM tools, how different BIM authoring tools and IEFs can be utilized for BPA requires further investigation.