Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2019: 16th Conference of IBPSA

Applying Desirability Functions To Preference Modelling In Low-Energy Building Design Optimization

Elaine Robinson ¹, Christina J. Hopfe ¹, Michael Emmerich ², Iryna Yevseyeva ³, Jonathan A. Wright ^1
1 Loughborough University, United Kingdom
² Leiden University
³ De Montfort University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2019.210998
Abstract: Building performance optimization is a valuable aid to design decision-making. Most existing research takes an ‘a posteriori’ approach, where stakeholder preferences are considered after deriving optimised results. Whilst this approach yields technically optimal solutions, it overlooks sub-optimal solutions that still satisfy stakeholder preferences. This research develops a technique to incorporate preferences into optimization by applying a “desirability function” to each criterion for multiple stakeholders. The approach enables the tradeoffs between decision-makers to be visualised as a Pareto frontier and aids “democratic” decision-making. Hence, incorporating preferences in advance of optimization may increase the likelihood of finding a desirable solution.
Keywords: Decision-making, A priori, Optimization, Preferences, Low-energy
Pages: 3030 - 3037
Paper: