Building Performance Analysis

6Performance Quantification

The previous chapters have expanded the notion of building performance as a measure that establishes how well a building meets user needs into a more extensive concept of what it is we want buildings to do and how that can be formulated as requirements. This has been related to quantification by means of experimentations and measurement and how performance can be captured through metrics, indicators and measures. Furthermore, a deeper background has been provided on goals and targets, benchmarks and baselines, as well as constraints, thresholds and limits. This provides the foundations to take the next step to analysis of building performance or turning back to the original starting point: towards the quantification of how well buildings fulfil requirements.

Quantification is the ‘expression or measurement of the quantity of something’, where quantity is an amount, number or other property of something that is measurable. To measure means ‘to ascertain the size, amount, or degree of (something) by comparison with a standard unit or with an object of known size’. More in generic, it can also mean ‘to assess the extent, quality, value or effect of something’. For a specific object or entity, it can indicate that something is of specified size or degree or reaches the required or expected standard. As a noun, a measure is ‘a means of achieving a purpose, such as a cost‐cutting measure; a standard used to express size, amount or degree; or an instrument ...