2. Capital Projects and Building Assessment

The most significant personal expenditure we ever make, both in terms of absolute numbers and as ratios of total assets we hold, is building related. Housing makes up about 34% of the total expenditures, and this percentage has stayed consistently this high over the decades. The potential impact of capital projects on society and individuals is enormous. In addition, inefficient design, operations, and management of buildings have other tangible costs, such as wasteful energy use and harmful environmental consequences. Given the criticalities introduced by inherent expenditures seen in the AEC sector by individuals, societies, and the environment, it appears that evaluating and monitoring capital project delivery is a key function of this sector. This chapter introduces common building capital project evaluation techniques, including post-occupancy evaluation, facility performance evaluation, building feasibility analysis, and simulation-based evaluation. The gold standard of capital project evaluation is Building Commissioning (BCx) and Embedded Commissioning (ECx). Digital modeling such as building information models (BIM) and analysis tools enable interoperable data representation and transfer enables improved design added value analysis. This chapter also introduces these concepts and current challenges and opportunities in the AEC sector.