ATLANTA — The 2022 Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild will bring attention to carbon reduction strategies through the application of simulation and modeling over the entire building life cycle.

Co-sponsored by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, the conference will take place Sept. 14-16 in Chicago and will also be offered virtually. The theme of the conference, “Better Buildings, Less Carbon: Supporting the Transition to a Clean and Just Climate,” focuses on research and methodology for minimizing operational carbon in buildings. 

“The recent changes in the world energy markets and evolving regulations continue to increase demand for improved performance of our building stock,” said John Bynum, conference vice chair. “The Building Performance Analysis Conference seeks to bring together professionals across disciplines to share ideas and work towards a more efficient and balanced future for the whole life cycle of the built environment. Attendees will be able to join traditional presentation sessions from individual presenters as well as sessions designed to encourage audience participation. Together with IBPSA-USA, we look forward to welcoming attendees to Chicago in-person or virtually via our online platform.”

The conference features more than 50 paper and 40 non-paper presentations along with three keynote presentations by leading industry practitioners and academic researchers. Popular topics include a debate on thermal comfort, occupant health and well-being, modeling for future and extreme weather events, building envelope design and performance, urban scale modeling, and innovations in passive heating and cooling. Newly added session formats include the “Solution Room,” which presents attendees with an opportunity to interact with their peers and "crowd source" answers to their burning questions. “Fishbowl” is an informal, informative discussion among peers regarding modeling and modeling-related issues that affect the industry in a major way, while the “SoapBox” is designed to allow chosen attendees to present a topic of their choice to the audience. 

To submit a topic for the SoapBox session, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5NQHYTV. To view the full conference program, click this link full conference program.

Teams from around the world will come together to create an architectural design and a performance analysis model based on model building data in the 2022 ASHRAE LowDown Showdown modeling competition. The 2022 competition will ask the question, “How low can you go?” in reference to operational energy, operational carbon emissions, embodied/emitted carbon, and water consumption. Teams will design a K-5 school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to serve 450 students in an educational setting that provides appropriate spaces for elementary education as well as community uses — and can be adapted to future challenges and changes.

For more information, visit ashrae.org/buildperform2022 and ashrae.org/2022LDSD.