Similarity assessment in a case‐based reasoning framework for building envelope design

An important part of the knowledge required for designing the envelope of a new building is based on experience. Confronted with a building envelope design problem, a human expert adds to well‐established domain knowledge his/her own experience or the experience of others, to support his/her reasoning process, and to guide him/her in stereotypical situations. Based on that observation, we can conclude that the building envelope design fits well the description associated with the so‐called “weak theory domains”, and is a prime candidate for adopting a case‐based reasoning (CBR) approach. Proposes strategies to encode, organize, and compare prototypical building envelope cases within a CBR framework for selecting the construction alternatives during the preliminary stage of the building envelope design. The methodology presented aims to find the most suitable design alternative for a new building envelope from a library of prototypical building cases.