System and method for realizing a building system

Abstract

A system and method for realizing a building system is disclosed. In an embodiment, a holistic approach to a complex building system involves using high-productivity high-performance computing resources, such as cloud services, to manage a complex building system from building inception through to building operation. Because high-productivity high-performance computing resources are used, modeling, optimization, simulation, and verification can be performed from a single platform on a scale which heretofore has not been applied to complex building systems. Additionally, the holistic approach to complex building systems involves using a centralized database to manage all of the information related to a building system.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer based method for realizing a building system, the method comprising:
 receiving input related to customer needs for a building system, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language;   generating multiple different business models from the customer needs input, wherein the business models define, in a functional language, types and volumes of services that will be provided within the building system to satisfy the customer needs;   generating multiple different spatial arrangements from at least one of the business models, wherein the spatial arrangements define a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and room locations within the building system;   generating multiple different systems integration designs from at least one of the spatial arrangements, wherein the systems integration designs define three dimensional spaces of infrastructure of the building system;   tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business models, the spatial arrangements, and the systems integration designs;   wherein information related to the customer needs, information related to the business models, information related to the spatial arrangements, and information related to the systems integration designs are stored in a central database and wherein the central database is stored in a cloud service.   
     
     
         2 . The computer based method of  claim 1  wherein generating multiple different business models and generating multiple different spatial arrangements comprises performing at least one of a computer based simulation operation and a computer based optimization operation. 
     
     
         3 . The computer based method of  claim 2  further comprising distributing computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations over multiple different processors of a cloud service that includes a large scale processing system. 
     
     
         4 . The computer based method of  claim 3  wherein the computational tasks are performed by the large scale processing system according to a MapReduce framework. 
     
     
         5 . The computer based method of  claim 1  wherein the input related to customer needs includes a formal description of customer values. 
     
     
         6 . The computer based method of  claim 5  wherein the business models are generated from a library of business model design rules. 
     
     
         7 . The computer based method of  claim 6  further comprising computing behavioral simulations on the different business models using multiple different processors that are accessed in parallel via a cloud service that includes a large scale processing system. 
     
     
         8 . The computer based method of  claim 1  wherein the building system is a building system within which healthcare services will be provided to patients. 
     
     
         9 . A computer based method for realizing a building system within which services will be provided, the method comprising:
 receiving input related to customer needs for a building system, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language, the input including an indication of a location at which the building system is to be built;   generating at least one business model from the customer needs input, wherein the business model defines, in a functional language, types and volumes of services that will be provided via the building system;   simulating an aspect of the business model;   optimizing an aspect of the business model;   generating at least one spatial arrangement of the building system from the at least one business model, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system; and   simulating an aspect of the spatial arrangement of the building system;   wherein the computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are distributed over multiple different processors of a cloud service;   wherein information related to the customer needs, information related to the at least one business model, and information related to the at least one spatial arrangement are stored in a central database and wherein the central database is stored in the cloud service.   
     
     
         10 . The computer based method of  claim 9  further comprising tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement. 
     
     
         11 . The computer based method of  claim 9  wherein the computational tasks are performed by the cloud service according to a MapReduce framework. 
     
     
         12 . The computer based method of  claim 9  wherein the building system is a building system within which healthcare services will be provided to patients. 
     
     
         13 . A system comprising:
 a large scale processing system having multiple different instruction processors;   a storage network, in communication with the large scale processing system, which stores computer readable instructions and data, which when processed by the large scale processing system implement a building realization platform;   the building realization platform being configured to:   receive input related to customer needs for a building system, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language, the input including an indication of a location at which the building system is to be built;   generate at least one business model from the customer needs input, wherein the business model defines, in a functional language, types and volumes of services that will be provided within the building system;   simulate an aspect of the business model;   optimize an aspect of the business model;   generate at least one spatial arrangement of the building system from the at least one business model, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system; and   simulate an aspect of the spatial arrangement of the building system; and   track dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement;   wherein the computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are distributed over multiple different processors of the large scale processing system.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the large scale processing system and the storage network are elements of a cloud service. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the building realization platform is further configured to distribute the computational operations of simulation and optimization over multiple different processors of the large scale processing system using a MapReduce framework. 
     
     
         16 . A system comprising:
 a large scale processing system having multiple different instruction processors;   a storage network, in communication with the large scale processing system, which stores computer readable instructions and data, which when executed by the large scale processing system implement a building realization platform;   the building realization platform comprising:   a customer needs domain configured to store, in a formal description language, an indication of a location at which a building system is to be built;   a business model domain configured to store information that specifies types and volumes of services to be provided within the building system in response to criteria from the customer needs domain;   a spatial arrangement domain configured to generate and store at least one spatial arrangement of the building system in response to criteria from the business model domain, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system;   a systems integration domain configured to generate and store at least one systems integration design in response to criteria from the spatial arrangement domain, wherein the systems integration design defines three dimensional spaces of infrastructure of the building;   a fabrication domain that generates a list of building components that are required to build the building system as specified in the systems integration design; and   an operation domain configured to generate and store a virtual model of the building system in response to information from the customer needs domain, the business model domain, the spatial arrangement domain, and the systems integration domain, and further configured to model, simulate, or optimize an operational parameter of a built version of the building system.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16  further comprising tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the business model domain and the spatial arrangement domain are configured to performing at least one of a computer based simulation operation and a computer based optimization operation.