The purpose of this project is to provide an interactive platform for clients and design teams to evaluate the consequences of shape, form, and briefing decisions on the energy use, embodied energy, and capital / life-cycle cost of a tall building early in the design process. The Tall Building Simulation (TBS) model is the result of a collaborative partnership between Aedas, Arup, Hilson Moran (HM), and Davis Langdon (DL). This article details both the technical content behind the model and an

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... nalysis of the relationships demonstrated by the outcome. It is estimated that most decisions determining the sustainability of a project are made in the first 1 percent of a project's program, whereas the majority of the information required for sustainability assessment is not usually available or examined until after the concept stage. By this time, most solutions would need design or briefing changes that are too costly to implement. The model incorporates early stage spatial, mechanical (HM), and structural (Arup) analysis that are linked to cost and life-cycle databases (DL) through a parametric interface designed by Aedas. Its interactive interface is structured to operate at different levels of detail to allow users with varying expertise to analyze and explore alternatives in real time. The objective with TBS was to distil this expertise into a singular "intelligent" model that demonstrates the interaction of each discipline against the cumulative annual energy and maintenance costs of the building. Using the TBS model, architects, engineers, and clients can simultaneously explore the impact of typical technical and design decisions on a tall building's energy footprint and its dynamic relationship to cost at the briefing stage. The model also emphasizes known but rarely quantified user impacts such as tenancy types, occupancy, and operating hours to reaffirm the need for buildings to be perceived as an interface through which occupants engage with their environment.