Designing for Whole Life Performance

At Atelier Ten, we believe the most meaningful opportunities to shape building performance happen at the very beginning of the design process. Early stage building performance modelling is not just a technical exercise, it’s a design tool that helps unlock better outcomes across energy, comfort, carbon, and long-term operational value.

We use advanced simulation tools, like IES, to bring clarity and direction to early design decisions.

By embedding performance thinking from the outset, we help project teams move beyond compliance and towards buildings that perform as intended throughout their lifecycle.

Why Early-Stage Modelling Matters

Too often, performance modelling is introduced late in the design process as a validation step. By contrast, our approach positions modelling as a design driver.

Early insights allow us to:

• Influence massing, orientation, and façade strategies
• Support planning submissions with clear, evidence-based narratives around energy and carbon performance
• Test passive design opportunities
• Balance competing priorities such as daylight, overheating risk, and energy use
• Set realistic and ambitious performance targets aligned with emerging standards and client aspirations

This early engagement ensures performance is not added retrospectively at extra cost but is integral to the architecture itself.

Supporting Planning, Compliance and Certification

Early-stage modelling plays a critical role in navigating increasingly stringent energy and carbon requirements. By developing robust models from the outset, we can support:

• Planning Submissions: Providing clear evidence to demonstrate alignment with local and regional energy and carbon targets, helping de-risk the planning process.
• Building Regulations and Standards Compliance: Ensuring designs meet or exceed required energy performance benchmarks while maintaining design intent.
• Net Zero Frameworks: Including Public Sector Net Zero requirements and the emerging UK Net Zero Building Standard, enabling teams to align early with ambitious decarbonisation pathways.
• NABERS UK: Supporting design-for-performance approaches that target verified in-use energy outcomes.
• BREEAM and WELL Certification: Informing credits related to energy, thermal comfort, daylight, and occupant wellbeing.
• Sector Specific Requirements: Such as ESFA and LETI guidance for schools, where performance, resilience, and operational efficiency are critical.

By integrating these considerations early, we help avoid costly redesign later and ensure a smoother path through approvals and certification.

Our Approach

Using dynamic simulation techniques, we develop iterative models that evolve alongside the design.

These models are used to explore a range of performance metrics, including:

• Compliance Modelling: Supporting regulatory requirements with robust, transparent analysis.
• Operational Energy Modelling: Moving beyond theoretical benchmarks to predict real-world energy use and inform net zero strategies.
• Overheating Analysis: Assessing thermal comfort under current and future climate scenarios to ensure resilience.
• Daylighting Studies: Enhancing occupant wellbeing and reducing reliance on artificial lighting. Providing solar shading studies.
• Load Calculations: Providing early-stage guidance for efficient and right-sized building systems.

With more detailed information introduced earlier in the process, we are able to refine models rapidly and test multiple design options. This allows teams to identify optimal solutions that balance energy performance, capital cost, and long-term operational efficiency.

A Tool for the Whole Project Lifecycle

Dynamic Simulation is not just an early-stage tool it’s a powerful platform that supports decision making throughout the entire project lifecycle.

From concept design through detailed design, construction, and into post-occupancy evaluation, the model can be continuously developed and aligned with the evolving design. This continuity enables:

• Greater consistency between design intent and delivered performance
• Improved coordination between disciplines
• A solid foundation for in-use performance verification and optimisation, enabled through the development of a digital twin asset that supports ongoing validation and fine tuning.

Insights from Our Team

Our work is shaped by the expertise of our environmental team:

Peter Morgan, emphasises the importance of clarity at concept stage:

“Early modelling allows design strengths to be identified and incorporated into the design from the early stages, ensuring a workable and effective energy and carbon strategy is present from the concept stage.”

Matthew Hamilton, highlights the value of collaboration and the iterative design process:

“We use modelling as a data-driven tool to inform design decisions. By rapidly testing options, we provide the wider team with clear performance insights that guide the evolution of building form and systems, ensuring outcomes that balance both technical performance and design quality.”

Corey Furnace, focuses on real-world outcomes:

“Operational energy modelling allows us to challenge assumptions early and align with frameworks like NABERS. To me it’s about ensuring that buildings perform in the real world, not just in compliance models.”

Designing for the Long Term

Whole life performance requires thinking beyond first occupancy. The decisions made at concept stage influence not only capital costs, but also operational energy, carbon emissions, and occupant experience for decades to come.

Through early-stage modelling, we help project teams:

• Reduce long-term energy demand and carbon impact
• Optimise building form and façade design
• Balance capital and operational cost decisions
• Improve comfort and wellbeing for occupants
• Future-proof buildings against climate change and evolving standards

A Collaborative Process

We see modelling as a collaborative and iterative process. Working closely with architects, developers, and wider design teams, we refine models in parallel with the design as it evolves.

Early-stage models can be quickly updated, allowing options to be tested, compared, and clearly communicated. This enables informed decision-making at the moments when it matters most.

Our role is to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable insights that empower better design outcomes.

Looking Ahead

As the industry continues to shift towards net zero and performance verification, early stage building performance modelling is becoming essential.

Atelier Ten is committed to embedding performance at the heart of design using dynamic simulation tools like IES not just to demonstrate compliance, but to shape buildings that deliver lasting value.

Get in touch to learn how early-stage modelling can support your next project.