Selection of Exterior Wall System and MCDM Derived Decision

• Published in: Journal of facade design and engineering 2022-06, Vol.10 (1), p.1-28
• Main Authors: Štilić, Anđelka, Štilić, Igor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: building materials; EDAS; exterior wall system; multi-criteria decision making
• ISSN: 2213-302X; 2213-3038
• DOI: 10.47982/jfde.2022.1.01

In the field of construction practice, decisions regarding material selection frequently come down to a choice based on tradition, i.e. recommendations based on the experience of the engineers hired by an employer as designers, contractors, or energy efficiency engineers. In the presented research, in addition to the Employer, technical individuals were involved in the decision-making process. The harmonisation of Employer opinions and those of experts were obtained through NGT technique and Delphi based method, due to the fact that different criteria for a decision could represent a field of interest of an individual participant in the process. The result was determining the criteria, their strictness, and their weighted effect. As multi-criteria decision analysis has evolved into a powerful tool that assists decision-makers in generating “a cut above” choice in resolving specific cases and overcoming certain problems in the architectural and construction industry, the use of the MCDM method EDAS+ in the research ensured an exterior wall system ranking that was not influenced by experience or marketing. Without intending to favour any manufacturer of building materials, the research presents eight exterior wall systems belonging to different categories of core materials, all with individual features, similarities, and differences. When compared to otherwise arbitrary estimates or recommendations based on experience and the most commonly used building materials, the application of multi-criteria decision analysis in the case of exterior wall system selection for a particular 1938 Belgrade building generated more relevant selection results.