The graduate program in building performance and diagnostics merges fundamental knowledge in building science and environmental physics (energy conservation, lighting, acoustics, indoor air quality) with advanced building systems integration and innovative design processes. Pursuing parallel goals of human ecology, environmental sustainability, and advanced building design and construction, the faculty of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) possess an interdisciplinary and complementary range of expertise, from professional practice to fundamental and applied research.

In 1988, the Center established the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC), a university-industry-government partnership that supports the collaborative research of the CBPD. The National Science Foundation has designated the CBPD as an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. The Center is instrumental in the application of major systems integration concepts and advanced technologies to significant building projects in the USA and around the world, in China, Korea, France and Germany. Together with ABSIC, the CBPD has constructed the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace. This demonstration facility is a "living" and "lived-in" laboratory for teaching and research in the performance of innovative building products and assemblies integrated into an actual working office. Equipped with advanced computer and diagnostic equipment, the facility informs education and professional practice.

The graduate program in computational design started in the late 1960's and is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. From the beginning, the program has benefited from close cooperation with other units of the university, especially the School of Computer Science and School of Civil Engineering. Research has always concentrated on fundamental issues that arise in connection with the emergence of computers as a new design and decision-making tool and medium. Its general mission is to advance the state-of-the-art of computing technology in the area of building design and to contribute to the establishment of a rigorous foundation for it. Current research explores the use of computers as a new design medium and the development of capabilities surpassing limitations inherent in more traditional media. Principal areas of concentration have been formal grammars applied to the analysis and generation of designs, knowledge-based design systems, integrated design systems, and cognitive studies of the way designers and architects perform their tasks.

The School's research is recognized internationally for its rigor and interdisciplinary orientation. Building upon experiences of the School in developing consortia for collaboration with building industry members for computational research, faculty currently conduct such collaborative research through their affiliation with the Institute for Complex Engineering Systems (ICES) and other Carnegie Mellon departments.