10.1 EDGE Typologies, Sub-Typologies & Choosing the Right One
Key Takeaways
- EDGE v3 groups typologies into three categories — Residential, Guest Accommodation and Non-Residential — and a Mixed Use subproject may only combine typologies from within a single category.
- Sub-typology choice drives the base case: hotel assumptions follow star rating, homes follow income category, hospitals follow facility type, and offices and education follow occupancy density and hours of use.
- Industrial buildings such as warehouses and light industry cannot form part of a Mixed Use subproject and must be modelled separately.
- A Mixed Use building receives one certificate for the whole building but may carry a stricter base case than a dedicated typology, plus an additional GBCI fee of $500.
- Data centre projects registered under EDGE v3 are modelled as Mixed Use, must beat the baseline Power Usage Effectiveness by at least 20%, and must have their energy modelling report reviewed by IFC before submission.
10.1 EDGE Typologies, Sub-Typologies & Choosing the Right One
Exam Focus: Sub-topic 2.2.1 "Definitions of building types" sits in Domain 2.0 (10%). Typology questions are usually scenario-based: you are given a described building and asked how it should be modelled.
The typology is not a label. It is the instruction that tells EDGE which occupancy density, operating schedule, internal gains, end uses and base-case specifications to load. Choose it wrongly and every downstream percentage is meaningless.
The Three EDGE v3 Categories
| Category | Typologies covered |
|---|---|
| Residential | Homes, Apartment |
| Guest Accommodation | Serviced Apartment, Hotel, Resort |
| Non-Residential | Retail, Industrial, Office, Healthcare, Education |
The category grouping exists for one operational reason: a Mixed Use (Self Defined) subproject may only combine typologies that fall within the same category. Projects spanning different categories must be submitted as separate subprojects. A hotel tower over a shopping podium crosses from Guest Accommodation into Non-Residential and therefore cannot be a single Mixed Use model.
What Each Sub-Typology Actually Controls
The EDGE Methodology Report is explicit about which parameter each building family keys its assumptions to:
| Building family | The base case is driven by |
|---|---|
| Homes (apartments and houses) | Income category, which sets assumed area and occupancy |
| Hotels (hotels and resorts) | Star rating, which sets area, occupancy and the type of support services |
| Offices | Occupancy density and hours of use |
| Hospitals | Facility type — nursing home, private or public hospital, clinic or diagnostic centre |
| Retail | Retail type — department store, mall, supermarket, light industry or warehouse |
| Education | Facility type — pre-school, university, sports facility — plus occupancy density and hours |
This is why "hotel" is not a sufficient answer. A 5-star resort carries laundry, kitchens, pools and far higher per-guest service loads than a 3-star business hotel, and EDGE encodes that difference through the star rating.
Education sub-typologies in v3
EDGE v3 subdivides Education further: buildings for higher education use the University sub-typology; buildings whose primary purpose is sport use Sports Facilities; and museums, religious buildings and similar uses fall under Other Educational Facilities.
A v3 modelling restriction worth knowing
In EDGE versions 3.0 and 3.1, users must not select the following functional zones under the Area & Loads Breakdown section of the Design Tab: University, Teaching Hospital, Sport Facilities, Private Hospital, Dental Hospital and Warehouse. This is a software-level constraint, not a design judgement, and an Expert who selects them will produce a model the Auditor cannot accept.
Orientation: A Typology-Dependent Assumption
One of the more counter-intuitive facts in EDGE is that orientation is not modelled for every building type. Per the Methodology Report:
- Residential projects assume orientation averaged over eight directions (omnidirectional), because requiring per-unit orientation across a large housing development would add cost and time, and because it is impractical to orient every unit ideally.
- Hotels are also averaged over eight directions, because hotels are typically oriented toward views or street visibility rather than solar optimisation.
- Offices, retail, hospitals and education do have orientation accounted for, because designers of those buildings have a genuine opportunity to control orientation and reduce excessive solar heat gain.
The practical implication is direct: promising a housing client an EDGE saving from re-orienting apartment blocks will not appear in the model, even though it remains good design.
Mixed Use: When and How
Use the Mixed Use typology when the building genuinely cannot be modelled under a single typology and the constituent typologies fall within the same category.
What you gain: a single model, a single audit thread and one certificate for the entire building, which saves time for both the project team and the Auditor.
What you accept:
- A stricter base case than the dedicated typologies, which may require additional efficiency measures to reach the EDGE Standard.
- An additional GBCI fee of $500 per mixed-use building.
- Certificates that show a range of savings across the project rather than the exact saving for a specific unit type or building use.
What is prohibited: industrial buildings — warehouses and light industry — cannot be part of a Mixed Use subproject at all.
Multiple Buildings and Residential Unit Types
GBCI's clustering rules matter as much as the typology choice:
- Where one project with a single owner contains several buildings, buildings of less than 10% of the project floor area, up to a maximum of 1,000 m², with the same use may be clustered as a single building. Anything larger must be treated as a separate building.
- In residential projects each individual unit receives an EDGE Certificate, not the overall building, and where multiple unit types are present each unit type is assessed separately.
Special Case: Data Centres
Data centre projects may pursue EDGE, with three specific conditions:
- Projects registered under EDGE App version 3 are modelled using the Mixed Use building type.
- The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) must be at least 20% better than the baseline PUE.
- The project must still achieve the standard minimum 20% savings in water and in embodied energy in materials.
In addition, teams must share a copy of the data centre energy modelling report with IFC for review and approval before the project submission — not afterwards.
Existing Buildings
EDGE applies to existing buildings and major renovations as well as new construction, and the EDGE Standard itself does not change: the same 20% thresholds and the same base case conditions apply. There is one important modelling difference — materials in buildings that are more than five years old are considered embodied-energy neutral, indicated as "re-use of existing materials" within the EDGE App. Existing buildings also skip the Design Audit and move directly to the post-construction stage, as covered in Section 14.3.
A developer is modelling a single tower containing a hotel on the upper floors and a shopping mall on the lower floors. How must this be handled in EDGE v3?
Which parameter does EDGE use to set the base case assumptions for area, occupancy and support services in a hotel project?
An architect proposes re-orienting the apartment blocks of a housing development to reduce solar gain and asks how much this will improve the EDGE energy result. What is the correct answer?
A data centre is being registered under EDGE App version 3. Which set of requirements applies?