Rising living standards, depletion of natural resources and awareness of climate change have led to international pressure to significantly reduce energy consumption by buildings and communities. In several countries, stricter requirements are imposed by energy performance legislation and increased environmental awareness in building codes is also observed. Most of the time, the energy performance requirements and labelling of buildings are done in the design phase by calculating the theoretical energy consumption. However, several studies have shown that the actual performance after the building is completed can deviate significantly from this theoretical performance. Some of the differences can be attributed to user behaviour (one of the main research themes under Annex 53 of the IEA's ECBCS (www.ecbcsa53.org), but the major part must be attributed to the physical characteristics of the building and its systems. For the latter, characterization of building performance based on large-scale dynamic measurements could help bridge the gap between expected theoretical performance and actual building performance. Large-scale tests are, for example, useful for studying the performance of building components and entire buildings as they are constructed in reality, including the influence of manufacturing.