Human factors in the design of sustainable built environments

Scientific research provides convincing evidence that climate change is having significant impacts on many aspects of life. In the built-environment domain, regulatory requirements are pushing the challenges of environmental, economic, and social sustainability at the core of the professional agenda, although the aims of carbon reduction and energy conservation are frequently given a priority over occupants' comfort, well-being, and satisfaction. While most practitioners declare to embrace sustainability as a driver of their professional approach, a general lack of integrated creative and technical skills hinders the design of buildings centred on articulate and comprehensive sustainability goals, encompassing, other than energy criteria, also human-centred and ethical values founded on competent and informed consideration of the requirements of the site, the programme, and the occupants. Built environments are designed by humans to host a range of human activities. In response, this article aims to endorse a sustainable approach to design founded on the knowledge arising from scholarly and evidence-based research, exploring principles and criteria for the creation and operation of human habitats that can respond to energy and legislative demands, mitigate their environmental impacts, and adapt to new climate scenarios, while elevating the quality of experience and delight to those occupying them

Development of intelligent buildings and their impacts on architecture In Turkey

Thesis (master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, Architecture, İzmir, 2002Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 176-185)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxiv, 205 leavesRelated to every period.s life conditions the community.s needs show differences. Today.s people giving prior importance to business life and depending on this priority and the incoming intense, active life flow bring up the need of .facilitating life. and again one of the most main problems in today.s life described as energy loss is reduced by designing .energy conscious. buildings. At this point of view, developing technologic and construction sector take on the roles as two important inputs to help design concept. Considerably the technological developments that took place with .Industrial Revolution. started the use of machine power, created new bazaars and new work areas, and brought up the creation of new life styles with itself. With these points, this process came across the new trends in architecture and construction. Spreading use of information technologies, make differences in expectations about daily life standards. As men can adapt the changing needs and obtain maximum suitability, need buildings with minimum cost for usage and upkeep. The main aim of the buildings described as .intelligent buildings. is use of minimum energy and besides to obtain system works and comfort at an optimal level. To be considered as intelligent, building must; With these points, besides the advantages that intelligent buildings bring up, they can cause important problems to take place. With their electrical infrastructure they may cause the inhabitants to be abstracted from the outer life, and with respect the people working in multi-storey buildings have health problems like .building syndrome. or because of the computer aided structure of these buildings .accessibility. problems can occur. These problems come in the first places on the problems rank. In the solutions of the problems occurring by intensive use and by the way increasing demands, at the point architectural solutions become insufficient electro-mechanical systems join. For providing high life standards complete for today and tomorrow.s life, the buildings which are designed bye using series of technological solutions, are composed of the integration of these systems. All these developments, different than the conventional design process, need the information flow with the other science branches -interdisciplinary approach-. A building to be formed as intelligent by .architectural concepts., with a large proportion is related to the .architect.s intelligence.. In these terms architect must be following all new developments in technology. In other ways, intelligent buildings will be the buildings designed by engineers. Nearly in the past ten years, intelligent building applications are also seen in our country. But whether the lack of investigation about the abroad works or these buildings participated in our lives with the unnecessary ambition of consumption, so with these facts intelligent buildings cannot deserve their attribute. To state that a building is totally intelligent, from the design process, the project must be taken up as a total work with the sub-systems providing central supervision and administrating. But the approach in our country sees the sufficiency as a building that owns one of the named systems or any residence full of intelligent house products. Of course these terms are not enough for intelligence. As a result, this work examines the approach to the subject in our country by evaluating sub-systems of intelligent building concept, design criteria, the advantages and disadvantages of these buildings, and the degree of intelligence. Key words: intelligent building, building automation system, office automation system, telecommunications system, information technology, and energy conscious buildings

Smart workplaces: a system proposal for stress management

Over the past last decades of contemporary society, workplaces have become the primary source of many health issues, leading to mental problems such as stress, depression, and anxiety. Among the others, environmental aspects have shown to be the causes of stress, illness, and lack of productivity. With the arrival of new technologies, especially in the smart workplaces field, most studies have focused on investigating the building energy efficiency models and human thermal comfort. However, little has been applied to occupants’ stress recognition and well-being overall. Due to this fact, this present study aims to propose a stress management solution for an interactive design system that allows the adapting of comfortable environmental conditions according to the user preferences by measuring in real-time the environmental and biological characteristics, thereby helping to prevent stress, as well as to enable users to cope stress when being stressed. The secondary objective will focus on evaluating one part of the system: the mobile application. The proposed system uses several usability methods to identify users’ needs, behavior, and expectations from the user-centered design approach. Applied methods, such as User Research, Card Sorting, and Expert Review, allowed us to evaluate the design system according to Heuristics Analysis, resulting in improved usability of interfaces and experience. The study presents the research results, the design interface, and usability tests. According to the User Research results, temperature and noise are the most common environmental stressors among the users causing stress and uncomfortable conditions to work in, and the preference for physical activities over the digital solutions for coping with stress. Additionally, the System Usability Scale (SUS) results identified that the system’s usability was measured as “excellent” and “acceptable” with a final score of 88 points out of the 100. It is expected that these conclusions can contribute to future investigations in the smart workplaces study field and their interaction with the people placed there.Nas últimas décadas da sociedade contemporânea, o local de trabalho tem se tornado principal fonte de muitos problemas de saúde mental, como o stress, depressão e ansiedade. Os aspetos ambientais têm se revelado como as causas de stress, doenças, falta de produtividade, entre outros. Atualmente, com a chegada de novas tecnologias, principalmente na área de locais de trabalho inteligentes, a maioria dos estudos tem se concentrado na investigação de modelos de eficiência energética de edifícios e conforto térmico humano. No entanto, pouco foi aplicado ao reconhecimento do stress dos ocupantes e ao bem-estar geral das pessoas. Diante disso, o objetivo principal é propor um sistema de design de gestão do stress para um sistema de design interativo que permita adaptar as condições ambientais de acordo com as preferências de utilizador, medindo em tempo real as características ambientais e biológicas, auxiliando assim na prevenção de stress, bem como ajuda os utilizadores a lidar com o stress quando estão sob o mesmo. O segundo objetivo é desenhar e avaliar uma parte do projeto — o protótipo da aplicação móvel através da realização de testes de usabilidade. O sistema proposto resulta da abordagem de design centrado no utilizador, utilizando diversos métodos de usabilidade para identificar as necessidades, comportamentos e as expectativas dos utilizadores. Métodos aplicados, como Pesquisa de Usuário, Card Sorting e Revisão de Especialistas, permitiram avaliar o sistema de design de acordo com a análise heurística, resultando numa melhoria na usabilidade das interfaces e experiência. O estudo apresenta os resultados da pesquisa, a interface do design e os testes de usabilidade. De acordo com os resultados de User Research, a temperatura e o ruído são os stressores ambientais mais comuns entre os utilizadores, causando stresse e condições menos favoráveis para trabalhar, igualmente existe uma preferência por atividades físicas sobre as soluções digitais na gestão do stresse. Adicionalmente, os resultados de System Usability Scale (SUS) identificaram a usabilidade do sistema de design como “excelente” e “aceitável” com pontuação final de 88 pontos em 100. É esperado que essas conclusões possam contribuir para futuras investigações no campo de estudo dos smart workplaces e sua interação com os utilizadores

The Evolution of Smart Buildings: An Industrial Perspective of the Development of Smart Buildings in the 2010s

Over the course of the 2010s, specialist research bodies have failed to provide a holistic view of the changes in the prominent reason (as driven by industry) for creating a smart building. Over the 2010s, research tended to focus on remaining deeply involved in only single issues or value drivers. Through an analysis of the author’s peer reviewed and published works (book chapters, articles, essays and podcasts), supplemented with additional contextual academic literature, a model for how the key drivers for creating a smart building have evolved in industry during the 2010s is presented. The critical research commentary within this thesis, tracks the incremental advances of technology and their application to the built environment via academic movements, industrial shifts, or the author’s personal contributions. This thesis has found that it is demonstrable, through the chronology and publication dates of the included research papers, that as the financial cost and complexity of sensors and cloud computing reduced, smart buildings became increasingly prevalent. Initially, sustainability was the primary focus with the use of HVAC analytics and advanced metering in the early 2010s. The middle of the decade saw an economic transformation of the commercial office sector and the driver for creating a smart building was concerned with delivering flexible yet quantifiably used space. Driven by society’s emphasis on health, wellbeing and productivity, smart buildings pivoted their focus towards the end of the 2010s. Smart building technologies were required to demonstrate the impacts of architecture on the human. This research has evidenced that smart buildings use data to improve performance in sustainability, in space usage or for humancentric outcomes

An investigation into the energy and control implications of adaptive comfort in a modern office building

PhD ThesisAn investigation into the potentials of adaptive comfort in an office building is carried out using fine grained primary data and computer modelling. A comprehensive literature review and background study into energy and comfort aspects of building management provides the backdrop against which a target building is subjected to energy and comfort audit, virtual simulation and impact assessment of adaptive comfort standard (BS EN 15251: 2007). Building fabric design is also brought into focus by examining 2006 and 2010 Approved Document part L potentials against Passive House design. This is to reflect the general direction of regulatory development which tends toward zero carbon design by the end of this decade. In finishing a study of modern controls in buildings is carried out to assess the strongest contenders that next generation heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technologies will come to rely on in future buildings. An actual target building constitutes the vehicle for the work described above. A virtual model of this building was calibrated against an extensive set of actual data using version control method. The results were improved to surpass ASHRAE Guide 14. A set of different scenarios were constructed to account for improved fabric design as well as historical weather files and future weather predictions. These scenarios enabled a comparative study to investigate the effect of BS EN 15251:2007 when compared to conventional space controls. The main finding is that modern commercial buildings built to the latest UK statutory regulations can achieve considerable carbon savings through adaptive comfort standard. However these savings are only modestly improved if fabric design is enhanced to passive house levels. Adaptive comfort can also be readily deployed using current web-enabled control applications. However an actual field study is necessary to provide invaluable insight into occupants’ acceptance of this standard since winter-time space temperature results derived from BS EN 15251:2007 constitute a notable departure from CIBSE environmental guidelines

A platform for change: How identifying and aligning technology building blocks provides a digital platform of change in the construction industry

The construction industry is currently in turmoil, searching in every direction for that ‘silver bullet’ or digital solution, to bring efficiency, productivity and in some ways stability to the sector. It was the World Economic Forum report of 2016, that drew major attention to the industry, mainly because it highlighted some of the inadequacies of the sector and its inability to transform as so many other industries have. It also referenced so many megatrends that would ultimately impact over the coming years. Ironically construction is rated at 21 of 22 industries with respect to digitization deployment according to McKinsey Global. Coinciding with this desire to better itself, it is also trying to eliminate data silos, incorrect information and integrate new technology, systems, as well as materials and products. It is, however, struggling to achieve results in order to cope with new pressures from Global trends, like urban migration, population increase and an emerging digital landscape. The existing stakeholders are struggling with low margins, poor interoperability and the adoption of sporadic technology within industry silos to resolve the issues within their boundaries. Under these conditions, it is highly unlikely that a ‘silver bullet’ will appear: therefore the industry should do what it does best on sites around the world and this is to problem solve. There are enough singular solutions in place and lead users to prove their capabilities, so rather than inventing a new digital solution, the industry must build it from existing pieces. This report aims to capture the pressures the industries forces, to identify significant problems and address these with a collection of solutions, which, when combined have the potential to be transformational platform for the industry. Having spent 13 years in construction, reinvention requires a review of global construction practices; highlighting the collaborations that exist in the field and office to identify technological tools required for transformation. The project will look at the factors impacting the sector, the changing environment of the industry, its lead users and changemakers in order to demonstrate that the solution to help the industry overcome its problems already exists and is just a matter of building it. However, before we build up the solution, one must first dig down to for a solid foundation, which can only be built of data

Towards a Sustainable Life: Smart and Green Design in Buildings and Community

This Special Issue includes contributions about occupants’ sustainable living in buildings and communities, highlighting issues surrounding the sustainable development of our environments and lives by emphasizing smart and green design perspectives. This Special Issue specifically focuses on research and case studies that develop promising methods for the sustainable development of our environment and identify factors critical to the application of a sustainable paradigm for quality of life from a user-oriented perspective. After a rigorous review of the submissions by experts, fourteen articles concerning sustainable living and development are published in this Special Issue, written by authors sharing their expertise and approaches to the concept and application of sustainability in their fields. The fourteen contributions to this special issue can be categorized into four groups, depending on the issues that they address. All the proposed methods, models, and applications in these studies contribute to the current understanding of the adoption of the sustainability paradigm and are likely to inspire further research addressing the challenges of constructing sustainable buildings and communities resulting in a sustainable life for all of society

Smart people in stupid homes: the skill in creating preferred thermal environments

A popular strategy in reducing energy consumption in dwellings has been to remove ‘the user’ from the operation of the building and its systems as far as possible. Occupants and their ‘inconvenient’ behaviour are seen as uncertainties to be set outside the loop. Research conducted by the authors suggests this may not be the most effective strategy for two main reasons. First, many people demonstrate a sensitivity to their thermal environments, a clear understanding of what they want from them, and the ability to operate their homes to achieve those conditions. Second, when users are thwarted in their attempts to create desired thermal experiences there is a risk they will bypass controls and constraints – for example, by using portable electric heaters – resulting in significantly greater energy consumption than expected. This paper suggests that some occupants have a deeper understanding of how their homes work thermally than is usually acknowledged in top-down imposed energy interventions that limit the occupants’ control of their home environment. The authors will argue that users’ intuitive understanding often exceeds the capabilities of automated or ‘black box’ heating control systems by embracing control mechanisms, such as windows and doors, that are not normally considered part of the whole environmental control system. The paper draws on the results of a project jointly funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Électricité de France under the People Energy and Buildings initiative: Conditioning Demand: Older People, Diversity and Thermal Experience. This project studied householders’ attitudes to the introduction of low carbon technologies for heating. Their responses show a sophisticated understanding of the thermal environment and suggest there is a need to investigate people’s understanding of how buildings work and the skills they acquire in getting the best from their homes to provide the thermal conditions they want. The paper explores the division of agency between people, building designs and systems in creating desired thermal environments. It positions occupants as the primary intelligence in operating homes and their energy systems and calls for greater recognition of the role of end-users in the efficient and effective operation of thermal systems in the home. The paper argues that by exploiting people’s intuitive understanding of how buildings work will inform effective low carbon strategies to reduce household energy consumption

Human factors in the design of sustainable built environments

Scientific research provides convincing evidence that climate change is having significant impacts on many aspects of life. In the built-environment domain, regulatory requirements are pushing the challenges of environmental, economic, and social sustainability at the core of the professional agenda, although the aims of carbon reduction and energy conservation are frequently given a priority over occupants' comfort, well-being, and satisfaction. While most practitioners declare to embrace sustainability as a driver of their professional approach, a general lack of integrated creative and technical skills hinders the design of buildings centred on articulate and comprehensive sustainability goals, encompassing, other than energy criteria, also human-centred and ethical values founded on competent and informed consideration of the requirements of the site, the programme, and the occupants. Built environments are designed by humans to host a range of human activities. In response, this article aims to endorse a sustainable approach to design founded on the knowledge arising from scholarly and evidence-based research, exploring principles and criteria for the creation and operation of human habitats that can respond to energy and legislative demands, mitigate their environmental impacts, and adapt to new climate scenarios, while elevating the quality of experience and delight to those occupying them