Occupant-Facade interaction: a review and classification scheme

Abstract

The interest in occupant interaction with building controls and automation systems is growing due to the wider availability of embedded sensing devices and automated or intelligent building components that can integrate building control strategies with occupant-centred data and lead to greater occupant satisfaction and reduction in energy consumption. An area of particular interest is the interaction strategies between occupants and the so called automated facades, such as dynamic shading devices and switchable glazing. Occupant-Facade interactions are often disruptive and source of dissatisfaction because of conflicts between competing requirements, e.g. energy-efficiency and indoor environmental quality. To solve these conflicts, expertise from several disciplines is required, including Behavioural Science and Building Physics, but the absence of common research frameworks impedes knowledge transfer between different fields of expertise. This paper reviews existing multi-disciplinary research on occupant interaction with facades, buildings and automation systems and provides a new classification scheme of Occupant-Facade interaction. The scheme is based on an extensive review of interactive scenarios between occupants and facades that are summarised in this paper. The classification scheme was found to be successful in: 1) capturing the multidisciplinary nature of interactive scenarios by clarifying relationships between components; 2) identifying similarities and characteristics among interactive scenarios; 3) understanding research gaps. The classification scheme proposed in this paper has the potential to be a useful tool for the multi-disciplinary research community in this field. The review also showed that more research is needed to characterise the holistic and multi-disciplinary effect of occupant interaction with intelligent building components.

A Data-Driven Conceptual Framework for Climate Adaptive Building Shell: A Hybrid Control Strategy

“…Sensors such as proximity and distance sensors such as Kinect and Wii, light sensors, temperature sensors, air quality measurement sensors, humidity sensors and precipitation sensors are considered as the main data sources [25] by which environmental information and interactions with occupants can be detected [48,50]. These data are considered as quantitative sources that guide adaptation and response.…”

“…At the same time, the building shell can automatically respond to them in a specific way, or it can recognize the occupant and change its response accordingly [21]. Moreover, the multi-person participation is the most prominent part of designing building shell that responds to the occupants depending on the interaction capabilities of the system [34]. In this case, it should be planned on which the building responds and how this respond occurs [22].…”

Artificial intelligence for structural glass engineering applications — overview, case studies and future potentials

“…The second mentioned issue for an intelligent façade or building is similarly treatable form a mathematical and AI point of view (Aznar et al 2018;Luna-Navarro et al 2020). Similar ML methods apply in this context as well.…”

“…If supervised ML or DL algorithms are applied, a loss function (characterizing the control and steering problem) has to be established in the mentioned contexts. In addition the development of suitable and meaningful features, which allow a structurally sensible and unambiguous classification of the condition of the façade under consideration, is necessary (Aznar et al 2018;Luna-Navarro et al 2020). For example, the construction-physical principles and interrelationships for describing the comfort of the user as a result of external influences and their manipulation, e.g.…”

Future trends and main concepts of adaptive facade systems

“…[60][61][62][63] Human-centered facade design that provides overriding and interaction features for facade system adaptation in real time and based on users' needs is the new promising avenue of adaptive facade systems. 64 • Smart building operating (BOS) systems: Building operating system (BOS) is the cornerstone of adaptive facades. A growing number of facade stakeholders understand that the operation of adaptive facades must be supported by a digitalization and artificial intelligence approaches.…”