Adapting to Discomfort Towards Sustainable Built Environments
Project Overview
Designs interactive technologies that encourage office occupants to adapt to mild discomfort, reducing energy consumption while maintaining wellbeing in built environments.
The buildings sector consumes over one-third of global energy and generates nearly 40% of CO2 emissions. This initiative proposes “adapting to discomfort” as a strategy to lower energy consumption in built environments, rather than relying solely on automation or behaviour modelling.
The project develops a design framework and a set of prototypes that help occupants adapt to minor environmental discomforts—supporting sustainability goals without sacrificing agency. Co-design workshops and in-the-wild studies explore how data-driven interactions can influence energy-aware behaviours while maintaining occupant wellbeing and autonomy.
Team
