{"title":"A proposal for the prediction of comfort and performance improvement through the use of cooling vests (for construction workers), under transient conditions","authors":"C. Roelofsen, K. Jansen","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2149450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2149450","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41708810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A longitudinal study of the occupancy patterns of a university library building using thermal imaging analysis","authors":"Qian Wang, Hiral Patel, Li Shao","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2147129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2147129","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Current debates around the ‘performance gap’ have highlighted the need to study building occupancy patterns to improve design solutions and better understand space utilisation. However, capturing occupancy data is resource intensive. There is a need for solutions that gather real-time occupancy data while maintaining the users’ privacy. In response to this challenge, this paper discusses applying a thermal imaging-based method for measuring occupancy in buildings and generating behavioural insights. A longitudinal analysis of the occupancy patterns over a full academic year is conducted for a university library building in the UK. The granular data collected through the thermal imaging analysis reveal insights into the building’s occupancy patterns over academic terms and vacation periods. The findings debunk conventional conceptions of library use during weekends/weekdays and terms/vacations. The application of thermal imaging sensors to monitor occupancy within the library building suggests the potential use of real-time data to improve the library’s space and organisational management. The paper makes a case for having an occupancy monitoring strategy in place that corresponds to the data needed for making effective interventions.","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43052570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identifying occupancy patterns and profiles in higher education institution buildings with high occupancy density – A case study","authors":"B. Alfalah, Mehdi Shahrestani, Li Shao","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2137451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2137451","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Building occupancy patterns are an important factor in considering the energy efficiency of buildings and a key input for building performance modelling. More specifically, the energy consumption associated with heating, cooling, lighting, and plug load usage depends on the number of occupants in a building. Identifying occupancy patterns and profiles in buildings is a key factor for the optimisation of building operating systems and can potentially reduce the performance gap between the planning stage and the actual energy usage. This study aims to identify the patterns and profiles of the occupants in a selected case study building in England. In this study, occupancy data were collected over 12 months at five minutes intervals. A sensor was used to obtain high accuracy occupancy data compared to previous studies that encountered uncertainties in data collection. A set of clustering analyses was carried out to identify occupancy patterns and profiles in the building. The results of this study identified three different occupancy patterns and profiles as well as four drivers that influenced the occupants in the case study building: the beginning of the academic term, the examination period, the weekday/weekends, and the vacation driver.","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47683121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"D. Clements–Croome","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2155447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2155447","url":null,"abstract":"Increasing populations and urban living are increasing the number of new cities and regions being planned and designed for the twenty-first century and beyond. The Woven City being developed by Toyota in Japan takes its name from both its concept and design, with three types of streets interwovenwith each other on the ground level, one dedicated to automated driving, one to pedestrians and one to personal mobility vehicles. There will also be an underground road used to transport freight. The community is planned to start with around 360 residents, mainly senior citizens, families with young children and inventors and is planned to grow to a population of 2000 or more individuals, including Toyota employees. There will be a strong priority given to people’s health and well-being besides many measures will be planned which will make the city sustainable. Woven City is envisaged as a place where people live, work, and play in a real-world living laboratory, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell system. In Saudi Arabia, a city named Neom, on a much larger scale than the Woven City, is being constructed, aiming for completion in 2030. Both cities will use high technology of all kinds but also connect with Nature and claim to be places that will be good for people’s health and well-being. Will these cities be like an overcomplicated tasting menu with no depth of flavour or as intended bring deep sensory experiences to everyday living? Indy Johar, an innovative architect who set up Dark Matter Labs, on being interviewed in the Financial Times (November 5/6/ 2022) spoke about the need to reimagine our world from one in which reductionist logic has pervaded our mindsets to one which is much more about entanglements and interdependencies at philosophical, social, material, ethical, value or cost levels. Too often, we consider costs and ignore value. Too often, we work in silos blinkered to the enriching interconnections between things. With buildings and cities, it is the user which is key. The Syrian architect Marva Al-Sabouni states that – architecture is the only form of art that does not take its value from its makers, rather it takes it from its users (Royal Society of Arts Journal Issue 3 2020 page 41). With no apology, I return to the Grenfell tragedy in London in 2017 as I have just received the book Show me the Bodies: How we let Grenfell Happen by Pete Apps (OneWorld 2022). It will make an interesting read, I am sure. He concludes it is a story of corporate structures that allowed human beings to abandon their own conscience and sense of agency and to think only about sales and profit margins. This is a sad reflection and tragic outcome of how limited we can be in our everyday planning, design and construction but a chance to learn how never to let this happen again. Energy costs are uppermost in many minds as world events disturb the fuel markets, but energy choices are a major concern anyway, as all the COP Climate Change meetings show. There is an ","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42712776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"D. Clements–Croome","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2145819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2145819","url":null,"abstract":"This journal like others seeks to advance knowledge and understanding in all the interconnected areas that focus on intelligent buildings and their role in the planning of intelligent cities. But how far can we go in reaping new knowledge? Will we ever have a complete template of knowledge? Einstein set out to discover a unified field theory which would explain how the universe worked but today at astronomical or atomic scales this still eludes us. The more we discover the more questions appear. There seems to be an asymptotic state of knowledge with no finite end in sight. In 1931, an Austrian mathematician Kurt Gődel proposed his incompleteness theorem in which he demonstrated that with any mathematical system there will always be true statements which cannot be proved. To all those mathematicians that, like Einstein had in physics, sought to develop a complete mathematical system this was devastating news. So yes perfect unified systems of knowledge are beyond us but the discovery of those steps in the process such as the discovery of new particles in the atom or nearer home seeking to understand the role of artificial intelligence in developing intelligent buildings for example, these evolutionary steps remain challenging and exciting. The origins of chess began in India some 1500 years ago and have been mentioned by the United Nations as a game like others that can improve mental health by letting the player enter a mental flow state of complete immersion and absorption. Chess requires logic and reasoning and these can stimulate mental agility which may lead on to a more creative deliberation about alternative solutions. I wonder if more offices, hospitals and schools should make chess sets easily available to encourage mental wellbeing. The downside may be people become too absorbed and reluctant to leave the game and this would not be favoured by office managers but a ‘chesslunch’ might offset that energy low point in the early afternoon. The need to understand creativity in a deeper way is crucial and is as important as the much-used word productivity so why not let us explore all the possibilities to make this happen. A recent study from the Paris Brain Institute (ICM) explains why daylong cognitive work drains one’s energy and can affect decision-making (see article by A. Wiehler et al., in Current Biology 2022, 32(16), 3564–75). Does concentration, memorising, multi-tasking and problem-solving cause the brain to tire and hence decrease its efficacy in making decisions? They describe how nerve cells in the brain break down nutrients to release energy to think but during this process, toxic by-products are accumulated called metabolites and one of these that proliferate is glutamate. Incidentally one function of sleep is to clear these toxins. During the day, this build-up of toxins occurs in the lateral prefrontal cortex area of the brain but is particularly prevalent in subjects that are employed in high-demand jobs. Should we rearrang","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48508203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using computer-vision sensors to study the impact of window views on occupancy and self-assessed productivity in flexible working environments: an intervention study","authors":"K. Jens, Andrew Khoudi","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2084012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2084012","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Changing lifestyles and working behaviours diversify the use demands directed towards modern working environments. As a result, building spaces have become more flexible with dynamic and varied activity landscapes that often contradict subjective perceptions. This research applies data from computer-vision cameras and surveys with a total of 229 participants. The participants were randomly selected to investigate the effect of installing window blinds on occupancy counts, occupancy duration, and perceived productivity, four days before and after blocking daylight and natural views. The results show statistically significant decreases in occupant counts and perceived productivity rates after the intervention, with an associated increase in occupancy duration. With sensors to collect post-occupancy data, this research contributes to a better understanding of the role that daylight and natural views can have for user experiences and human behaviour.","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48333097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"D. Clements–Croome","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2120705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2120705","url":null,"abstract":"We hear a lot about net zero carbon buildings but much less about net positive carbon ones in which there is energy spare to feed back to the grid. It was welcoming, especially at this time of very high fuel costs, to read the article Cutting Bills with Energy-Positive Homes in the August 2022 issue of the CIBSE Journal. Research on this topic has been carried out at Cardiff University in recent years and so unsurprisingly these 14 new low-cost social homes are located at Stormy Downs in Bridgend and are part of the Welsh Government’s three-year Innovative Housing Programme. The homes are passively designed for low energy and use solar PV, lithium-ion battery storage and heat pumps to collect, store and distribute the energy flows. There are no other heating or cooling appliances. The construction cost is about 35% higher than the average build cost for Building Regulations designed social housing but the typical annual running costs are − £59 as reported by Hoare Lea. As energy loads for the building decrease to very low levels the energy loads for equipment become even more significant and these are loads that are highly affected by the homeowner in using, for example, washing machines, fridges, dishwashers, ovens, plug-in sockets and towel rails. To attain carbon positive, which results in money being paid back to the consumer, residents need to be aware of how they can manage their energy consumption pattern. Care is also needed in choosing the tariff offered by the energy supplier. Windows play a big role in achieving healthy and happy environments to work in. They are the entry points for natural light which is so important for health and wellbeing. They provide us with views which can offer interesting stimuli to our minds so offsetting the close eye focus needed for seeing computer screens which can be tiring. But then the downsides are overheating which can result in high energy consumption, glare and the transmission of UV radiation. In the August 2022 issue of Physics World, there is an article titled A Novel Window into Smart Glass. Part of this insight, which covers a range of research on increasing the performance and functionality of glass, is focused on windows for buildings. Electrochromic windows are not new but thermochromic ones are more recent. The window energy performance is controlled by changes in temperature rather than voltage. This is achieved by using a coating of vanadium dioxide or other materials such as perovskites (semiconductors which when light is incident on them transport electric charge and are used in the latest high-efficiency solar cells) which undergo phase transitions hence becoming less or more transparent to solar radiation. There is still more research needed but early indications are that thermochromic windows could offer significant energy savings. Now these are brief headlines of some research which has been reported in the last month.","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41974681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nima Forouzandeh, Z. Zomorodian, Zohreh Shaghaghian, Mohamad Tahsildoost
{"title":"Room energy demand and thermal comfort predictions in early stages of design based on the Machine Learning methods","authors":"Nima Forouzandeh, Z. Zomorodian, Zohreh Shaghaghian, Mohamad Tahsildoost","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2049190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2049190","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent studies have focused on data-driven methods for building energy efficiency, by using simulated or empirical data, for energy-based design assessment rather than the common physics-based techniques, which are mostly time-consuming. In this paper, the feasibility of using seven different Machine Learning models, including three single models and four ensemble ones, is studied to predict annual energy demand and thermal comfort of the model. For this purpose, 3024 synthetic samples of a single zone model with seven input features are simulated through the EnergyPlus engine for training in addition to 360 unseen samples as testing data for accuracy reporting. Heating and cooling demands, in addition to five annual thermal comfort indices, are calculated for each data point and used as target indices. Results show Extremely Randomized Trees and Random Forest models had the highest R 2 of 0.99 and 0.85 for cooling and heating demands respectively. Also, the R 2 of these models for predicting annual comfort was between 0.71 and 0.95. Results are then used to develop a prediction framework of thermal comfort and energy demand performance in the early stages of building design, where most of the information about building characteristics is not yet known.","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44279384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"D. Clements–Croome","doi":"10.1080/17508975.2022.2082212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2022.2082212","url":null,"abstract":"In an inspiring presentation on May 19th in a webinar arranged by the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group the environmental psychologist Anicee Bauer speaking from Amsterdam reminded us of some fundamental issues that affect how we behave and the consequential influences they have on sustainability. Our expectancies have reached a level that outstrip what the Earth can comfortably provide. Speeds of action we demand today can mean any deep thinking is curtailed so shallow outcomes result. Buildings or cities for example can be soulless and human values sacrificed for monetary gains so value becomes an empty word stretched and banded around without any understanding of the deeper consequences. Embedding actions with real meaning. Head, heart and hands offer not just skill but also thoughtful care, passion and love which one can feel when using a building for example. The atmosphere evoked within a cathedral is palpable and it is obvious that all the crafts people put themselves body and soul into their work over a lifetime in many instances. Bauer believes that spirituality is the root of sustainability. Being close to Nature affects one in many subtle ways. The basic language of the Earth speaks to us and yet so often we ignore it. There is now an urgent sense that we must heed the clues Nature gives us and effect a close bond between the spiritual core of us as creators, our hearts and then adopt an eco-lifestyle that respects the Earth and our place on it. Our actions affect the whole as we realise more and more, we live in an interconnected world. What we do every day impacts the environment, but we wrongly assume each individual action is so small we need not bother about it but these impacts originating from nearly a world population of 8 billion do matter. Bauer concludes we need a change in our thinking about real values with real meaning. There are imperfections in our actions but courage, sincerity and humility can counter these so they become learning experiences. How can technology enable the world painted by Anicee Bauer? Technology is an enabler not a master, but AI helps to streamline connectivity. In this issue, the first paper from Tohoku University in Japan discusses AI as a design rather than as a tool for design. We can imagine AI being the brain of the building connecting all the neural systems feeding the structure and fluid flow systems with wearable technology registering occupiers reactions to their environment. Conscious intelligent buildings are emerging. I recommend the TED Talk 2019 by Danyal Ahmed, the author here, on Architecture in the Age of AI. So, we can envisage the intelligent building becoming more of an organism and this is a theme in the next two papers. A team from Iran describe work on living bio-facades. The 2013 BIQ building in Hamburg is one example but the authors stretch the concept further. The artificial leaf is another development. By using a water wall with the leaves immersed within it acts as a ca","PeriodicalId":45828,"journal":{"name":"Intelligent Buildings International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45526662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}