Occupant-centric zoning design framework for flexible workplaces: Impact of occupancy modeling and building operation

Flexible workplaces offer the potential to enhance occupants’ thermal comfort and building energy performance through space selectivity. However, the effects of occupants’ space selection on optimal zoning layouts and the resulting operational performance remain underexplored. This study investigates an occupant-centric zoning design framework, focusing on the influence of occupancy modeling and building operation. We analyzed three scenarios in a retrofit building project: zone-level schedule, agent-based model (ABM) with occupant-centric control (OCC), and ABM with OCC and an elastic comfort-driven workplace strategy, in which occupants choose a space with a preferable thermal condition and a space opens only when an additional workspace demand occurs. The results showed that combining ABM with OCC and the workplace strategy resulted in more feasible solutions with unique zoning layouts, including thermal conditions. In contrast, the layouts generated by ABM with OCC, without the workplace strategy, showed an excess sensitivity to input data and controls, suggesting that ABM might not perform well when not introducing an appropriate context into the design problem. Additionally, ABM with OCC and the workplace strategy achieved a 6$\text{\%}$–8$\text{\%}$ increase in the percentage of comfortable occupants while reducing the building energy usage by 9$\text{\%}$–13$\text{\%}$, highlighting the considerable potential of flexible workplaces to improve thermal comfort and building energy performance beyond the constraints of zone-level HVAC control. The findings emphasize the critical role of considering the interaction between occupants, zoning layout, and building operation when designing flexible workplaces from an occupant-centric perspective.