Design of adaptive opportunities for people in buildings

Book chapter, 2022

Adaptive opportunities for people are a key element in the adaptive thermal comfort approach. Research has led to a broad and solid foundation of knowledge, but design processes on how to support people’s behavioural control through building design are still missing. This chapter presents a design process for incorporating adaptive opportunities and discusses how such an approach enhances thermal resilience. The design process is facilitated with tools and exemplary design or operation actions for stakeholders. Non-energy using adaptive opportunities and the passive performance a building affords are the means to enhance not only human thermal comfort in buildings but also human resilience. This is because they offer people concrete options for acting and supporting their belief in their ability and skills to act in case of extreme weather events and can hence facilitate physiological adaptation. They are therefore paramount to build a resilient human-building interaction in a changing environment.