Building User Research Articles

Integrated post-occupancy evaluation and intervention that achieve real-world zero-carbon buildings

Many building standards are available worldwide to support sustainable building design. However, most of them only define compliance before occupancy, overlooking the real building usage and its implications for meeting zero-carbon targets. This research proposes a systematic post-occupancy evaluation and intervention (POEI) protocol to analyse real building performance and support cost-effective and zero-carbon upgrading. The novelty lies in integrating novel diagnostic data science techniques to identify performance gaps, advanced physics-driven energy modelling iteratively calibrated with POE data to disaggregate energy use by end-use, and cost-optimal intervention analysis. The POEI protocol has been validated in a university building. The results demonstrated the POEI benefits for the cost-optimal upgrading of in-use building assets based on real needs. By optimising control, reducing demand, increasing efficiency, and implementing renewables, the building can reach the nearly zero-carbon building target with a payback period of 13 years and a 23 % lower life-cycle cost compared to the baseline scenario. Building energy management interventions were identified as the most important actions to reduce the performance gap, reducing energy consumption by 20 % and carbon emissions by 24 %. The results also highlight the critical role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which may represent up to 49 % of energy use in the future zero-carbon building scenario if overlooked.

Extending the IFC-Based bim2sim Framework to Improve the Accessibility of Thermal Comfort Analysis Considering Future Climate Scenarios

Future weather scenarios significantly affect indoor thermal comfort, influencing people’s well-being and productivity at work. Thus, future weather scenarios should be considered in the design phase to improve a building’s climate change resilience for new constructions as well as renovations in building stock. As thermal comfort is highly influenced by internal and external thermal loads resulting from weather conditions and building usage, only a dynamic building performance simulation (BPS) can predict the boundary conditions for a thermal comfort analysis during the design stage. As the model setup for a BPS requires detailed information about building geometry, materials, and usage, recent research activities have tried to derive the required simulation models from the open BIM (Building Information Modeling) Standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). However, even if IFC data are available, they are often faulty or incomplete. We propose a template-based enrichment of the BPS models that assists with imputing missing data based on archetypal usage of thermal zones. These templates are available for standardized enrichment of BPS models but do not include the required parameters for thermal comfort analysis. This study presents an approach for IFC-based thermal comfort analysis and a set of zone-usage-based templates to enrich thermal comfort input parameters.

Isomeric Dual-Pore Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks.

Two-dimensional (2D) covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with hierarchical porosity have been increasingly recognized as promising materials in various fields. Besides, the 2D COFs with kagome (kgm) topology can exhibit unique optoelectronic features and have extensive applications. However, rational synthesis of the COFs with kgm topology remains challenging because of competition with a square-lattice topology. Herein, we report two isomeric dual-pore 2D COFs with kgm topology using a novel geometric strategy to reduce the symmetry of their building blocks, which are four-armed naphthalene-based and azulene-based isomeric monomers. Owing to the large dipole moment of azulene, as-prepared azulene-based COF (COF-Az) possesses a considerably narrow band gap of down to 1.37 eV, which is much narrower than the naphthalene-based 2D COF (COF-Nap: 2.28 eV) and is the lowest band gap among reported imine-linked dual-pore 2D COFs. Moreover, COF-Az was used as electrode material in a gas sensor and exhibits high selectivity for NO2, including a high response rate (58.7%) to NO2 (10 ppm), fast recovery (72 s), up to 10 weeks of stability, and resistance to 80% relative humidity, which are superior to those of reported COF-based NO2 gas sensors. The calculation and in situ experimental results indicate that the large dipole moment of azulene boosts the sensitivity of the imine linkages. The usage of isomeric building blocks not only enables the synthesis of 2D COFs with isometric kgm topology but also provides an azulene-based 2D platform for studying the structure-property correlations of COFs.

Characteristics of spatial mobility layout

Spatial fluidity is an important form of spatial organization in architectural design, because it can affect the behavior of building users in the building. Therefore, spatial fluidity is also the most basic and core content in space design. Therefore, how to realize the communication and interaction between people and places through the fluidity of space has become an urgent problem to be solved in the construction of modern cities. This paper introduces the concepts of "mobility" and "layout" in architecture through the research method of theoretical analysis, so as to help explain the characteristics existing between them, and discuss the characteristics of spatial mobility layout. Excellent spatial fluidity design is extremely important for some special environments such as enterprises and libraries. It can provide a clear sense of direction and space, reduce unnecessary flow space, and thus improve work efficiency and use requirements.

Managing Facilities in Historic Buildings: A Stewardship-Based Strategy for Long-Term Socio-economic Value

The challenges of historic building adaption for reuse are well documented and often refer to building fabric, listed status, historical significance, environmental sustainability, and structural layout as limitations to their successful re-development. However, few studies have explored how such issues manifest in the operational use of historic buildings developed for reuse, the significance on cities, and the long-term socioeconomic value. This study proposes a stewardship-based strategy to manage facilities to improve the socioeconomic value of historic buildings and support the socioeconomic demand in cities and territories. Within the context of a selected case study in the UK, a mixed-method approach was used to attain the data. Quantitative evidence, using a questionnaire survey with building users, and qualitative evidence, using semi-structured interviews with the facility management team, are presented. The results suggest that historic buildings are empowered by an organisational stewardship strategy, resulting in an acceptable operational compromise that involves an acceptance of building issues and their impact on the building users’ experience, and this can support the more operational adaption of facilities by the facility management team. The research proposes a stewardship-based strategy to support an improved socioeconomic value by incorporating user perspectives while ensuring a less preservation-centred and a more flexible-oriented approach towards managing facilities in historic buildings. This study constructively forms a base for further research into facility management strategies in historic buildings and their impact on cities’ needs.

Autodigit-RAD: Towards an automation of the radon’s concentration dataflow in a new and innovative building

Radon is a noble, natural, and radioactive gas coming mainly from the ground which might accumulate indoors and lead each year to 200-300 deaths from lung cancer in Switzerland. A brand new and innovative living lab will be built as of 2023 in Fribourg (Switzerland) which will allow to tackle the built environment and the relationship with its occupants. Among a large panel of environmental parameters, radon gas will be continuously monitored under and around the building as well as in the building envelope. This paper aims to present the overall process of the radon dataflow: 1) design of the sensor probes, 2) implementation of the radon sensor probes in the ground and 3) go-live with the data sharing platform with the building users. Such an infrastructure will bring the opportunity to researchers to lead new and innovative radon-related research.

Application of Silica-Aerogel-Fibre-Based Thermal Renders for Retrofits in Building Walls: A Comparative Assessment with Benchmark Solutions.

The current climate change context raises the demand for reducing energy and environmental impacts while keeping an economic balance and building users' comfort. Thermal insulation solutions are potential allies in ensuring the adequacy of existing buildings for challenging sustainability requirements. In this scenario, silica-aerogel-fibre-based thermal renders are innovative solutions for which integrated approaches still lack information, and they should be compared with benchmark multilayer solutions, such as those based on expanded polystyrene (EPS), extruded polystyrene (XPS), mineral wool (MW), and insulated corkboard (ICB), to evidence their prospective economic, environmental, and energy benefits. This paper quantifies the optimum insulation thicknesses, life cycle savings, payback periods, and environmental impacts of innovative thermal renders compared to conventional thermal insulation materials when applied as a retrofit in existing facade walls. The results show that cost-optimised thermal renders with sisal fibres led to the best overall performance. Higher heating needs led to higher optimum render thicknesses and life cycle savings. With a 0.02 m thickness, aerogel-fibre-based thermal renders outperformed other materials in terms of heating-degree days (HDD) from 1000 °C·day onwards; they can save approximately EUR 60∙m-2, 1000 MJ∙m-2, and 100 kg CO2 eq∙m-2 while presenting a U-value 13% lower throughout their 30-year lifetime when compared with the second-best multilayer solution with XPS.

31 Alternative Housing for Beef Cow/Calf Producers: A Survey of Management Practices and Health Concerns

Abstract The objective of this survey was to assess how building designs impact management practices and health concerns in confinement-housed beef cow-calf operations. This oral-based, on-farm survey collected responses from 20 cow-calf producers across the state of Illinois who were currently using an alternative housing system. The survey consisted of 94 questions based on 10 categories: demographics, housing, technology use, herd health and nutrition, pasture, manure management, cover crops, feed storage, water, and genetics. There were a variety of question types including multiple choice, select all that apply, open-ended, ranking of importance, and scale from one to ten. Results were analyzed based on respondents building design type (monoslope; n = 6, gable frame; n = 5, and hoop; n = 9). For the producers utilizing a monoslope, 66.7% had cow inventories of 150 or more, whereas 60% of gable frame users had inventories of 150 or more, and 44.4% of hoop building users had inventories of 150 cows or more. For the producers utilizing a monoslope, 16.7% had rubber covered concrete slat flooring, 33.3% had a clay/lime-based flooring, and 50% had concrete flooring. For the producers utilizing a gable frame, 0% had slats, 60% had lime, and 40% had concrete. For the producers utilizing a hoop building, 0% had slats, 88.9% had lime, and 11.1% had concrete. When assessing drylot access, 0% of monoslope users were allowing cows access to a drylot compared with 40% of gable frame users and 66.67% of hoop building users. Most monoslope users (83%) had 6 months or more of under-roof manure storage, whereas 0% of gable frame users did, and only 11.1% of hoops users did. For those utilizing a monoslope, 50% were creep feeding for 4 months or more compared with 80% of gable frame users and 12.5% of hoop building users. For producers utilizing a monoslope, 60% responded cows were over-conditioned, 40% said properly conditioned, and 0% said under-conditioned. For gable frame users, 50% responded cows were over-conditioned, 50% said properly conditioned, and 0% said under-conditioned. For hoop building users, 44.5% responded cows were over-conditioned, 55.5% said properly conditioned, and 0% said cows were under-conditioned. When asked to rank calf issues, 67% of monoslope producers ranked scours first, compared with 40% of gable frame users, and 44% of hoop building users. None of the monoslope users ranked calf respiratory first whereas 40% of those with gable frame did and 22% of hoop building users did. For naval issues, 33.3% of monoslope ranked it first, compared with 20% of gable frame users, and 33% of hoop building users. In conclusion, building design type influenced management practices and health issue concerns.

Game and multi-objective optimization of configurations for multiple distributed energy systems considering building users’ demands and satisfaction degrees

Sustainable building energy supply is crucial to the sustainable development of society, and replacing the separation production energy system with a hybrid renewable energy distributed energy system (DES) can help achieve this goal. However, there are challenges to the application of such building DES, such as collaboration between multiple DESs, conflicts between DESs and users, and user energy management/evaluation. While existing works rarely consider them simultaneously. Therefore, this work presents a two-stage collaborative optimization model to solve these issues. The first-stage optimizes the structures and capacities of DESs and the electricity and heat interchanges between DESs to maximize energy, economic, and emission performances. Based on user energy consumption elasticity, the second-stage evaluates DES revenue and user energy consumption utility/satisfaction to perform a multi-leader and multi-follower game. The interactive game determines energy prices and manages the hourly building user demands. A case study shows the validation of the proposed method. The results indicate that from the initial stage to reaching game equilibrium, the revenue of DESs decreases by approximately 11.2 % due to the declined energy prices, which increase users' hourly loads. Then, users’ utility can be increased by 7.0 % due to satisfaction improvement. Moreover, the renewable energy penetration rate in DESs is increased by 7.1 %, and the relative energy, economic, and emission performances (the baseline is traditional separation production system) of DESs are increased by 5.9 %, 0.5 %, and 4.5 %, respectively. The proposed framework helps to design/manage clean and efficient building energy systems and formulate reasonable energy prices, favoring DES development and carbon neutrality goals.

Feasibility analysis of the application of building automation and control system and their interaction with occupant behavior

Occupant behavior is among the main causes for the mismatch between simulated and in-use energy performance of buildings. One of the strategies considered capable of reducing user’s behavior induced energy consumption, while increasing indoor environmental quality is the application of Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS). In this study, three building user’s profiles have been considered depending on their energy consumption. The energy savings due to BACS class increase have been calculated, and a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) has been performed to evaluate the feasibility of different scenarios. Additional co-benefits perceived by the individuals have been accounted for in the form of willingness-to-pay (WTP). The methodology is applied to two case studies: a nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) rural single-family house and a recently renovated dwelling in an apartment block. The results show that the main reductions are achieved by the users’ behavior alone, and the adoption of BACS is economically feasible only when an incentive program is in place, and the WTP is repeated as a recurrent co-benefit over the years. In particular, relying only on energy reduction due to higher BACS class introduction is not economically desirable. The greatest savings are achieved by the behavioral change of the user when coupled with BACS, supporting their potential role in improving user’s energy literacy. Finally, incentive schemes are necessary to reduce the investment costs of such projects, being these the most influential variables in the feasibility of BACS applications.

Challenges in assessing the vibrations influence on people in buildings using non-contact measurements

This research article presents a~comparative analysis of vibration assessments in lecture halls to investigate their influence on people using contact (accelerometers) and non-contact (laser vibrometers) measurement techniques. The study aims to verify the accuracy and reliability of vibration analysis in relation to two approaches and determined physical parameters, i.e. acceleration amplitudes and vibration velocities. The intriguing fact was that none of the building users reported any perceived discomfort from vibrations, despite the determined parameters of the signal measured using a~laser vibrometer indicating exceedance of permissible vibration amplitudes in several frequency bands. The conducted comparative analysis leads to the conclusion that the location of the laser head tripod on the vibrating floor introduces significant vibration amplification, which in turn may lead to an incorrect assessment of the impact of vibrations on people in buildings. The studies described in the article were carried out in accordance with the procedure contained in the Polish national standard PN-B-02171. The obtained results and the resulting conclusions are an important contribution to a~better understanding of the advantages and limitations resulting from the use of non-contact measurements.

Influence of Occupants’ Space and Appliance Use Patterns and Behaviour during the Discomfort on Electricity Consumption in Mixed Mode Residences

Building characteristics, climate, socio-economic characteristics, and occupant behaviour influence the electricity consumption in buildings. In residential buildings, where people spend a lot of time and have high perceived control over their surroundings, electricity consumption for thermal comfort constitutes a higher proportion of overall energy consumption. Previous research studies mainly focused on the impact of building and household characteristics on electricity consumption in residences. In the Indian context, electricity usage in residential buildings may depend on lifestyle, family composition, daily routines and activity patterns, and consumption habits. In India, the space usage and sharing pattern of internal spaces depend on family composition and the number of rooms. In India, the usage of household appliances has been steadily increasing. During discomfort hours in humid conditions, people use fans with windows in the open position, switch on the air-conditioner or use the fan and air-conditioner together to attain thermal comfort. Therefore, the study aims to assess the impact of family composition, occupants' space and appliance use patterns and behaviour during the thermal discomfort on electricity consumption in Indian residential buildings. Information on the number of occupants, children, and elders; space usage at different hours of the day by the occupants; use of fans, air-conditioners, and other electrical appliances; and frequency and hours of opening of windows were collected through a questionnaire survey from 144 residences. Electricity consumption data for all 144 residences were collected from the utility bills. The variables influencing annual mean electricity consumption per unit area of residential buildings include the number of elders present, age of children, hours of air-conditioner use, space usage pattern, and occupants' behaviour during the discomfort

Research on seismic resilience evaluation index of mid-rise CFS structures

This paper focuses on the deficiencies of Chinese standard GB/T 38591–2020, and combines the mechanical characteristics, post-earthquake damage characteristics, and repair methods of mid-rise cold-formed steel (CFS) structures to define the damage grade of structural components and revise various index parameters in the “Standard”. Based on the calculation results of 120 sets of 6-story CFS composite shear wall structures, the multi-parameter seismic resilience evaluation index and grading criteria applicable to mid-rise CFS structures are fitted, and the index values (R values) for dividing the 5 resilience grades are 0.5, 1.0, 1.25, and 1.7, respectively. By considering different building usage functions and seismic effects, the 5-story CFS structure shaking table test models and the irregular eccentric CFS structure numerical model are used to jointly verify the reasonableness and universality of the seismic resilience evaluation index and grade classification criteria. The multi-parameter resilience evaluation index system lays the foundation for the study of seismic resilience of mid-rise CFS buildings and provides new ideas for establishing quantitative resilience evaluation indexes for different building systems.

Why did the AI make that decision? Towards an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) for autonomous driving systems

User trust has been identified as a critical issue that is pivotal to the success of autonomous vehicle (AV) operations where artificial intelligence (AI) is widely adopted. For such integrated AI-based driving systems, one promising way of building user trust is through the concept of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) which requires the AI system to provide the user with the explanations behind each decision it makes. Motivated by both the need to enhance user trust and the promise of novel XAI technology in addressing such need, this paper seeks to enhance trustworthiness in autonomous driving systems through the development of explainable Deep Learning (DL) models. First, the paper casts the decision-making process of the AV system not as a classification task (which is the traditional process) but rather as an image-based language generation (image captioning) task. As such, the proposed approach makes driving decisions by first generating textual descriptions of the driving scenarios, which serve as explanations that humans can understand. To this end, a novel multi-modal DL architecture is proposed to jointly model the correlation between an image (driving scenario) and language (descriptions). It adopts a fully Transformer-based structure and therefore has the potential to perform global attention and imitate effectively, the learning processes of human drivers. The results suggest that the proposed model can and does generate legal and meaningful sentences to describe a given driving scenario, and subsequently to correctly generate appropriate driving decisions in autonomous vehicles (AVs). It is also observed that the proposed model significantly outperforms multiple baseline models in terms of generating both explanations and driving actions. From the end user’s perspective, the proposed model can be beneficial in enhancing user trust because it provides the rationale behind an AV’s actions. From the AV developer’s perspective, the explanations from this explainable system could serve as a “debugging” tool to detect potential weaknesses in the existing system and identify specific directions for improvement.

Four buildings and a flush: Lessons from degraded water quality and recommendations on building water management

A reduction in building occupancy can lead to stagnant water in plumbing, and the potential consequences for water quality have gained increasing attention. To investigate this, a study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on water quality in four institutional buildings. Two of these buildings were old (>58 years) and large (>19,000 m2), while the other two were new (>13 years) and small (<11,000 m2). The study revealed significant decreases in water usage in the small buildings, whereas usage remained unchanged in the large buildings. Initial analysis found that residual chlorine was rarely detectable in cold/drinking water samples. Furthermore, the pH, dissolved oxygen, total organic carbon, and total cell count levels in the first draw of cold water samples were similar across all buildings. However, the ranges of heavy metal concentrations in large buildings were greater than observed in small buildings. Copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) sporadically exceeded drinking water limits at cold water fixtures, with maximum concentrations of 2.7 mg Cu L−1, 45.4 μg Pb L−1, 1.9 mg Mn L−1. Flushing the plumbing for 5 min resulted in detectable residual at fixtures in three buildings, but even after 125 min of flushing in largest and oldest building, no residual chlorine was detected at the fixture closest to the building's point of entry. During the pandemic, the building owner conducted fixture flushing, where one to a few fixtures were operated per visit in buildings with hundreds of fixtures and multiple floors. However, further research is needed to understand the fundamental processes that control faucet water quality from the service line to the faucet. In the absence of this knowledge, building owners should create and use as-built drawings to develop flushing plans and conduct periodic water testing.

Effect of Socioeconomic Characteristics of Residential Building Occupants on Level of Fire Disaster Preparedness

Socioeconomic characteristics are known to influence fire disaster preparedness (FDP). The spate of fire outbreaks in buildings in Nigeria is worrisome with its deleterious effects, however, these can be averted by studying how socioeconomic characteristics influences FDP in buildings. The study assessed the level of FDP in Parakin, Ile-Ife. The objective was to investigate the effect of socioeconomic characteristics on the level of FDP by using fire safety awareness (FSA) and evacuation in residential buildings in Parakin, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Quantitative data was collected via questionnaire survey. Primary data was obtained using purposive sampling method. 80 buildings were purposively selected for this study and the self-administered questionnaire were given to 80 participants from the buildings. Frequency distribution, percentage and chi square were used to analyse the data. Chi square showed a relationship between the sex of respondents and the evacuation attributes, while age, home ownership and level of education of respondents are not associated with evacuation attributes. Chi square also revealed that sex, age, home ownership and level of education of respondents have no relationship with awareness. The study concluded that firefighting equipment and facilities are mostly unavailable in the study area while the level of awareness is fairly moderate, FDP is very low, evacuation attributes of the buildings are fair while training for occupants is very low. Concerted efforts should be made to raise awareness, train building users to combat fire outbreaks and get necessary gadgets needed for firefighting in buildings.

Data-driven quantitative analysis of an integrated open digital ecosystems platform for user-centric energy retrofits: A case study in northern Sweden

This paper presents an open digital ecosystem based on a web-framework with a functional back-end server for user-centric energy retrofits. This data-driven web framework is proposed for building energy renovation benchmarking as part of an energy advisory service development for the Västerbotten region, Sweden. A 4-tier architecture is developed and programmed to achieve users’ interactive design and visualization via a web browser. Six data-driven methods are integrated into this framework as backend server functions. Based on these functions, users can be supported by this decision-making system when they want to know if a renovation is needed or not. Meanwhile, influential factors (input values) from the database that affect energy usage in buildings are to be analyzed via quantitative analysis, i.e., sensitivity analysis. The contributions to this open ecosystem platform in energy renovation are: 1) A systematic framework that can be applied to energy efficiency with data-driven approaches, 2) A user-friendly web-based platform that is easy and flexible to use, and 3) integrated quantitative analysis into the framework to obtain the importance among all the relevant factors. This computational framework is designed for stakeholders who would like to get preliminary information in energy advisory. The improved energy advisor service enabled by the developed platform can significantly reduce the cost of decision-making, enabling decision-makers to participate in such professional knowledge-required decisions in a deliberate and efficient manner. This work is funded by the AURORAL project, which integrates an open and interoperable digital platform, demonstrated through regional large-scale pilots in different countries of Europe by interdisciplinary applications.

FIELD TESTS OF IMPACT NOISE INSULATION OF THE FLOOR USING PLANNING THEORY

In modern construction, one of the main indicators of the quality of housing for users of multi-storey buildings is still noise. The task of preventing the noise that occurs in the house itself needs to be given more attention when designing and soundproofing. It is known that extraneous sounds penetrating into a living space cause a negative impact not only on the psychological state of a person, but also on the physical one. In this regard, each user of the premises wants to receive comfortable conditions for staying in them. To achieve this condition, it is necessary to develop effective structural and technological schemes for soundproofing the floor from impact noise, as well as their verification and evaluation using the theory of planning experiments. This article is devoted to solving an important issue of sound insulation of floors in monolithic reinforced concrete multi-storey residential buildings, namely from impact noise. The article considers the structural and technological schemes of sound insulation of the floor of fifteen types, using different materials and their combinations to achieve regulatory requirements for sound insulation from impact noise. It was determined that the thickness of the layer of materials and the density have a significant effect on the insulation performance against shock noise. The work investigated floor constructions based on layers of changing materials. Specifically, such parameters as the thickness (50±10 mm) and density (300±50 kg/m3) of polystyrene concrete "Izolkap" and the thickness of the semi-dry screed (50±10 mm). When choosing the most rational design and technological scheme used the results of planning theory, as well as indicators of reduced impact noise, obtained as a result of field tests, it allowed to choose the most rational and effective version of "floating" floor ‒ based on materials "Akuflex" and "Izolkap" (polystyrene concrete) ‒ scheme №11, the index of the reduced level of impact noise is Lnw = 52 dB. The arrangement of the structural and technological scheme of floor sound insulation №11 allows to reduce the level of initial impact noise in the room by 37.5%.

Conservation of architectural heritage: Innovative approaches to enhance thermal comfort and promote sustainable usage in historic buildings

Heritage architecture, which considers the local climate, building materials, and construction methods, can contribute to the energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings. Retrofitting strategies can be applied to existing buildings to improve their energy performance while maintaining or enhancing their thermal comfort. This study involved an analysis of the indoor environment status at the Yonsei University Stimson Hall (completed in 1920), a building on the former Yonhee College (now Yonsei University). The analysis included temperature and humidity measurements over a one-year period in four rooms with different usage schedules and occupant types. It was found that the number of occupants and the usage schedule influenced the temperature distribution in the rooms. In addition, the effects of the retrofitting strategies on the building energy consumption were investigated. It was verified that the improvement in windows and the application of roof-type photovoltaic systems resulted in annual energy savings of up to 90.46% compared with reference buildings. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate the influence of variables such as usage schedule, occupant type, and season on the indoor climate, as well as the potential benefits and drawbacks of retrofitting strategies on energy consumption and thermal comfort.

Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in the World Heritage Site of the Historic Centre of Mexico City

On 26 April 2017, Mexico formally adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to link the national government to local governments, the private sector, civil society and academia. The restoration of heritage residential buildings (recovery programme) and the construction of new residential buildings aim to create a diversified environment for populations at different economic levels. However, the restoration programme faces conservation challenges. Given this context, this paper presents the results of in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with stakeholders in Mexico’s heritage and energy sectors. The duration of each interview was approximately two hours, with 52,372 total interview words. The paper identifies prevailing opinions regarding prioritising historical values, energy efficiency, historic buildings and users concerning Mexico City’s Historical Centre, a World Heritage Site needing a more appropriate sustainable development plan. Using grounded theory and thematic analysis, the interview data were analysed based on the interrelationship between thermal comfort, energy efficiency and heritage conservation changes over time. The results of this research will strengthen our understanding of the interventions and processes involved in managing and living in this World Heritage Site and its future impacts on buildings. The approach also underscores the importance of how stakeholders prioritise different values in making energy efficiency-promoting decisions and enhances awareness of the decision-making process and actions adopted by heritage building users. Thus, understanding the dynamic interrelationship between values, users and energy could improve the sustainable management of heritage sites and future development.