Human-Centric Design: Comfort, Well-Being, and Health Cognitive in Building Envelope Design

In the context of human-centric design, this chapter explores the principles of responsive and cognitive building envelopes. It further discusses the need for broader sustainability and indoor environmental quality practices in building envelope design, emphasizing the need for a paradigm shift and the better articulation of digital, information and communication technologies in building envelope design and operation. The work examines the differences in occupant perceptions of indoor environmental settings, the relevance of capturing such perceptions mainly from the thermal and visual comfort subdomains, the risks of undermining the building envelope, detailed effects of indoor and outdoor proximity, existing and promising methodologies for evaluating and monitoring individual and grouped tolerance levels, and the challenges that the application of these methodologies pose for different stakeholders (e.g., designers, owners, facility managers). Finally, potential solutions to the identified challenges are introduced, before delving into them in the subsequent chapters of this book.