“Soon our houses and streets become adaptive living organisms that “care” for us, being socially intelligent environments that understand us and empathize with us.”

As the principal investigator and leader of the research program ‘Empathic Environment’, an ongoing interdisciplinary study into technological and social aspects of smart healthy neighborhoods, Mohammadi aims to develop an evidence-based framework for embedding emerging technologies (such as domotics, AI, robotics and IoT) into architectural concepts and systems. Therefore, it is essential to create a delicate balance between architecture, technology and the actual needs and preferences of (end) users. By implementing these (design) principals and methods in several Living Labs throughout the Netherlands, her chair aims to explore the next generation smart homes, and to examine the impact of these interventions on the socio-spatial context and real life of users. This new cross-disciplinary field requires systematic research and the development of new methodologies to empirically evaluate emerging housing typologies and their impact on the health, wellbeing and social engagement of users. To facilitate these advances 17 PhD and PDEng researchers are currently conducting research on this subject. 

To arrive at an evidence-based framework, testing in a real environment with stakeholders is indispensable. The Empathic living labs are real life demonstrators in which partners from research, industry and practice (e.g. Dutch housing and care organizations) collaborate. By integration and implementation of the developed (design) principles and methodologies in 10 Living Labs throughout the Netherlands, this chair aims to empirically evaluate emerging housing typologies and their impact on the health, wellbeing and social engagement of users.

For her research, she received grants from different organizations, e.g. Interreg Europe programme (IV), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), and Province of North Brabant.

Masi Mohammadi has a PhD on smart homes for active ageing, holds the chair of ‘Smart Architectural Technologies’ at Eindhoven University of Technology, and heads the KIVI-chair of ‘Architecture in Health’ at HAN University of applied sciences, in the Netherlands.
As a senior researcher and project manager in different nationwide projects based in the field of smart healthy cities, she gained large experience in interdisciplinary studies. In this regard, she has served as chair and/or board member of more than 20 (inter)national committees and research networks, e.g. a member of the Board Science, Technology and Society of The Royal Institution of Engineers (KIVI), and as visiting professor at University of Technology Sydney. She has contributed to various publications on interdisciplinary domains of smart healthy homes, and is a well-known speaker who has delivered more 120 academic and professional keynotes or invited talks at national and international level.

Next to her academic work, she actively participates in different (inter)national management and administrative bodies. She advises these organizations on the formation of strategy, master plans and the development of resilience frameworks for practice or policy in her field. She acts a member of several Executive or Supervisory Boards including that of the honorary member of the Dutch association of Facility Management in Healthcare (NVTG).