Occupant-Facade interaction: a review and classification scheme

The interest in occupant interaction with building controls and automation systems is growing due to the wider availability of embedded sensing devices and automated or intelligent building components that can integrate building control strategies with occupant-centred data and lead to greater occupant satisfaction and reduction in energy consumption. An area of particular interest is the interaction strategies between occupants and the so called automated facades, such as dynamic shading devices and switchable glazing. Occupant-Facade interactions are often disruptive and source of dissatisfaction because of conflicts between competing requirements, e.g. energy-efficiency and indoor environmental quality. To solve these conflicts, expertise from several disciplines is required, including Behavioural Science and Building Physics, but the absence of common research frameworks impedes knowledge transfer between different fields of expertise. This paper reviews existing multi-disciplinary research on occupant interaction with facades, buildings and automation systems and provides a new classification scheme of Occupant-Facade interaction. The scheme is based on an extensive review of interactive scenarios between occupants and facades that are summarised in this paper. The classification scheme was found to be successful in: 1) capturing the multidisciplinary nature of interactive scenarios by clarifying relationships between components; 2) identifying similarities and characteristics among interactive scenarios; 3) understanding research gaps. The classification scheme proposed in this paper has the potential to be a useful tool for the multi-disciplinary research community in this field. The review also showed that more research is needed to characterise the holistic and multi-disciplinary effect of occupant interaction with intelligent building components.