Occupant-centric building for enhanced quality of life

The SmartBuilt4EU project has set up four task forces investigating issues related to smart buildings: their objective is to identify the remaining challenges and barriers to smart building deployment, and the associated research and innovation gaps that should be addressed in the near future. Task force 1 investigates how the interactions between any smart building and its users can be facilitated and improved, as a key success factor for the market uptake of smart building solutions. The topic investigated in year 2022 addressed occupant-centric building for enhanced quality of life. The paper focuses the integration of smart building solutions with the aim to improve the comfort and health of occupants, but also the inclusiveness and accessibility of the building to people with more specific needs (elderly people, limited mobility, visually impaired, …). More and more smart solutions as well as some standards, certifications and public regulations are currently being developed to match some of these requirements, but a more global and systemic approach to this question of the overall quality of life within the building seems to be missing. This White paper focuses therefore on the following questions: Are there commonly agreed definitions relating to the quality of life in buildings, and what are the specific parameters behind the user centric building? What specific building and smartness parameters are attached to enhanced well-being, inclusiveness, and health? Beyond the existing standards, how can the quality of life (i.e. comfort, health and well-being) be enhanced through smart solutions? In its first part, this paper provides a state of the art regarding the following issues, specific attention being paid to EC-funded projects: Definitions and dimensions of well-being in buildings Measurement framework related to quality of life in buildings Smart solutions for improved quality of life of building occupants A brainstorming process enabled to identify some key barriers and drivers regarding occupant-centric building for enhanced quality of life. Based on the State of the Art and the barriers and drivers, a number of research and innovation gaps were identified including: R&D, Demo, regulation & legal framework, certification & standardisation and scaling up & industrialisation. The gaps will feed the elaboration of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda on smart building, together with some recommendations targeting policy makers